6/27/2007
A True Story-Part 3
I thought about her so many times during the years and decades since. Where was she and what was she doing? Did she fare better in life than I did? Did she find a man who deserved her, loved her, and made her happy? Did she have children? Did she go to college? What did she study? Why did I never have the courage when I was younger to have a conversation with her, asking her questions about her ambitions? I am not the same scrawny timid little kid anymore, and I can and I do walk up to anyone and start up a conversation. Why didn’t I know how to do that when I was a 7th and 8th grader? Then on some days, I would remember her and think to myself what if she got married to a rich man and chose a life as a homemaker and ceased to go on paths and routes which I would have preferred to follow? Wouldn’t that be ironic, I thought, having a life completely opposite to that of my first “role model’s!?” I reflected on how in the blissfully ignorant times of our childhood and youth in Iran, we somehow thought everyone will stay exactly where they were forever, easy to locate and to contact whenever we decided. Little did we know that shifts in our circumstances would be so vast and profound, that some days we wouldn’t know in which continent to start looking for someone we had lost.
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9 comments:
Exactly Nazy joon. I used to think that if I missed a friend I knew her home and I would pay a visit; Now either I don't or even if I know where she is she might be in another country in another continent in another time zone. Hard to be reached! Hard to find an escape from missing a friend.
Yes, Nimshab Jan, such is the life of a people uprooted. We all make new friends and build new relationships, all the time wondering where our childhood friends are and what new lives and new friends they have! C'est la vie!
But it could be a "rule of contingency", as I see it. In English, the contingency means a possibility or chance. In Persian, however, the meaning is different:
در فارسی به آن می گوییم شایندگی که در متن معنایی شایستگی و شایندی (احتمال) و شاید قرار دارد.
شایندگی در فارسی میانه هم به معنی امکان و هم به معنی شایستگی به کار می رفته، یعنی در آن هم مفهوم مگر و احتمال و هم سزاواری وجود دارد.
شایندگی نوعی وقوع احتمالی است که مشروط هم هست؛ مشروط به سزاوار بودن چیزی در نهاد انسان.
اگر در باطن آن چهره ی دلفریب چیزی از شایستگی و زیبایی هم دیده ای، او راه خودش را در اقلیمی که شایسته اش است یافته.
برفتند و جستند راهی نبود
کز آن راه شایست بالا نمود
(فردوسی؛ یعنی امکان داشت از راهی بالا رفته باشد ولی این صرف یک امکان نیست، شایسته هم هست!)ا
Alef Shin Jan:
Thanks for coming and thanks for the lesson! Yes, in that story, there is "shayandegi" of both meanings. I didn't know what to call it, and now I do! I also believe that certain people are born "farahmand," with "farah", which in English is translated as "charismatic" and "charisma," making them unforgettable. Farahmand people are often approached by others who tell them: "I know I have seen you before," where in fact they may never have met before. Come back soon Alef Shin and be good!
How would you translate "shayandegi" into English? "Karma", which is also a Persian word??
Ooh, fun with words, my favorite pastime, Serendip! I think in the first meaning for the word, it is "distinction," and in the second it is "deservence," but I might be wrong, as I don't have any suitable resources available to me anymore, just going with my own modest language instincts! Perhaps Alef Shin can come back and shed some light on the question! Be good.
Thanks for your attention!
Here I would like to say that we have translated "contingency" to "shayandegi" in Persian, because both words imply a meaning of possibility at a conditional situation. But the meaning of "shayandegi" is more extensive, as I see it.
Contingency is an important concept in Quantum Physics and in discussions about the meaning of Entropy.
About the meaning karma, I will write you in persian.
Here you can see some of our keyword:
http://dialogos.blogfa.com/
با سلام دوباره
درباره ی واژه ی karma پرسیده بودید. خواستم عرض کنم که این واژه در اصل از ریشه ی هند و اروپایی *kwer به معنی ساختن و صورت بخشیدن و شکل دادن (to make, form) آمده. این ریشه در اوستایی به kerenaoiti به معنی کردن و ساختن و پدید آوردن (to make) و در فارسی میانه یا پهلوی به "کردن" تبدیل شده. واژه‌های کردن و کردار (اسم مصدر از کردن) و کار (اسم از مصدر کردن) در فارسی امروز همگی از همین ریشه آمده‌اند. بنابراین بهترین معادل فارسی برای آن کردار است. خود واژه‌ی سانسکریت هم از همین ریشه آمده (به معنی he makes). درضمن این واژه در زبان‌های اروپایی (شاخه‌ی گوتیک و لاتین و غیره) مابه‌ازایی ندارد.
در بودیسم نیز همان طوری که می‌دانید این اصطلاح به معنی حاصل کردار انسان است.
درضمن اگر عبارت ها به هم ریخته ببخشید نمی دانم چه طور می شد درست به این جا منتقل کرد!.ا
Alef Shin Jan. Nothing about your thoughtful comment is "be ham rikhteh!" Thank you.
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