A Separation, Part 5

Leyla: Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation, A Separation with Yara Elmjouie, Part Five. 

salām, yārā jān!

Yara: Hi, leylā joon, khasté nabāshee!

Leyla: khasté nabāshee! We're here, back with Part Five of our Separation series. This is the last clip that we're going to go over. We're introducing a new character in this clip, and that is one of the title characters, Simin! So can you tell us a little bit about the clip and why you chose it, Yara?

Yara: Yeah, so she comes up in, obviously, the title of the film, “jodāyeeyé nāder az seemeen,” ‘A Separation of Nader from Simin’, but this clip is great because it demonstrates what it’s like to have an argument in Persian, where you’re firing back and forth, things are being said, it’s a lot of colloquial, casual, modern spoken Persian, just off the cuff! And I thought it was a great way to learn a lot of phrases because when you’re arguing, you’re not really thinking as hard about how you’re saying something. It just comes out really naturally. And that’s what we can see in this clip: a lot of natural, angry language!

Leyla: Absolutely, and it's going to move really quick. We are going to go over each phrase of this dialogue like we have in every other clip, but I strongly urge you to follow along with the transcript of this lesson, to follow along with either the English phonetic or the Persian script so you can see every single word that's in there. But we're going to learn a lot of really exciting new insults that you can use, when speaking to people, especially when you're having an argument! And another big, big, big spoiler alert for this clip, especially this kind of... It just has a lot of the twist in the movie in it, so definitely do not listen to this if you haven't watched the movie!

Yara: Yeah, watch it on Amazon Prime; highly recommend! Watch the whole film; it's a great film. I mean, it's a big spoiler where Nader... something happens, and the woman that we see, Razieh, in the earlier scenes, who's the caretaker of the father, she falls down the stairs, and she suffers a miscarriage. That sort of starts the conflict, the main conflict of the movie.

Leyla: All right, so now we're going to watch the clip together!

Nader: shabooné bā tō jam konam bereem khārej?

Simin: gooré bābāyé khārej! cherā meslé ādam harf nemeezanee? man oomadam dāram bā tō harf meezanam rājebé termé. een ché vazee-yé vāsé een baché dorost kardee ākhé?

Nader: man een vaz-rā dorost kardam? khoob-é, root meeshé vō eestee jeloyé man een harf-ō bezanee! kee khooné zendegeeyesh-ō vel kard raft? kee barāyé man darkhāsté talāgh dād?

Simin: khodet goftee har moghé khāstee borō.

Nader: āré, alān ham meegam. barāyé chee bargashtee?

Simin: bar nagashtam. oomadam takleefé bacham-ō roshan konam.

Nader: takleef roshan-é.

Simin: tō dō-tā rāh dāree.

Nader: barāyé man khat ō neshoon nakesh!

Simin: khat ō neshoon ya’nee chee? yā meeree bā een yāroo masalat-ō hal meekonee...

Nader: na, oon-ō khodam meedoonam bāyad chekār konam.

Simin: magé nazadeesh? magé partesh nakardee too pelé? magé bachash namordé?

Nader: āré! āré, bachash-ō man koshtam! āré!

Simin: khob, pas chee meegee? cherā hay lajbāzee meekonee? beeyā een deeya-rō bedé tamoom shé!

Nader: man poolé zoor bé kesee nemeedam.

Simin: cherā poolé zoor? yé dagheeghé khodet-ō bezār jāyé een badbakht-ā!

Nader: magé man bā’esé badbakhteeshoon-am?!

Simin: bad cheshm āvordé bābā!

Nader: man ham bābām dāghoon shodé! beeyā borō bebeen! yé kalamé deegé harf nemeezané! eenāhā!

Simin: magé ghablesh cheghadr harf meezad?

Nader: hamoon chahār-tā kalamé. man delam bé hamoon chahār-tā kalamé khosh bood.

Simin: een-ō meekhāy bezāree baghalé hamoonee ké zadee bachash oftādé?

Nader: tō kodoom gooree boodee ké bebeenee man zadam?

Simin: pas een chejooree bachash mordé?

Leyla: Okay! We're going to leave it at that cliffhanger!

Yara: All right! So let's just jump into things here! Straight off, the first phrase, should we play the clip or should we...?

Leyla: Yes. Yeah.

Yara: Let's just play the first few lines.

Nader: shabooné bā tō jam konam bereem khārej?

Simin: gooré bābāyé khārej! cherā meslé ādam harf nemeezanee? man oomadam dāram bā tō harf meezanam rājebé termé. een ché vazee-yé vāsé een baché dorost kardee ākhé?

Leyla: Okay, so first of all, I want to note that Termeh is here, standing in the background, and yeah, this clip gives me, just watching it gives me so much chills because there's so much familiar in here. If you've ever had an argument with a significant other, there's just so much happening in the background that it's just... a lot of throwbacks to “you said this!” “You said this!” and then the daughter standing here watching, so “ugh!”

Yara: Yeah, totally, it's very relatable, or if you have fighting parents as well, that's another...

Leyla: Exactly, yeah! You and I both come from... our parents are no longer together, so...!

Yara: Exactly, so let's jump straight into it! The first thing, we just start off with “shabooné bā tō jam konam bereem khārej?” and that's coming from Nader to Simin. Basically, what that is is... “shabooné” is kind of the Tehran-accented version of “shabāné,” which is ‘overnight’, so he's like ‘over-’… Okay, so he's saying this sort of sarcastically: ‘overnight, let's just pack everything and go abroad!’

Leyla: “khārej.” “khārej” is a word you hear all the time in Iran, and again, this is a social commentary movie. A lot of movies are about Iranians trying to get out of Iran, which we don't necessarily have, living in the United States. That's not a common theme of movies, but, you know, everyone's trying to leave because of the government there and the circumstances there… so “khārej.”

Yara: And then, Leyla, we have this excellent series of insults that Simin lobs against Nader!

Leyla: First, she says, “gooré bābāyé khārej!” “gooré bābā” is an insult, and you can either use it towards a person like “gooré bābāt!” Like if I'm just saying it directly, if I'm talking to Yara and I'm really angry, I could be like “gooré bābāt!” and it literally means ‘the grave of your father’, and it's a huge insult. But in this case, she's saying “gooré bābāyé khārej!” so basically, she's saying, ‘fuck going abroad!’ like, ‘that's not what we're talking about’ or, if we want to be a little bit more polite, ‘screw going abroad!’ But really, it does have that gravity of... you need to kind of use the F-word.

Yara: Yeah, exactly, and you can, like, ‘screw’ anything! You can say... you can ‘screw’ a home, you can ‘screw’ a plant, you can ‘screw’... So “gooré bābāyé khoonat!” ‘your house’, “gooré bābāyé māmānet!” ‘screw your mom!’. You know, you can literally insert anything you want to say the F-word to or ‘screw’ to. You just put it at the end of “gooré bābāyé” and then...

Leyla: So “gooré bābāyé khārej! cherā meslé ādam harf nemeezanee?” So this is another big insult that you say. “meslé ādam,” so that means ‘like a person’, ‘like a human’, so ‘not like an animal’. So ‘why don't you talk like a person? Why are you talking like an animal?’ Like ‘why are you not making any sense?’ is basically what she's saying. “cherā meslé ādam harf nemeezanee?” and “ādam” literally comes from Adam and Eve. It's our word for ‘human’, so ‘talk like a human!’.

Yara: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, exactly.

Leyla: ‘Why aren't you talking like a human?’ So she's saying, like, ‘don't change the subject! I'm talking to you here’.

Yara: And then it continues, “man oomadam dāram bā tō harf meezanam rājebé termé,” and that's pretty clear. ‘I've come here to talk to you about Termeh’...

Leyla: Their daughter.

Yara: Or, yeah, exactly, their daughter. Nothing really interesting going on in that sense. “een ché va-” oh, this is a great one, though, the next one! “een ché vazee-yé vāsé een baché dorost kardee ākhé?” So, the word, yeah, this is a great one, the word “vaz,” I have to say, is really widely used a lot of the time. It's like ‘situation’, really, but you can throw it into anything. So, “vaz” and then sometimes they'll even do the Arabic pluralization of “vaz,” which is “owzā’.” So, what she's saying here is ‘what sort of situation have you created for this kid’, the daughter, ‘here’? And then she ends it with “ākhé,” which, again, is one of those filler words like interjections along the lines of “deegé,” ‘uh’, ‘uh-huh’, those sorts of things. So she could have not said “ākhé,” but she's giving it a little spank at the end, like ‘what situation have you created for our daughter?! *Spank!*’.

Leyla: Yes! Absolutely, yeah, yeah! Actually, good way to put it... and then he comes back, and he says, “man een vaz-ō dorost kardam?” so ‘I made the situation?’. So it's kind of like a blame game: “een ché vaz’ee-yé dorost kardee?” “man een vaz-ō dorost kardam?” Oh, let's listen to it; we haven't listened to it. Keep going...

Simin: man oomadam dāram bā tō harf meezanam rājebé termé. een ché vazee-yé vāsé een baché dorost kardee ākhé?

Nader: man een vaz-rā dorost kardam? khoob-é, root meeshé vō eestee jeloyé man een harf-ō bezanee!

Yara: Ooh!

Leyla: Great, ooh! Another big insult, ohh! Okay, “man een vaz-ō dorost kardam?” ‘Did I do this?’. “khoob-é, root meeshé vō eestee jeloyé man een harf-ō bezanee!” Okay, Yara, take this one away.

Yara: Oh gosh, okay, so once again, “vaz”; “vaz” is so useful, ‘situation’. You can use ‘situation’ for so many things! I really can't stress enough how common and how useful this word is when you're talking in Persian. “vaz’eeyé eenjā cherā eenjooree-yé?” ‘Why is the situation here like this?’ So they're talking about a situation, but you can use ‘situation’ anywhere! So useful! “vaz’é khoonash cheghadr kharāb-é! vaz’esh cheghadr kharāb-é!” ‘The situ-’... ‘the statu-’...

Leyla: ‘Messy’.

Yara: ‘Messy’, right, exactly! ‘The situation of this home is messy’; in other words, ‘the home is messy’. Anyway, he basically then questions, ‘I'm the one that created the situation for our daughter?’ “man een vaz-rā dorost kardam?” and then he fires back with a new one we're going to learn: “khoob-é, root meeshé vō eestee jeloyé man een harf-ō bezanee!” So ‘it's good that’... oh, “root meeshé!” This is the phrase, ‘you...’

Leyla: So “root meeshé,” it's literally ‘your face’, like ‘you can face me and say that’, “root meeshé.” So “roo” means ‘on’, but it's referring to your face and it's kind of like ‘oh, you dare...!’ “root meeshé,” ‘you dare stand in front of me!’

Yara: ‘You have the gall to say that!’ right. ‘How good that you have the gall to stand here in front of me and say that thing!’

Leyla: Right, yeah, and you can use this... again, “roo shodan” is a very common phrase that you can use, like, if you go to a store and they forget to give you an item, but then you're embarrassed to remind them. You say, “roo nashod begam,” ‘I...’

Yara: ‘I was embarrassed’, yeah.

Leyla: Yeah, ‘I was embarrassed’, ‘I couldn't bring myself to do it’.

Yara: Maybe it has something... could we say... is it related to saving face?

Leyla: ‘Saving face’!

Yara: Would that be a good one, like “roo meeshé”? “roo” means ‘front’; it could mean ‘face’, so ‘how good that you don't feel the need to save face and stand here and say that in front of me!’. Anyway, something like that. ‘How good that you're not embarrassed to just say that in front of me!’. All right, so next part, Leyla, if you want to play it in the video.

Nader: kee khooné zendegeeyesh-ō vel kard raft? kee baré man darkhāsté talāgh dād?

Simin: khodet goftee har moghé khāstee borō.

Leyla: Ooh, okay, that line hits me to the core!

Yara: So take the first one of it.

Leyla: Okay. “kee khooné zendegeeyesh-ō vel kard raft?” ‘Who...’, “khooné zendegee” is one of those things that Yara has talked about a lot in the past episode, where you put two phrases together, two words together. “khooné zendegee” often goes together. It means ‘my house and livelihood’. So ‘who put their house and livelihood, left them, and left?’. “vel kard ō raft,” that's another one. It's again “why use less words when you can use more?”! “vel kard ō raft” are synonyms. “vel kard” means ‘put aside’, “va raft,” ‘and left’. So he's put “khooné zendegee,” ‘who took their household and livelihood and left it and went away?’

Yara: Yeah, exactly, “vel kard raft,” like ‘dropped it and left’!

Leyla: ‘Dropped it and left’.

Yara: Yeah, yeah, so it's a lot. There's two, you know.... “khooné zendegee,” and this is so interesting because in Persian, you see this all the time. Two nouns or two verbs are combined, and they actually create a new meaning. So in this case, “khooné” is ‘house’, and “zendegee” is ‘life’, but when you say “khooné zendegee,” you're sort of... it is like ‘house and livelihood’, but the meaning is kind of like ‘your life’! It's not like ‘life’, “zendegee” as in your source of, you know, your heart beating, but it's like ‘you just left your...’, ‘who's the one who left her life and just wanted to run away?’. That's basically what he's saying.

Leyla: Yes.

Yara: And then the next line would be, if you want to... “kee barāyé man darkhāsté...?”

Leyla: “kee barāyé man darkhāsté talāgh dād?” So “talāgh” is the word for ‘divorce’. “darkhāst” is a… It's a very simple... What is its translation?

Yara: It's like ‘request’. ‘Who's the one...?’

Leyla: ‘Request’! Exactly, ‘request’. ‘Who gave me a request for a divorce?’.

Yara: Exactly.

Leyla: ‘Who was the one who initiated all this?’. ‘Who left? Who gave me the initiation for the divorce?’, and then this is the part that really cuts me. He says, “khodet goftee har moghé khāstee borō,” and this to me is the heart of the movie. When I saw this, I was like “oh my goodness, this is what led to the problem! He loved her, and he's a very proud man, but he at one point said this one phrase that stuck with her. And I feel like we've all had relationships like this where someone just says something carelessly and they don't really mean it, but then that is the heart of the movie. This is what led to everything. “har moghé khāstee borō!” So he told her, ‘anytime you want, leave!’, and that to her was like “oh, you're not going to fight for me anymore.” I get chills even hearing it right now. So “khodet goftee...”

Yara: It's like a threat.

Leyla: “har moghé khāstee...” Yeah, ‘you said whenever you want, leave!’, and that's like the worst thing you can ever...

Yara: He had threatened her.

Leyla: Yes.

Yara: Totally. Completely agree.

Leyla: For him, it was something probably that he felt threatened, so then he just wanted to like hurt her in a way. He was like ‘whenever you want leave, I don't care’, but then it led to all this.

Yara: Exactly, one small thing, that's like an Asghar Farhadi movie. One small, little thing happens or is said, or a small, little lie is said, and then causes a whole series of dominoes to fall.

Leyla: Exactly! Okay, the next part.

Yara: All of that's pretty self-explanatory, I think. Let's go on to the... what is the next one here...?

Leyla: But that was the gravity of the situation, and I love the way she said it, too. She's just like “khodet goftee har vakht...” oh, it's just, ah! Okay, so let's go back and listen to this part again.

Nader: kee barāyé man darkhāsté talāgh dād?

Simin: khodet goftee har moghé khāstee borō.

Nader: āré, alān ham meegam. barāyé chee bargashtee?

Leyla: Oh!

Yara: Ahahahahahahaha!

Leyla: Come on, man! Come on! You should’ve stopped right there. He doubles down, and he says, “āré, alān ham meegam.” He says, ‘yeah, I'll say it again. I’ll say it right now’. “barāyé chee bargashtee?” ‘Why'd you come back?’.

Yara: Ooh!

Leyla: Come on, man! And then yeah, we mentioned Termeh’s standing there watching this, too. Ugh, long-term damage, long-term therapy bills, I'm just going to say that!

Nader: barāyé chee bargashtee?

Simin: bar nagashtam. oomadam takleefé bacham-ō roshan konam.

Nader: takleef roshan-é.

Leyla: Oh! Yara, you take this one away.

Yara: Yeah, but then this is a classic argument, right? And it's playing out so, in such a... identifiable, relatable way!

Leyla: I know!

Yara: And she's like ‘I didn't sound like that. I didn't come back.’ “bar nagashtam. oomadam takleefé bacham-ō roshan konam,” so ‘I came here to....’, ooh, this is interesting, “takleef roshan kardan.” So ‘you will brighten the fate of’ something, ‘brighten the’.... “takleef...”

Leyla: ‘The conclusion’. It's like ‘I'm here to figure out what's going on with my kid, to make a decision about my kid’ is basically what it is.

Yara: Yeah, the meaning is, yeah, exactly, ‘figure out the situation with my kid’. I'm trying to see how we can teach this word, “takleef roshan kardan.” So sometimes, let's say you're waiting at the DMV, and it's been three hours. You keep talking to the person over there, and they're like “oh, sorry, you need to wait more, sir” or “ma'am” or whoever. And then, you know, after 2 or 3 hours, you’re like “hey, can you just tell me if I'm going to have an appointment today? I've been here for three hours. takleefé man-ō roshan kon!”

Leyla: Yes.

Yara: ‘Brighten my horizon’, ‘brighten my fate’, ‘brighten my conclusion for this situation’. In other words, ‘make this clear to me. What's my situation? Tell me my situation!’ is basically what that means, and here he's saying...

Leyla: When you say ‘brighten’, it sounds like it’s like trying to make it better. It's not that. ‘Clarify’! That's exactly what it is. It's like ‘show me what's going to happen’ because they could say “oh, you have to wait four more hours,” and then you're like “okay, takleefam roshan shod. I get it. It's not great. But now I know.”

Yara: Yeah, yeah, ‘tell me what's going on’ is another way of saying it. So ‘I’m...’, “oomadam takleefé bacham-ō roshan konam,” ‘I came here to figure out my daughter's life’ or ‘I came here to figure out what's going on with my daughter. I did not come back to your arms, Nader. I came here to figure out the situation with our daughter’. So, yeah, okay, and then he says... well, he also bluffs again, and he says, “takleef roshan-é,” ‘her situation is clear’.

Leyla: Yeah. Okay.

Simin: tō dō-tā rāh dāree.

Nader: barāyé man khat ō neshoon nakesh!

Leyla: Oof! Okay, so then she says, “tō dō-tā rāh dāree.” So she's giving him an ultimatum. ‘You have two roads here’. ‘You have two things you can choose from’. “tō dō-tā rāh dāree.” And he says, “barāyé man khat ō neshoon nakesh!” So what's that, “khat ō neshoon”?

Yara: So that's another great... “khat ō neshoon,” again, we're seeing two nouns come together to form a brand new word. “khat” means ‘line’; “neshoon” is like ‘target’, but here, what “khat ō neshoon” means is like ‘don't intimidate me’, ‘don't try to...’

Leyla: ‘Don’t give me an ultimatum!’.

Yara: Exactly, ‘don't give me an ultimatum!’, but generally, “khat ō neshoon kesheedan” for someone is ‘intimidating’ or ‘giving them an ultimatum’, kind of in a threatening way.

Leyla: It's ‘drawing the line in the sand’, like ‘don't give me that line in the sand!’.

Yara: Very good, very good.

Leyla: Yeah. Okay.

Simin: khat ō neshoon ya’nee chee? yā meeree bā een yāroo masalat-ō hal meekonee...

Nader: na, oon-ō khodam meedoonam bāyad chekār konam.

Leyla: So much pride! Okay, and then she goes “khat ō neshoon ya’nee chee?” We just told you, simin jān! We just explained it. I'm just kidding. So she's saying, ‘what is the “khat ō neshoon”? What does that mean?’. “ya’nee chee?” ‘what does it mean?’.

Yara: But it's not a literal ‘what is’. She's like ‘what are you talking about, “intimidation”?’. ‘”Intimidation”? What are you talking about, “intimidation”?’ Doesn't mean that she doesn't know what it means literally, but she's saying, ‘What do you mean? What do you mean “intimidation”?’

Leyla: Yeah, it's just like ‘no, I'm just telling you, these are your two choices’.

Yara: Yeah, yeah, exactly!

Leyla: “yā meeree bā een yāroo... yāroo masalat-ō hal meekonee...” Is that right? So “yā meeree bā een yāroo,” first of all, what's “yāroo”?

Yara: Yeah. Well, it's interesting...

Leyla: One of the great words!

Yara: My name is Yar, and I assume this has some connection to it, but “yāroo” is just ‘that guy’. “yār” can be ‘friend’. It’s a poetic word for friend in Old Persian, and then “yāroo” is like ‘that guy’.

Leyla: ‘That dude’.

Yara: ‘That dude’, yeah, so ‘either you resolve your issue with that dude...’, “masalé,” and then... wow, there's a lot of crosstalk here!

Leyla: Well, and I will say “yāroo” is a really good word, too, but you don't use it with, like, a friend. You’d use it in an insulting way. It's always to diminish that person. “een yāroo kee-yé?” ‘Who’s this dude?’.

Yara: ‘Who’s this guy?’. Yeah, exactly!

Leyla: Yeah.

Yara: ‘This bloke’!

Leyla: Just like “een yāroo bā man eenjooree harf zadé!” ‘This dude talked to me like this!’. You always use it in a negative way.

Yara: I'd say even another one that I just thought of: ‘schmuck’, like ‘this schmuck’ or ‘this bloke’ or, like, you know, ‘that enh!’ you know, ‘enh!’.

Leyla: Yeah. Yes. Okay, and she's talking about the husband of the woman, so “yā bā een yāroo masalat-ō hal meekonee...” ‘either you go figure out’ “masalat,” ‘your problem’, ‘you solve your problem with this guy’.

Yara: And then he quickly butts in, I think, and he says, “na, oon-ō khodam meedoonam bāyad chekār konam,” so he butts in. He's like ‘that guy, you're saying resolve the issue with that guy?’. He says ‘no, I know what to do with him! I know what to do with him’, so that's “na, oon-ō khodam,” ‘that’, “oon-ō khodam meedoonam bāyad chekār konam.” ‘I know what to do with him’.

Leyla: Yeah, and like I said, that's a lot of pride because she's here being like ‘okay, let's solve this situation. Like I'm trying to figure out...’, “takleef-ō dāram roshan meekonam.” But then he's like ‘don't; stay out of my business! That's my business’, and she's like ‘this is our business. Like, what are we...?’ Okay, anyway... tell whose side I’m on! Okay.

Simin: magé nazadeesh? magé partesh nakardee too pelé? magé bachash namordé?

Nader: āré!

Leyla: This was the spoiler. “magé nazadeesh?”, ‘didn't you hit her?’. “magé partesh nakardee too pelé?”, ‘didn't you throw her on the stairs?’. “magé bachash namordé?”, ‘didn't her child die?’. So this woman suffered a miscarriage, and it's very ambiguous what happened in this movie. There was a moment of, like, something happened that we don't really know.

Yara: Exactly. “magé,” it's a contracted form of “magar.” That's very useful, “magé.” ‘Didn't you?’, “magé,” ‘didn't you?’.

Leyla: And then he says...

Nader: āré, bachash-ō man koshtam! āré!

Simin: khob, pas chee meegee?

Leyla: Okay, so this is another one of those things where he goes “āré, bachash-ō man koshtam! āré!” So he’s saying, ‘yeah, I killed her kid! Yes!’ Although as the scene goes on... first, you're like “oh, is this an admission of guilt?” but he's being sarcastic.

Yara: Exactly.

Leyla: But then she goes “khob, pas chee meegee?” ‘So then what are you saying?’. Like, she believes that he definitely did it.

Yara: And look at “khob, pas.” So you can see, as you're in the heat of a discussion, whether it's an academic intellectual discussion, an argument at the convenience store with someone, “khob, pas” is kind of like you're thinking ‘okay, so, what do you mean?’. “khob, pas” is ‘great’. You can say ‘good’ and ‘so’. ‘Good, so’, ‘good, so’, ‘good, so’. It's a very nice combination of words that makes you sound a lot more...

Leyla: Or ‘well then’.

Yara: ‘Well then’, sure.

Leyla: ‘Well, then’.

Yara: “khob, pas...”

Leyla: “chee meegee?” Okay, keep going.

Simin: cherā hay lajbāzee meekonee? beeyā een deeya-rō bedé tamoom shé!

Yara: Mmm, great!

Leyla: Okay. “cherā hay lajbāzee meekonee? beeyā een...”

Yara: “deeya-rō...”

Leyla: “dé”? “deeya-rō”! “bedé tamoom shé!” Okay, “cherā lajbāzee meekonee?” First, let's talk about that!

Yara: Okay, “lajbāzee” is... ‘why are you being spiteful’, I guess? It's like, you know, when someone is just trying to spite you, right? Like you're arguing with someone, and it's almost like they don't want to lose the argument, or they just kind of like being spiteful. “lajbāzee” is like, I think the only word I can...

Leyla: ‘Stubbornness’, ‘being stubborn’.

Yara: Yeah, but it's like ‘spiting some...’. Yeah.

Leyla: Yeah. It's like ‘being stubborn’, and “laj kardan” is... yeah, I guess it's a very Iranian thing! It's like, if I'm like “hey, Yara, come have this chāi,” and you don't want me to tell you what to do, it's like ‘don't tell me what to do! I'm not going to have that chāi!’ even if you really want it.

Yara: I'm doing the “laj.”

Leyla: You're “laj”-ing.

Yara: Yeah, I'm “laj”-ing, basically. Yeah. you just kind of, out of spite, just ‘no! I don't want to!’.

Leyla: Exactly.

Yara: ‘I don't want to! No!’ Or let's say you're poking someone until you get a response out of them. That's almost like “lajbāzee”-ish behavior. But anyways, that's kind of what he's doing, and then she's giving him a command, right? “beeyā een deeya-rō bedé tamoom shé!” So ‘pay her the blood money for her dead baby!’, basically, which is a big spoiler. ‘Pay her the blood money’, the “deeyé,” 'and let's finish this', “tamoom shé.” “beeyā,” “bedé tamoom shé.”

Nader: poolé zoor bé kesee nemeedam.

Simin: cherā poolé zoor?

Leyla: He goes “man poolé zoor bé kesee nemeedam.” “zoor” is ‘forced’. It's ‘power’, so it means ‘forced’. “poolé zoor bé kesee nemeedam,” ‘I won't give someone money, forced money’, so basically, what he's saying is that he doesn't owe this money. It's being forced from him, so he's basically like ‘I'm not paying a bribe’. Because he doesn't feel like he owes it.

Yara: Let me just check one thing for the word for “deeyé.” It said it was ‘blood money’, but I want to make sure what the... this is, I think, an Islamic concept? I have to make sure it's correct. Persian... ‘blood money’, oh, yeah, that is the word, okay! Yeah, okay, ‘blood money’, I said it correctly. All right! Just wanted to double-check.

Leyla: Yeah, it's a concept there. It's like a whole Iranian concept because if someone dies, like, that's one of the ways that you can get out of it. We don't really have that in...

Yara: Yeah, exactly! You killed someone! If you pay this fee...!

Leyla: Yeahhh.

Yara: Anyway...

Simin: cherā poolé zoor? yé dagheeghé khodet-ō bezār jāyé een badbakht-ā!

Nader: magé...!

Leyla: “cherā poolé zoor?” ‘Why is it forced money?’, ‘why is it not just...?’ basically. “yé dagheeghé,” “yé da’eeghé,” I think she said, “khodet-ō bezār jāyé een badbakht-ā!” Wow, that's really good! That's a few things that we could talk about. Go ahead!

Yara: So first off, like you just did right now, a lot of times, in terms of colloquial, common pronunciation, “dagheeghé” becomes “da’eeghé,” almost like “dayeghé,” “da’eeghé,” “yé da’eeghé.” Kind of like “barāyé” becomes “baré,” “dagheeghé” becomes “da’eeghé.” So “yé da’eeghé khodet-ō bezār jāyé een badbakht-ā!” ‘for one minute’, ‘for one second’ almost, ‘put yourself in the place of those poor people’, ‘of those abject people’, ‘of those people in this tough situation’, “badbakht.”

Leyla: Yeah, “badbakht” is just someone in a bad situation, like a ‘poor person’... ‘impoverished person’.

Yara: Yeah.

Nader: magé man bā’esé badbakhteeshoon-am?!

Simin: bad cheshm āvordé bābā!

Nader: man ham...!

Leyla: And then “magé” is like ‘whether’ or ‘is it the case?’, so he goes “magé man bā’esé badbakhteeshoon-am?!” So that's another thing where Yara was saying it's a filler word. He could have just said, “man bā’esé badbakhteeshoon-am?!” ‘am I responsible for them being in a bad situation?’. But, “magé” is like ‘whether’, ‘is it the case that I am responsible for them being in a bad situation?’.

Yara: “magé” adds a ‘what? What? So? So? Me? Me? Me? So? What? What? What?’. It’s kind of like “magé.” You throw “magé” at the beginning to be... yeah.

Leyla: Yeah, and then let's listen to the rest of this sentence.

Nader: man ham bābām dāghoon shodé! beeyā borō bebeen! yé kalamé deegé harf nemeezané!

Yara: He's basically saying, ‘I'm the reason for their suffering, for their “badbakhtee”?’.

Leyla: ‘Suffering’, yeah.

Yara: Yeah, ‘suffering’ is probably a good one, and so “badbakhtee,” ‘the suffered’, ‘those who have suffered, who are suffering’. And then he flips it and says, “man ham bābām dāghoon shodé!” ‘and my dad has been destroyed!’. He switches back to his father who has that medical condition. “beeyā borō bebeen!” ‘come, go, see!’. This is another great example of verbs being strung together to create a very common, colloquial-sounding sentence. “beeyā borō bebeen!” ‘come, go, see!’. ‘Go see my dad for yourself!’ is what he's saying.

Leyla: Yeah, ‘go see for yourself!’. “beeyā borō bebeen!” Okay.

Nader: beeyā borō bebeen! yé kalamé deegé harf nemeezané! eenāhā!

Leyla: Okay. “yé kalamé deegé harf nemeezané!” ‘He can't even say one word anymore!’ “eenāhā!”. “een” means ‘this’. “eenāhā!” ‘go see!’ ‘here you go!’. ‘Here you go!!’.

Yara: It's like...

Leyla: “eenāhā!”

Yara: Yeah, ‘voil-’, I mean, not ‘voilà’ but...

Leyla: Kind of, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yara: ‘Here it...’, what would be a good...?

Leyla: ‘Here it is!’.

Yara: ‘Here it is!’, yeah.

Leyla: It's kind of like ‘come, go, see’, “beeyā borō bebeen!” “eenāhā!”

Yara: Yeah. You can even use it in a non-argumentative sort of way as well, like ‘where are...?’, you're playing hide and seek, “oh, eenāhā!” or you're showing someone something in a magic trick, “eenāhā!” So many different uses!

Leyla: Okay.

Simin: magé ghablesh cheghadr harf meezad?

Nader: hamoon chahār-tā kalamé. man delam bé hamoon chahār-tā kalamé khosh bood.

Leyla: Okay, and she goes “magé” again. ‘What are you saying?’. “ghablesh cheghadr harf meezad?” ‘Before, how much was he talking?’ And he says, “hamoon chahār-tā kalamé,” ‘even just those four words’, “man delam bé hamoon chahār-tā kalamé khosh bood.” That's a great expression as well. “delam khosh bood” means ‘my heart was happy’, so ‘just those four words were keeping me going’ or ‘keeping my heart happy’.

Yara: With his dad, right, so he was saying ‘now’...

Leyla: Just hanging on.

Yara: ‘He was saying a few words; now he's not saying anything at all. Look, I'm also suffering, I'm the one that's “badbakht!”’, he's basically trying to say. We're almost at the end here. Let's play the next bit.

Nader: man delam bé hamoon chahār-tā kalamé khosh bood.

Simin: een-ō meekhāy bezāree baghalé hamoonee ké zadee bachash oftādé?

Nader: tō kodoom gooree boodee ké bebeenee man zadam?

Yara: All right, so basically, she says, “een-ō meekhāy...?” and she's saying it very quickly! I have to say, I don't blame Persian-learners who are going to watch this and be like “holy gosh, that is... good Lord, that is fast!” So “een-ō meekhāy bezāree baghalé hamoonee ké zadee bachash oftādé?” Ooh! So this is... “een-ō meekhāy bezāree,” ‘you want to put'... Actually, I'm curious, now I'm reading this in the text. What is she referring to? “een-ō meekhāy bezāree baghalé hamoon...”?

Leyla: Because the father deteriorated, so that's what's kind of left to his... in the beginning, he's had dementia, and now, he can't speak at all, and he's become non-verbal while we've...

Yara: Oh, now I see. Now I remember.

Leyla: So then he's like ‘now my father can't even talk anymore! It's their fault!’ So then she's saying ‘oh, you're going to put the blame of this on that?’ Because he's sick! So then it's not like... yeah, maybe they weren't good caretakers, but also maybe, it's just his time. That's just disease.

Yara: So she's saying, “een-ō meekhāy bezāree...?” ‘you want to put this situation with your dad next to this woman who lost her child? This pregnant woman...?’

Leyla: Not ‘next to’, “baghalé,” so ‘you're putting it under their arms?’. Like ‘you're blaming it on them’.

Yara: Yeah, exactly, so literally, it's like ‘putting it under their arms’, ‘putting something next to...’, but she's saying ‘you're comparing this with the woman who lost her child?’ or 'you're blaming this...?’

Leyla: ‘You’re blaming this’, yeah.

Yara: ‘You're blaming this on the woman who lost her child’.

Leyla: And then he...! We talked about “gooré bābā,” so “goor” is a ‘grave’, right? So he says, “tō kodoom gooree boodee?!” he’s pissed now, “boodee ké bebeenee man zadam?” ‘What grave were you in...?’

Yara: ‘Where the hell were you...?’

Leyla: Again, exactly, ‘where the hell were you?!’. Exactly, ‘for you to see...’. Because, you know, from the beginning, he's also talking about ‘you're the one who left!’, and he's like ‘where the hell were you that you saw that I hit her?’

Yara: Yeah, exactly.

Leyla: ‘You weren’t there! You haven't been here. You took off and left’. Okay!

Simin: pas een chejooree bachash mordé?

Leyla: Okay, and we're going to leave it at that cliffhanger, and he goes... she's just stopping there. She's like ‘ooh! Oof!’, so she takes a second, and then she says, “pas een chejooree bachash mordé?” ‘so then how did her kid die?’. Again, she was pregnant, so she had a miscarriage, the woman who was working for him.

Yara: Exactly, exactly. I think that context is necessary, and so then she, like you just said, Simin ends by saying, “pas een chejooree bachash mordé?” ‘so how did her child die?’. All right.

Leyla: ‘If you didn't do it, how did her kid die?’.

Yara: “tō kodoom,” yeah, I love this. “tō kodoom gooree boodee?” The word “goor” is just used for all sorts of negative context! “gooré bābā...”

Leyla: And it does require curse words in the English language. I guess we have to have a spoiler at the beginning of this, but, you know, it is a high-cutting... You can't just, yeah, it is like ‘where the hell were you?’.

Yara: Yeah, yeah, “gooré bābā.” Okay, well, and with that, we bring our little analysis of this argument to a close!

Leyla: Yeah. Let's watch the whole thing from the top.

Nader: shabooné bā tō jam konam bereem khārej?

Simin: gooré bābāyé khārej! cherā meslé ādam harf nemeezanee? man oomadam dāram bā tō harf meezanam rājebé termé. een ché vazee-yé vāsé een baché dorost kardee ākhé?

Nader: man een vaz-rā dorost kardam? khoob-é, root meeshé vō eestee jeloyé man een harf-ō bezanee! kee khooné zendegeeyesh-ō vel kard raft? kee barāyé man darkhāsté talāgh dād?

Simin: khodet goftee har moghé khāstee borō.

Nader: āré, alān ham meegam. barāyé chee bargashtee?

Simin: bar nagashtam. oomadam takleefé bacham-ō roshan konam.

Nader: takleef roshan-é.

Simin: tō dō-tā rāh dāree.

Nader: barāyé man khat ō neshoon nakesh!

Simin: khat ō neshoon ya’nee chee? yā meeree bā een yāroo masalat-ō hal meekonee...

Nader: na, oon-ō khodam meedoonam bāyad chekār konam.

Simin: magé nazadeesh? magé partesh nakardee too pelé? magé bachash namordé?

Nader: āré! āré, bachash-ō man koshtam! āré!

Simin: khob, pas chee meegee? cherā hay lajbāzee meekonee? beeyā een deeya-rō bedé tamoom shé!

Nader: man poolé zoor bé kesee nemeedam.

Simin: cherā poolé zoor? yé dagheeghé khodet-ō bezār jāyé een badbakht-ā!

Nader: magé man bā’esé badbakhteeshoon-am?!

Simin: bad cheshm āvordé bābā!

Nader: man ham bābām dāghoon shodé! beeyā borō bebeen! yé kalamé deegé harf nemeezané! eenāhā!

Simin: magé ghablesh cheghadr harf meezad?

Nader: hamoon chahār-tā kalamé. man delam bé hamoon chahār-tā kalamé khosh bood.

Simin: een-ō meekhāy bezāree baghalé hamoonee ké zadee bachash oftādé?

Nader: tō kodoom gooree boodee ké bebeenee man zadam?

Simin: pas een chejooree bachash mordé?

Leyla: All right, there we go! Again, you'll have to watch the movie to see how this concludes, but this concludes our Separation series! Please let us know how you like this series. I think it's a really effective way to learn. Hopefully, you can watch these clips and feel a connection to all the words and phrases. Again, I'll be back on the next lesson going through what we just learned individually, word by word, phrase by phrase. Yara, do you have any parting words about the series or this movie?

Yara: Yeah. I mean, this has been fun for me. I'll sort of break things down that I don't really think about sometimes. You just hear things, but it really does demonstrate, I think, a lot. The Persian language does have a lot of very visual descriptors for some concepts that may not be as visual in English. So, you know, “gooré bābā,” ‘grave of your father!’, and then you learn all these other insults, “zahré mār,” ‘snake poison’, and when you translate them, they don't really seem particularly bad, but they do have this cutting effect in Persian. So one thing we can learn from this is just when you translate them, these very descriptive, graphic translations of insults carry a lot more weight when you say them in Persian than they do when you say them in English.

Leyla: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for this series, and thank you, everyone, for listening!

Yara: Goodbye!