HESSAM ABEDINI is a PhD student in Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon

Translator’s Introduction: Shahnameh (The Book of Kings), completed by Abol-Qaasem Firdausi in 1010 AD, stands as the national epic of Iran, and cornerstone of Persian identity. Through some 50,000 couplets, this monument chronicles the mythic history of Iran from Creation to the 7th-century Islamic conquest, enshrining the Iranian heritage in stories that continue to resonate across the centuries.

The following passage is from the famous love-story of Zaal and Rudabeh, their meeting through the careful arrangements of Rudabeh’s maidservants. The chamber mentioned in the opening lines refers to Rudabeh’s quarters; her damsels lock the door guarding the lovers’ tryst. The narrative builds to the dramatic moment where Rudabeh appears on the rooftop, letting down her hair for Zaal to climb – a story-motif familiar from other tales in world literature (Aarne-Thompson-Uther Type 310, The Maiden in the Tower), in the West, especially Rapunzel.

Firdausi writes in the Persian bayt, a couplet or distich of two end-rhymed 11-syllable mesras (hemistichs). Instead of the Neoclassical heroic couplet, I have preferred to use English blank verse, as an English epic form both suitable and more capacious to accommodate the meaning of the original. Each bayt of two 11-syllable verses is translated here as two blank-verse lines, occasionally expanded to three as needed, to capture the full Persian content. While Shahnameh rarely features enjambment between bayts, couplets 5-6 present a notable example, duly recreated in the translation. Persian bayts are numbered in the left margin: right margin-numbers count the English verse-lines.  

This translation is based on the authoritative critical edition: Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, Shahnameh, Sokhan Publishers, Tehran (2015).[1] [2]

How Zaal Met with Rudabeh

1.         When twilight veiled the shining sun to sleep,

Maids locked the chamber-door; and hid the key.

2.         A damsel carried word to Zaal awaiting:

‘Now all’s prepared to welcome your approach!’   

3.         As wooer to his mate the hero came                                                   5

Toward the palace, where his heart yearned to dwell.

4.         Cypress haloed with the full-rounded moon,

A beauty with coal-eyes and cheeks aglow

Upon the roof she walked; and graced the night.

5.         When from afar the son of Saam the Horseman[3]                               10

Drew near, that highborn maiden at the sight

6.         Opened the ruby lodestones of her lips

‘Welcome, O youth of noble blood!’ she cried,

7.         ‘May the Heavens rain on you sweet blessings,

And may the circling sky salaam your feet.                                       15

8.         Let my loyal damsel’s heart be filled with joy

As head to toe you match her every word!

9.         To stride so far from your pavilion,

The trodden miles must pain your royal steps!’

10.       When the great hero heard her dulcet voice                                       20

And glimpsed that sun-cheeked maiden standing high,

11.       Her radiance made the rooftop shine like gems

            And earthen walls to flame with opal fires.

12.       He thus replied: ‘O you of moonlit face!

            May Earth and Heaven shower you with blessings.                           25

13.       How many nights I watched for Sumbalet,[4]

A supplicant before pure Heaven’s throne,

14.       Beseeching Him who all rules grant my wish:

To let me steal a glance at your fair face.

15.       At last you bring me joy, to hear your voice,                                         30

Your coy gentleness and sweet-sounding words.

16.       Seek out some way that we could meet together

Why should you stay above while I’m below?’

17.       The fairy-faced one heard the hero’s words

And swiftly loosed her silk vermilion veil;                                        35

18.       From cypress-limbs unwound her snare of locks,[5]

Cascading down in ways no strands of musk

Could ever twist with such a graceful flow:

19.       Coil within coil, and snake on snake entwined;

            The budding pomegranates burst upon her neck.                               40

20.       She said, ‘Make ready now, and gird your loins:

Show forth your lion breast and royal grasp!

21.       Seize the sable ringlets waving at my side;   

For you alone I let these tresses fall.’

22.       Zaal gazed upon that moonlit face above                                           45

In wonder at her face and flowing hair.

23.       He thus replied: ‘This cannot be the way!

On such a day may sunlight fade from sight

24.       When I should strike at my own life in vain;

With so keen a spear transfix my wounded heart!’                            50

25.       He quickly seized a lasso from his page,

Then looped and cast it high in breathless speed:

26.       The lasso fast upon the battlement,

            He deftly scaled the wall from base to peak.[6]

27.       At sixty cubits’ height he climbed upon                                             55

The fortress-roof; and standing there at last,

With reverence the fairy-faced one bowed.

28.       She grasped his hand in hers that very hour;

And each embraced the other, drunk on love.

29.       Down she stepped from off the lofty turret                                        60

            With her majestic hero, hand in hand.

30.       Within the golden chamber they repaired:

            A hall of splendour worthy of a shah,

31.       A Paradise aglow with blazing light,[7]

And handmaidens attending to their houri.                                        65

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[1] This translation was undertaken at the request of Professor Martha Bayless, University of Oregon, for a forthcoming book on Rapunzel tales. I wish to express my profound gratitude to British poet Dr Rahul Gupta for his invaluable guidance in rendering this Persian poem into English blank verse. While his poetic insights proved instrumental to this translation, any shortcomings remain entirely my own responsibility

[2] In the transliteration of Persian names, double “aa” indicates a long “a” sound, as in Zaal and Saam (pronounced like the second syllable of “bazaar”)

[3] Saam the Horseman: hero in the Shahnameh who abandoned his white-haired infant son Zaal on Mount Alborz, where the mythical bird Simurgh raised the child until Saam’s later retrieval

[4] Firdausi refers to the star named Spica in Western astronomy; I have used an alternative name, Sumbalet (from Arabic سنبلة sunbulah, meaning “ear of grain”) for metrical and euphonic purposes. Both names are fitting – Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo (the Maiden) and its traditional Arabic names often reference grain or harvest imagery, reflecting its cultural significance in agricultural calendars

[5] In Persian love poetry, long dark tresses are likened to a lasso (Persian: kamand) that ensnares the lover’s heart. I have opted for “snare of locks” to capture both the beauty of the hair and its role in love’s captivation, avoiding the New World associations of “lasso”

[6] Although Rudabeh offers Zaal her unbound tresses to climb, he not only declines but vehemently rejects the idea as unthinkable, declaring he would rather die than risk harming her in such a way. This stands in stark contrast to Western versions, most famously Rapunzel, wherein the hero does use the hair to scale the tower

[7] The word “paradise” comes from Proto-Iranian *paridayjah meaning “walled enclosure” or “royal garden.” The Persian equivalent is firdaus (فردوس), which gives us the poet’s name Firdausi, meaning “of Paradise.” In contemporary Persian, pardis (پردیس) derived from the same root has come to mean “university campus”