Folksongs from the Mountains of Iran: Culture, Poetics and Everyday Philosophies 9781350986466, 9781786732781

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Erika Friedl is the E.E. Meader Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Western Michigan University. Her honours and awards include the Presidential Scholar Award; Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award; and Phi Beta Kappa. Friedl is the author of several books on the people of Boir Ahmad, including: Women of Deh Koh, Children of Deh Koh, Warm Hearts and Sharp Tongues: Life in 555 Proverbs from the Zagros Mountains of Iran, and Folktales and Storytellers of Iran: Culture, Ethos and Identity (I.B.Tauris, 2014).

‘This book will be a classic. It is amazing in its scope, depth, the topics it covers and the deep cultural understanding it demonstrates and conveys.’ Mary Elaine Hegland, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Santa Clara University

Picture credit: A young woman and child with the Zagros mountain range in the background, 1983. Photograph by Reinhold Loeffler

IB-FOLKSONGS-AW.indd 1

Culture, Poetics and Everyday Philosophies

‘This is the kind of book that will serve as a reference work for the next generations, not only of ethnographers, but also of Iranists, dialectologists and ethnomusicologists.’ Eckhard Neubauer, Emeritus Professor, Institute for the History of ArabicIslamic Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt

Folksongs from the Mountains of Iran

In Iran, folksongs are part of folklore and offer an intimate portrait of a vanishing era. This book is based on folksongs collected over a 50-year period among the Boir Ahmad tribal people in the Zagros Mountains of West Iran. Erika Friedl has recorded, transcribed and translated more than 600 lyrics from a Lur community. Her analysis provides an intimate portrait of local people’s attitudes, attachments, fears and desires. From songs of love, sex and mourning, to lyrics discussing beauty, infatuation and the community’s violent tribal history, Friedl’s solid understanding of the cultural background, lifestyle and worldview of these people lets her add ethnographic details that illuminate the deep meaning of the texts. Based on fieldwork that began in 1965, Erika Friedl’s research on the folklore in Boir Ahmad represents the best-documented modern folklore compendium on an Iranian tribe.

Erika Friedl

Folksongs from the Mountains of Iran Culture, Poetics and Everyday Philosophies

Erika Friedl

www. i b t au r i s.co m

21/11/2017 13:11

Erika Friedl is the E.E. Meader Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Western Michigan University. Between 1965 and 2015 she won numerous grants to carry out fieldwork in Boir Ahmad, West Iran. Her honours and awards include the Presidential Scholar Award; Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award; and Phi Beta Kappa. Friedl is the author of several books on the people of Boir Ahmad, including: Women of Deh Koh, Children of Deh Koh, Warm Hearts and Sharp Tongues: Life in 555 Proverbs from the Zagros Mountains of Iran, and Folktales and Storytellers of Iran: Culture, Ethos and Identity (I.B.Tauris, 2014).

‘This is the kind of book that will serve as a reference work for the next generations, not only of ethnographers, but also of Iranists, dialectologists and ethnomusicologists.’ Eckhard Neubauer, Emeritus Professor, Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt ‘This book will be a classic. It is amazing in its scope, depth, the topics it covers and the deep cultural understanding it demonstrates and conveys.’ Mary Elaine Hegland, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Santa Clara University

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Culture, Poetics and Everyday Philosophies

ERIKA FRIEDL

For Hans, these three scores of time

Published in 2018 by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd London • New York www.ibtauris.com

Copyright q 2018 Erika Friedl The right of Erika Friedl to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions. References to websites were correct at the time of writing. International Library of Iranian Studies 67 ISBN: 978 1 78831 017 8 eISBN: 978 1 78672 278 2 ePDF: 978 1 78673 278 1 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available Typeset in StoneSerif (Screen) by OKS Prepress Services, Chennai, India Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration and Translation Map of Iran

vii ix x

Introduction Locus Amoenus The Large Picture Purpose and Assumptions Aesthetics, Songs (BEIT) and Poets Language and Translation

1 1 2 3 4 8

The Lyrics 1.

Old Times uso, then

13

2.

Looks, Desire, Passion How Beautiful ˇce maluse Drunk, Crazy, Crazy ha¯le mas, kelu, kelu Pains and Vexations dard o nara¯hat Sad, Mad and Sorry nara¯hat, irad, peshimun Girls, Guns and Violence gol, tofang, zolm

27 28 41 57 65 77

3.

Spoken for and Married nuza ¯d, zan o mard Betrothed nuzad Dance and Sing beraks, bekhun Husband and Wife mard o zan (Locally, the phrase is ‘wife-and-husband’)

111

Relationships He Said, She Said go, go Wife’s Mother khassi

115 116 122

4.

85 86 103

vi

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Widow bive Lullaby la¯loi Others ba¯kie¨shun

125 127 135

5.

Mourning garye, garye (crying, crying)

139

6.

Religion din

157

7.

At Work badbakhti, sahmat, ka ¯r (misfortune, trouble, work) Rice Transplanting Song Milking Song

167 168 174

8.

Other Places, All the Same ( jei da, hamash yeki)

179

Notes Bibliography Glossary Index

197 201 205 219

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

While working since 1965 on the ethnographic documentation of a community in the tribal area of Boir Ahmad in southwest Iran, I have incurred great debts of gratitude to more people than I can list here. Furthermore, the often difficult socio-political climate in Iran especially after about 1983 makes me hesitate to name people who helped us with our research, sometimes against their own interest. The Azizi-Pakbaz families and the Boir Ahmadi-Rokhforus families in Sisakht will stand for many others who all know we are grateful. Reinhold Loeffler and our children moved along with me through the folklore of Boir Ahmad, contributing memories to my notes. Friends and colleagues in Austria, Germany and the United States encouraged and supported us most generously through the years. Western Michigan University, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the Social Science Research Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the University of Chicago supported various aspects of our research financially. Some verses have been published before and here are used with permission from The Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, Professor Sekandar Amanolahi, and Mr. Yaqoub Ghafari. The verses from Friedl (1977) are published in Iranian Studies online (24 February 2007), used here with the permission of Iranian Studies, and available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ abs/10.1080/00210867708701535. Professor Susan Wright provided me most generously with some unpublished songs from her own collection. Elaine Anderson Jayne of Kalamazoo read and edited the manuscript skilfully and patiently, and Sophie Rudland and Lisa Goodrum at I.B.Tauris managed the project most efficiently at their end. I thank them all.

NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION

Luri, spoken by the tribes of the Province of Kohgiluye/Boir Ahmad (among many others in Iran) is an unwritten language close to Middle Persian. To render Luri words easily readable, people in Iran prefer to use the Latin alphabet. I follow this trend with a simplified transliteration code based on English, familiar to a great many people in Iran. Letters are close to their English sounds with these exceptions: a¯ is as in ‘law’, gh is a soft guttural ‘g’ sound, z is as in ‘zero’, ˇc is the ‘ch’ in ‘child’, ou is the vowel in ‘low’, kh is similar to the guttural sound in Scottish ‘loch’ or Hebrew ‘Chaim’, ‘u’ is as in ‘lucid’ or ‘book’. Text in brackets [. . .] is my editorial addition. I transliterated spoken words rather than a written text. Therefore, some inconsistencies in spelling due to variations in speaking are unavoidable, as is the neglect of customary Persian printed symbols such as glottal stops or diacritical marks in the absence of a standard code for transliterating Luri. All translations are my own unless stated otherwise. As my goal was to be faithful to the text and to the spirit of the lyrics, I consciously avoided English rhymes, cliche´s and idioms. Where I was not certain about meaning I asked for help, which often turned into a lesson in semiotics and interpretation for me. All mistakes are mine, though, and I confidently expect that my friends will point them out to me next time I visit.

Map of Iran and Research Area

INTRODUCTION

Locus Amoenus1 Boir Ahmad, our ‘lovely place,’ is a region in the easternmost province of a Lurispeaking people in the Zagros mountains of West Iran. It is a place of high rocky peaks, steep green pastures, light oak woods, cold springs feeding swift brooks, torrential rivers, hot and arid plains. Springtime brings birds, blossoms and balmy air, summer brings heat from a molten sun and from the deserts of the Gulf, and autumn brings an abundance of fruits. In winter snow covers hills and valleys, peaks and plains. The region is promoted as a tourist paradise, with part of the Dena range of the Zagros a so-called Protected Area. There are cool waters and pleasant gardens, blue skies and crisp air, wide vistas of pastures, cliffs and canyons; there are chic new houses, ski slopes, mountaineers, wide roads. One learns to overlook garbage and cars. The population is rising. Villas, villages and towns creep into orchards, fields and woods. People benefit from these changes and also complain about pollution and loss of beloved places. The majestic Dena range gives identity to the area and a name to a county. When Reinhold Loeffler, our two daughters and I first came to Sisakht, a large village at the foot of the Dena mountain, no haze clouded the hills. This was in 1965. Boir Ahmad was a land of harsh nature with cold winters and hot summers, and of hardworking people making a threadbare living.2 The local farmers and herders were Lurs, patrilineally organised in tribes and subtribes, and Shi’a Muslims. Until 1963, when their last paramount tribal leader was assassinated by the government (for insubordination) and modernity slowly changed the ways of life for most local sedentary and transhumant sheep and goat herderagriculturalists, the high mountains and steep valleys provided a hardscrabble living. People built small houses of wooden beams and mud bricks, with flat mud roofs. There was no paved road in the countryside, no electricity and no clean water. A trip to the next town was an adventure on foot or with a donkey. The hierarchical structure of the society placed tribal chiefs and their families above

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

all others and men above women and children in every respect, with a strict division of labour. Women lugged water in big goatskin bags on their hips from springs and irrigation channels, and in most communities also carried firewood on their backs. Men tilled the rocky soil and used every niche in the environment to feed their families and their animals. Food was scarce, hunger always nearby, child mortality high. Edible plants, gathered mostly by women, provided a staple.3 Of these, acorns, used for food in the area since prehistoric times, figure prominently: I wish that the oak tree will bear fruit, my goat will give birth And I will eat acorn-meal bread and buttermilk. (See Nr. 614.) Tribal chiefs and outside moneylenders exploited the people. Traditional patterns of internecine warfare and competition over land and resources made life dangerous. Ideologies of heroism perpetuated a lifestyle of fear and privation among the ordinary people, and of glory and feats of bravery among the tribal elite.4 The songs of Boir Ahmad tell about this life and this place.

The Large Picture In Iran folksongs count as folklore, to be collected and preserved as documents of a vanishing era.5 Until recently, folklore scholars elsewhere also worked with this model, adding comparison, motif-genealogies and ‘performance’ to their goals and methodologies. Scholars of literature brought increasingly sophisticated analytical and conceptual tools to this endeavour, developing ever more complex theories about poetry (Eskin 2000, Ramazani 2014). Only recently have literature scholars started to pay serious attention to ethnographic dimensions in traditional oral texts, realising that just as modern popular songs work up and work through relevant themes of the times, so did popular songs in the past, before writing them down put them into time capsules. Morgan (1996:1) said it succinctly: old oral texts ‘served as the primary means by which non-literate people recorded their opinions, perceptions, social mores, history, and philosophical outlook [. . .]’ and therefore they ‘reflect the general attitudes and sensibilities of the people who produced them’. Although Morgan speaks mainly of ballads in the European Middle Ages, the insight pertains to oral creations everywhere (Dundes 2005). No matter what the overt theme of a song may be, the text, i.e., what people actually say, is based on perceptions of everyday life and the beliefs and philosophies that inform it. This working assumption is widely accepted now in literature studies and by anthropologists like myself. More difficult to handle are the spins people – singers as well as audience – give even simple verses that tell what seems to be a plain story. Re-telling a story,

INTRODUCTION

3

re-singing a song inspires the performer to add, combine, invent, change the text a bit, and inspires individual listeners to hear what they like to hear and then to turn that into different messages and meanings. Several times I point to variations that emerged during decoding of text. They usually appeared when I inquired about an unfamiliar phrase or asked for an example or clarification of an opaque image. A few times people even started to argue among themselves about the ‘real’ meaning of a line. This dynamic is not paid attention to in oral literature studies. Just as they do in stories and proverbs, people not only reflect the assumptions behind the tropes in their song lyrics automatically (as commented on from Cole 1915 and Boas 1916 to Ramazani 2014) but they also comment on their culture and on their own – and others’ – behaviour in these texts. They gush, they gripe, they praise and scold, rejoice and lament. In passing judgments, they evaluate ethical/philosophical assumptions in their own words. They take the moral high ground, put a clever spin on a situation, poke fun at themselves and others, reveal what to expect from a husband, a mother-in law, from God. Lyrics and poems reveal the ordering principles of a society and – my point – frequently also what people think of these principles. In my work on folklore in Boir Ahmad I have taken this projective viewpoint early on. It allowed me, an outsider, to let people describe in their own words and without any prompting to articulate what they thought about their lives and the choices their culture provided for moulding their world cognitively and practically. This critical introspection may promote emotional change for a singer, even a kind of self-therapy.6 Several people remarked on this effect: a woman with a difficult home life said, ‘After I sing about the problems I feel better’, and a young woman said that she went to ‘all mourning parties because listening to the sad songs lightens my spirit. It is good for me’. Two decades later, in the sensibilities of postmodern ethnographic fieldwork, the projective methodology minimised the danger of letting the outsider/scholar’s prejudices and editorial agenda, no matter how innocently employed, colour the ethnographic endeavour.7 A decade later still, ‘authenticity’ and performance became issues. By the criteria employed now, most texts in this collection are authentic as to content and also as to performance: wedding songs were sung at weddings, not for a stranger with a tape recorder, and lullabies actually put children to sleep. Only a few verses I noted down out of context, so to speak, as people remembered or recited them apropos an occasion, or when they wanted me to get them ‘into the book’, as they said.

Purpose and Assumptions The compilation of songs from Boir Ahmad constitutes a further chapter in my ongoing cultural inventory of a Lur community, ranging from material culture,

4

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

archaeology and contemporary developments such as fertility and gender relations, to folktales and proverbs. It is part of an extended ethnography largely based on local people’s own texts, and is guided mainly by two assumptions: One is that people express in oral poetry the models and schemata their culture provides for dealing with certain aspects of life.8 These schemata are shared – people understand each other and can decode each others’ ideas and actions even if, personally, they might disagree with them. Schemata include ideas and feelings as well as habituated behaviours. For example, some people place songs in the ‘heroic’ part of the local culture that elevates violence to a necessity or even a virtue, while others (or the same people in different contexts or discursive atmosphere) express dismay over this value and its consequences, such as at the death of a young fighter. Likewise, attraction between a man and a woman takes on a different emotional quality and suggests different metaphors and blocs of action depending on circumstances: while rapture – often paired with aggressive imagery – may make a man rave about a woman’s beauty, attraction frustrated by social differences becomes a sad or angry song about loss and leaving. Together, these schemata reveal what people make of their world, how they move and think, the people’s life-philosophies. As it is difficult to get people to talk about abstract notions such as values or beliefs or other categories alien to them, literary analysis of unedited texts provides a reliable tool to access these layers of culture. However, the sheer volume of texts in the case of the songs made it necessary to limit the discussion of actions that fit the words. Only occasionally do I dip into the ethnographic and behavioural side to which ideas and cognitions are linked. My second assumption is that a great many verses are short stories with a point that often contains a comment on one or another principle or expectation or assumption within the culture, such as on a custom or a relationship. Individual variations elaborate on these tacit expectations. Attention to the stories in the verses, however faintly they may be sketched, provides insights especially into the opinions of the ‘silent’ people, the women in this case, who in the songs feature as quiet objects (of desire, for example) rather than as speakers and actors, even if they loudly sing.

Aesthetics, Songs (BEIT) and Poets Of the scarce, restrained aesthetic expressions of people in the Zagros area, music, singing, poetry and dancing were the most popular before the Revolution of 1979 and – more quietly, privately and subdued – are so again since then. The Islamic Republic moralists’ early stance was against all nonreligious or non-revolutionary music. When restrictions on music were relaxed somewhat, after about 2005, Persian pop music made a quick ascendance, covering topics and sentiments previously sung about by local people in

INTRODUCTION

5

their beit. A lively Luri pop music culture is growing on compact disks and on the internet now, accessible to all and disseminated widely. Traditional local songs have not disappeared but have become more private. They continue to be important markers of Lur identity. Everybody appreciated singing (by men and women), women’s circledances (raks, varba¯zi) accompanied by oboe and drum or hand clapping and singing, and playing with words in storytelling and ad hoc rhymes.9 The court of a tribal leader (khan) as well as village neighbourhoods included the joker, the singer, the man who recited the heroic myths of the Shahnameh, somebody who could make or recite poems or could tell stories better than others. Musicians were appreciated and paid well. In addition to verbal arts and music, women wove colourful rugs and bags on horizontal looms using home-dyed, homespun wool yarns with tribal patterns that included some animals. Although representations of sentient beings are forbidden in Islam, in Iran, images of animals in rugs, pictures set in ceramic tiles with traditional pastoral and landscape motifs, photographs of people and portraits of religious figures are popular, and now found in many houses in Sisakht. A few animals also appear in the songs: lion and horse as signs of power, ibex as game, the wolf as an emblem of danger but also of misery, sheep as models of women’s beauty, goats and the grey partridge as food, other birds as metaphors for death. Needlework, drawings and watercolour paintings especially of flowers and the partridge were popular also in the past.10 Flowers attracted people with their colours and smells and furnished a strong symbol for (young) women. The attraction for the partridge was more practical than symbolic: the aesthetic appeal came from intense observation of the bird’s habits and the joys of hunting and eating partridges, as people say and some verses show. An elderly, literate local man familiar with poetry perceived similarities between the partridge and flower/woman in the local songs: bird and girl, he said, were soft to the touch, easy to grab, and so appealing that just to see and touch them made one want to eat them. Poetic impulses in the Zagros mostly took the form of lyrics, summarily called beit, but with different names for verses in different tunes or covering different aspects of life. Thus, e.g., lullabies are la¯loi, songs of praise of an area are ya¯rya¯r, mourning songs are sharva¯, a lively dance-tune and its lyrics is called da¯ini. (Ghafari 2012 names the major tunes and beats.) Considering my thematic interest, I focus on the lyrics, treating all texts as equally instructive regardless of musical qualities. Most lyrics presented here fit the category beit, with a structure of rhymed twoliners and a beat that divides each of the two lines: a-b/c-b.11 This is also how the songs are performed, i.e., with a pause between the two halves of each line. Thus, the two-liners may also be noted as quatrains (Windfuhr 1986) without a change in meaning. I present the verses as two-liners to save space. Thus,

6

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Dush ye khouı¨ dideme – haz kerdom ve khou. Na¯zanin men baghalom bi – ta¯ nimeye shou. Last night I had a dream that made me happy. My beloved was in my arms until midnight.

As a quatrain, however, it is closer to how it is actually spoken or sung, with pauses or fill-words at the end of each line: Last night I had a dream It made me happy. My beloved was in my arms Until midnight. Unlike in most other parts of the modernising world, where poetry split from song lyrics early,12 words and music in the Zagros region started to separate only recently, in the twentieth century, along with a decline in singing. In 1965, when we first heard local music, the song culture was lively. Women sung work songs when hulling rice (to the rhythm of the thrusts of the pestle in the mortar). They sang lullabies to their babies, mourning songs at funeral parties. They sang to themselves at home doing chores. Men and women sung a cappella at weddings, and hand-clapping provided the beat for wedding songs little girls sang. There were different tunes for different occasions.13 This wealth has diminished over time but has not disappeared. Occasionally the ‘old’ songs can still be heard today: they express feelings and ideas of people otherwise not much heard from, such as women and young people; in this they retained their relevance and fascination.14 Many verses obviously present a man’s voice, a few others a woman’s, but women sing more than men, and blithely may assume a man’s ‘I,’ thereby making a man’s praise of his bride’s beauty or his lament of the loss of his lover their own praise and lament. Dialogic songs explicitly address a person of the opposite sex who then answers in the next verse. Rare now, they were clearly much more common in the past. However, separating monologic and dialogic structures is unimportant for my purpose because all songs implicitly address an audience. When they accompany weddings or mourning sessions they are meant to elicit appreciation and patterned responses such as hand-clapping or crying. In the first person singular singers address the world at large or a hypothetic listener, a ‘you’, when venting personal joy, sorrow or anger. They expect an action when calming a child with a lullaby or they wait for a reaction to comments on a memory or a public event. This implicit ‘second dialogue’ (Scanlon 2007: 2) is understood without words: people listen for the messages between the lines and fill gaps with unspoken ideas on the basis of their shared knowledge. As many singers collectively and routinely use the same texts,

INTRODUCTION

7

the sentiments, criticism, comments, pleas for help they contain jell and become generalised, and reactions to them become habituated – not a particular singer alone is in pain but the pain is endemic, the social conditions that cause the pain are identified and pointed at, there are only few (or no) solutions to problems. Not only the singer but everybody knows the songs’ ethical/philosophical basis. Indeed, I see the songs as fully dialogic in the comments, complaints, laments, admirations they loudly proclaim, even though the audience’s only answer may be empathy. In the process of singing, emotional and often self-therapeutic ‘personal lyric’ melts into order-promoting ‘social lyric’ (Orr 2002: 213ff.). The I of a poem ‘is full of voices and discourses’ (Scanlon 2007: 5), and this cultural and psychological complexity turns lyrics and poems into philosophical texts.15 The philosophy the texts refer to is of the everyday sort of the social and emotional logic by which life proceeds. The verses are decidedly this-worldly in tone and themes. There are few with a religious motif. Most of the rare references to religion are evocative supplications for God’s help, (‘O God, make –’, ‘I wish from God –’). Supplications to descendants of the Prophet Muhammad are of the do ut des kind, based on reciprocity: I promise an offering for your help. Like in Iran generally, in Boir Ahmad too there exists a large body of religious poetic texts within prayers and Shi’a rituals, in Farsi or Arabic. In language, themes, style and purposes Islamic poetics and everyday local songs are separate, but people are equally at home in both genres. Through various rituals they connect to the religious culture, and through their own poetry to their Lur traditions and to the pop music of Iran, in what Ramazani 2009 describes as circuits of poetic connection across political and geographic borders. And this connection links Luri poems not only to Persia but also to Europe, across centuries: for example, European minnesongs and Luri love songs share too many similarities and aesthetic conventions to be coincidental.16 Even ancient Egyptian poetic sentiments are fully understood and agreed with in contemporary Boir Ahmad, such as, for example, expressed in this woes-of-love poem from the New Kingdom, 1600 –1100 BC : [. . .] and when I kiss her, feel her length breast to thigh, Love’s evil spirits flee clean from my system [. . .]17 Or, likewise from Egypt, same period, [. . .] [I] pretend to be dying. [. . .] When she comes I won’t need a doctor, She knows why I am ill. (Orr 2002: 3.) A final point concerns the anonymity of poets. The songs are in the public sphere, accessible to everybody for singing and listening. The music is firmly

8

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

patterned with few opportunities for creative changes. Everybody knows the tunes, even though not everybody can sing well or cares to sing in public. The lyrics, though, are open to variation – anybody can compose text, and once sung the verse can be picked up by anybody. Beyond some popular patterned opening phrases such as, ‘From the top of the hill I looked down –’ or ‘Last evening on the pass –’ or ‘I saw a bunch of girls –’, there are sheer endless opportunities for more or less well-fitting rhymes. A few star poets’ verses are exceptions proving the rule of anonymity. Three generations ago one such poet, a tribal chief, composed lyrics extravagantly praising his bride. People remember his infatuation and some of his verses to this day. (See Nr. 78.) And in one genre of songs, eulogising famous battles or dead tribal fighters especially from chief’s houses, many lyrics were composed by a peer or an eager underling and stayed around for years in the oral tradition, but the poets were soon forgotten. Nobody I asked had any old documents containing song texts.18

Language and Translation The book is an addition to a growing documentation of Lur folklore. It is my fourth volume on local oral folklore and to the best of my knowledge the only published compilation of songs from Boir Ahmad outside Iran.19 The 616 verses cover only a small part of what likely are thousands of verses in the Luri-speaking part of the Zagros. In 2012 Ghafari published some 120 lyrics he had collected in Boir Ahmad, of which not even half correspond to those in my collection. The present book, providing Luri texts in Latin-script transcription and English translation, together with the songs appearing in Ghafari’s work (Luri transcribed in Farsi and Latin script, with Farsi translation), the published songs from other areas in Kohgiluye (Mann 1910, Luri in Latin script and German translation), those from Luristan (Amanolahi and Thackston 1986, Luri in Latin script and English translation), and the extensive documentation of Bakhtiari poetry (Vahman and Asatrian 1995, Luri in Latin script and English translation), shows the wealth and wide variety of Luri songs and other poetry in the Zagros area. These texts and others that may be published only in Iran, inaccessible to me, await comparative analysis. The official language and lingua franca of multilingual Iran today is Farsi. In the course of the integration of tribal people into the modern state there is a language shift from Luri, the language spoken in several dialects in the Zagros region, to Farsi.20 Indo-European Luri is an unwritten language and – so local people say and I agree – difficult to represent with the Arabic-based Persian (Farsi) script. Since the 1960s the highly successful public education in Farsi made most people in the Zagros provinces bilingual, with Luri spoken locally and at home, and considered backward and uneducated especially by outsiders. Urbanites tend to take Luri as bad Farsi, as a dialect spoken by illiterate rural

INTRODUCTION

9

yokels. In 2015 I noticed that members of the growing Lur middle class preferred to speak Farsi even at home saying that this made it easier for their children to fit into the urban/Farsi environment to which they aspired. Local folklorists collecting Luri texts tend to translate them into Farsi as they write them, thereby losing much of the original linguistic particularities, or else they use a modified Latin-based script (locally called Inglisi) because it is better suited to the sounds of Luri and can be read without difficulties by anybody who is familiar with the Latin alphabet. Along with many colleagues, including Iranian colleagues, I, too, adopted this custom so as to make it possible for people inside and outside Iran to read this language. Despite Persian outsiders’ prejudice against all that is ‘Lur’, from language to the Lurs’ alleged fierce cohesion, Lurs are increasingly successful in the modern arena of national progress-related endeavours, from professionals in medicine and engineering to administrators, from traders to contractors. They are proud to be Lurs, which to them means to be tough, quick, resourceful and hardworking. People in towns surrounding the tribal provinces used to fear tribal people because of their military prowess and infamous raids on villages while now, they say, they resent the Lurs’ cleverness, cohesion and assertiveness in the job market.21 Against such a baggage of prejudices and identity issues, the lyrics in this book are quaint as they depict in words and music the tribal past of a people at the fringes of national political and social power, and this in an ‘inferior’ language to boot. Yet, old as many are, the verses are not outdated as to sentiments, a patriotic pride in Lur-ness, a mischievous glee about speaking a language both super-authentic, pure Persian without the Arabic components of modern Farsi, yet full of riddles for contemporary Persian urbanites. On a macro-level of national identity, the songs are subversive. Oral performances are messy, what with audience noise, memory lapses, the performer improvising text to fit a situation or satisfy the demands of rhythm and melody. Thus, the sung text may differ from one performer and performance to the next. It may be declared ‘wrong’ by others, rhyme ‘badly’ or may be a mix of lines connected by rhyme, not reason, expressing idiosyncratic thoughts.22 To keep the strict meters, inflexible tunes and obligatory rhyme, singers switch code, mixing Farsi and Luri words; they scramble syntax, lose meaning, place haphazard accents, shift a reference or speakers. Vocal harmonising varies pronunciation. In addition, many spoken words vary from region to region, village to village, even person to person. This is typical for non-written languages but irritates literate Persian-speakers and accounts for some variation in how words are spelled in the following texts, such as, for example, kaka, ka¯ka, ka¯ka¯ (brother). Such variations are not necessarily due to sloppy talking or careless editing but to individual people’s preferences. However, there are errors, for sure, and these are mine.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

Otherwise sing-performances are highly stereotyped as to a singer’s expressiveness: face is still, as is the body, and the voice is shrill without modulations corresponding to emotions. There are few extra-textual remarks, references or bodily expressions: the listeners have to furnish contexts based on their knowledge of the lyrics and on the shared experiences these refer to, obliquely often and always sparsely. I kept the translation deliberately as close to the text as possible. Matching rhyme or meter or using English phrases or idioms would reflect English thinking rather than the speaker’s. Still, language sets ethnocentric limitations. For example, there is no one word for ‘love’ in Luri and therefore I avoid the use of ‘love’ in the translation. The sheer volume of lyrics in this collection led me to fit the verses into large theme-based categories. Where a text needs cultural background to make sense, I provide explanations. Most of these reflect my collaboration with the singer or the person reciting the text, with a listener or else with one or the other local friend. Of the people who helped me generously with interpretations, Mrs. Golrokh Pakbaz and Mrs. Nushaferin Boir Ahmedi, both retired local teachers in Sisakht, fluent in Luri and Farsi and graced with great knowledge and patience, helped the most, and I am profoundly grateful.

THE LYRICS

CHAPTER 1 OLD TIMES USO, THEN

During our first visits in Boir Ahmad many songs preserved the recent history of wars and their heroes. Since then most of these songs have vanished, and degenerative changes that are unavoidable in an oral repertoire made some surviving verses partly unintelligible. Still, the aura of fear and violence comes through, many decades after the events they comment on. The verses telling dark stories of the past may be sung as mourning songs, too. 1. To ve sangar beneshin, sangar nahuva¯re. Beiramad bisafate, sozete dera¯re. Sit in the rock-blind, the rock-blind is not strong. The bad Boir Ahmadi will take out your spleen. The people outside Sisakht are lumped together as ‘Boir Ahmadi’, described here as bisafate, having ‘no good character qualities’. When looking back, the people of Sisakht talk about the hard times they had defending themselves against the proverbially aggressive tribes from Boir Ahmad, until the 1970s. (Most memories of their own participation in the various hostilities have faded.) To ‘take out a spleen’ means to make a lot of trouble. The song also is a mourning song. For Boir Ahmad/Beiramad and sangar see Glossary. 2. Ka¯ghazi ba¯la¯ umade si Nasrein Sha¯h. Beiramad jang ikone Torkel tama¯sha¯. A letter arrived for Nasreddin Shah: Boir Ahmad makes war [and] the Turks look on. Nasreddin Shah (Naser al-Din Qajar, 1831 –96) had a troubled relationship with the feuding, fiercely independent Zagros tribes. A few verses about this traumatic time survive to this day. The ‘Turks’ are the Qashqa’i, the largest

14

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN tribal confederacy in Fars, adjacent to Boir Ahmad. For Qashqa’i and Boir Ahmad/Beiramad see Glossary.

Songs about Kerim Khan (or Khoda Keram Khan – the two chiefs get confused in songs and stories. See Glossary). 3. Sarcˇena¯r ta¯ Damcˇena¯r asbom vedou bi. Rafiqom Soulat ˇcupun, bakhtom ve khou bi. From one end of Chenar to the other end of Chenar my horse was galloping. My companion was Sowlat the shepherd, my luck was asleep. Khoda Keram Khan complains that Sowlat al-Dowla, in the early twentieth century the paramount khan of Boir Ahmad’s powerful neighbours, the Qashqa’i, betrayed him. The region of Chenar was the centre of Khoda Keram Khan’s area in the summer pastures of Boir Ahmad. The sedentary and by their own accounts more progressive Sisakhtis derogatorily called the pastoral, nomadic Qashqa’i ‘shepherds’. The khan’s lack of the type of luck (bakht) referred to here rests on the ancient idea of a personified ‘luck’, a person’s invisible companion who, weak or asleep, renders the person unlucky. For bakht, Qashqa’i and Sowlat al-Dowla see Glossary. 4. Sarcˇena¯r, ya¯det bakheir, bishtar molke ziret. ˇ arkhe gardune falak mena bos ve diret. C Upper Chenar, bless your memory, you have so much land. The wheel of the world has thrown me far from you. This is a sad song (sharbe), praising the area of Chenar, the summer quarters of Khoda Keram Khan (see Glossary) of Boir Ahmad, when he was imprisoned for insurrection by the government. The ‘wheel of the world’ (or ‘wheel of time’) is said to be a power inherent in the workings of the universe that influences the fate of people. The khan’s attachment to his realm is legendary. 5. Khom Kerim khodam Kerim, asbom kurancˇa¯l. Soulat Doula (or: Qashqa¯’ı¨) ˇci vam nakerd, koshtom nokhodka¯l. I am Kerim [Khan], I am Kerim, my horse is brown with a white spot on the head. Sowlat al-Dowla (or: the Qashqa’i) has done nothing for me; the peafarmer killed me. A beleaguered Kerim Khan is complaining about the powerful neighbouring pastoral Qashqa’i, who did not support him against the Shah’s army and did

OLD TIMES USO, THEN

15

not prevent the chief of Sisakht at the time, Qobad Nikeqbal, from killing him. The more migratory, bigger tribes of Boir Ahmad called the sedentary Sisakhti people, ‘pea-farmers’ and did not mean this kindly. In a version from 2006 the singer changed the by now unfamiliar name of the Qashqa’i khan into ˆca¯r doulat, that is, ‘four countries’, turning the complaint into bragging: four armies could not defeat famous Kerim Khan until the pea-farmer killed him. The singer obviously did not know or care that the killer was Sisakht’s own famous chief. For Sowlat al-Dowla and Qobad Nikeqbal see Glossary. 6. Qoba¯d, kurr Mahqoli, sit bad nabidom. Sarda¯ri pus samur sit ikharidom. Qobad, son of Muhammadqoli, I was not bad for you. I bought you a coat of sable. Again, Kerim Khan berates Qobad Nikeqbal, the son of the founder of Sisakht, and a powerful ally/enemy of other chiefs, for having killed him. Qobad was frequently at odds with the tribal politics of Kerim Khan. Sable is indigenous to the area and was coveted for its pelt. For Qobad Nikeqbal and Kerim Khan see Glossary. 7. Neninom ve Shah Qa¯som, beninom ve Mokhta¯r. Bong ve gurom bezane il ke ikone ba¯r. Don’t take me to [the shrine of] Shah Qasom, take me to [the shrine of] Mokhtar, [so that my] tribe may hail my grave as it breaks camp. Kerim Khan wants to be buried in the south of the tribal region, to be greeted by his people when they depart for the summer quarters. The wish to be buried next to a shrine of a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad signals his piety, but he weakens this signal in the next line: the shrine of Mokhtar is on the migration route of his people, and it is important for him to be remembered by them as they move by. Shah means ‘exalted, great’ in conjunction with a descendent of the Prophet. For Kerim Khan and Imamzadeh (shrine) see Glossary. 8. Berrom vou tei khoda¯, bekonom shika¯yat. Bengeram ka¯rom ˇcenne dar in vela¯yat. I’ll go to God with a complaint. I want to know what is my purpose in this realm. Reportedly this was a complaint-verse of Kerim Khan or another khan mired in the Boir Ahmad wars. In 2015 a mother recited this old song halfjokingly about her son who had a bachelor’s degree but could not find work and was just hanging around with other, likewise idle, friends.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

Several songs circulate about Bibi Zoghra, perhaps the daughter of Kerim Khan, a fabled beauty coveted by powerful chiefs in the area. The historical details are lost to the singers, but the aura of competition, fighting and courtly chivalry pervading her time is present in the songs in a schema of ‘nobility’ that structures thoughts, feelings and action. 9. Zoghra, Bi Zoghra, madune shoukan, Ke Ali Khun haf sa¯leye bash ikone jang. Zoghra, Bibi Zoghra, [has a] black mare. Ke Ali Khan fights for her (or: fights her) for seven years. The historical details are clearly much less important than is the fighting around the lady. The horse and the title ‘Bibi’ mark her as belonging to a khan’s family. Ordinary tribesmen rarely had horses and their women were not called Bibi. 10. Ali Kha¯n khosh Vali Kha¯n bi pei Koh Dina¯ye Ye qadar jang ikonen si Zoghra¯ye. Ali Khan and Vali Khan at the foot of the Dena Fought a long time over [Bibi] Zoghra. 11. Zoghra sorkh o safid pahlele kemandi, Ali Khun bernou andakht si harfe nangi. Beautiful (‘red and white’) Zoghra with the many braids –Ali Khan shot the Brno rifle for some bad talk (or: a bad reputation). The historical event behind the lyrics is lost: Ali either felt insulted or else was living up to his bad reputation when he shot somebody. Zoghra, however, emerges again as an important tribal woman from a chief’s lineage, who, probably as a widow, politically was holding her own. This was the spin the singer, a woman in Sisakht, gave the words. For red/white and Brno see Glossary. 12. Khod bezan, bezan, bezan, dastet nalarze. Shire zard (or: shal) Bi Zoghra qalena base. Shoot, shoot, shoot, may your hand not tremble. The yellow (or: lame) lion shut Bibi Zoghra’s fort. ‘Lion’ stands for royal power or a potent chief, feared and admired. Here it is Bibi Zoghra’s husband’s enemy, either very powerful (‘yellow’) or else lame or wounded. Bibi Zoghra is beleaguered and defended. 13. Mo kurre shire shalom ser Kuh Dena¯yom. I qadr pit ikonom si Zoghra¯yom.

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I am the son of the Lame Lion on the Dena mountain. I am writhing in pain (or: I am taking such troubles) for my Zoghra. The kin relationships no longer are clear to the singer, but the memory of Bibi Zoghra’s importance and attractions has survived. 14. Mo kurre shirkha¯n shalom, mabeine do bardom. Beiramad nakoshteme, ter kha¯nesh igardom. I am the son of Shirkhan (Lion-khan) the Lame, I am between two rocks. The Boir Ahmad did not kill me – I am after his khan. The wounded warrior threatens the khan who fights him. This puts him between a rock and a hard place. Although a Boir Ahmadi, he distances himself from all tribal allegiances to be able to go after the khan. Seven songs are about Agha Jelu, a chief of the Agha’i, a sub-tribe in Boir Ahmad, in the early twentieth century. The first two verses make fun of Agha Jelu’s lack of luck or marksmanship. For Brno see Glossary. 15. Bernou Agha Jelu men kal seda¯ kerd. Seyna za, ghazela za, ra¯hna vella¯ ke. Agha Jelu’s Brno rifle rang out in the rocks. It hit a Seyed and an antelope (or: a pale horse) and made them get lost. Jelu’s marksmanship was so bad that he hit a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, which is a sin, and a horse, which is dumb, instead of an enemy. 16. Az nu bernou Agha Jelu men kal ghoropna¯, Seyna za, ghazela za, ilel ve zorna. Again Agha Jelu’s Brno rifle rang out in the rocks. It hit a Seyed and an antelope (or: a pale horse) and the tribes turned around. Jelu’s people no longer backed and followed him but fled, and the enemies laughed, the singer said. 17. Gardane Mour Safa¯ sangar ser sangar. Shire zard Agha Jelu qata¯re gardan. On the pass to the Safa-plain is one rock-fort after the other. The Yellow Lion Agha Jelu has the cartridge belt around his shoulder.

18

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Although the historical details are lost, it is clear that Jelu is ready to fight: he carries a rifle, and the hills around Safa, an area in eastern Boir Ahmad, are fortified with circular rock-blinds. Yellow Lion stands for ‘great hero’. For sangar see Glossary.

18. Ye qata¯re gardanom, yeki va poshtom. Ke Ali Khun bong izane, Jeluna koshtom. A rifle around my neck, one on my back. Ke Ali Khan shouts, I killed Jelu. The verse refers to the fight between two tribal units in Boir Ahmad, the Qayed Givi and the Agha’i, in which the Agha’i Chief Jelu was killed. 19. Do kela¯ men asamun, ba¯lesh neveshta. Do dadei Agha Jelu jigar bereshta. Two crows are in the sky on whose wings is written: Agha Jelu’s two sisters have burned livers. Agha Jelu is dead and his sisters mourn him. Sisters were their dead brothers’ chief mourners. A woman’s brothers were said to be her most valuable allies, and therefore she has the most to lose when one dies. She mourns for him but also for the loss of a protector. Crows are considered harbingers of bad news. In the local medical tradition, deep sorrow or anger will ‘burn the liver’, causing great pain. 20. Manzel shou aval men Tange Takoue¨. Kha¯nom zolf kopaki men ma¯l velloue¨. The first night’s camp is in the Takab Canyon. The woman with the side locks is alone in the camp. This popular mourning song bemoans widowhood and the violence that caused it. It describes the loneliness and the precarious position of any woman left without a man’s protection. Vellou means to be without a master or a responsible companion; for example, misbehaving children are called, vellou. Here it means the new widow. She has no master, and thus her reputation is highly vulnerable. Side locks connoted a married woman: a strand of hair on either side of the face was cut as part of the wedding ceremony to form a lock framing the face outside the short veil/scarf. As it grew longer, the woman twisted the strand and tucked it back into her veil. Only old women observe this custom now but everybody still knows it and understands the metaphor. The Takab Canyon was the place of a fight. The group in the song is on the move and vulnerable – at least one man died, as

OLD TIMES USO, THEN

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indicated by the loneliness of his widow. A singer sung it together with the Agha Jelu songs but she said she did not know if it was about Jelu. ‘The guns killed so many men’, she said. Songs about Khosrow Khan. See Glossary. 21. Bernouyal, bernou boland pusesh tange. Safare Khosroukha¯n azba¯re jange. The Brno rifles – the long Brno has a narrow muzzle. Khosrow Khan’s journey again leads to war. Khosrow Khan was a half-brother and rival of the last paramount khan in Boir Ahmad, Abdullah Zarghampour (see Glossary). The chief and the people of Sisakht supported Khosrow Khan, whose mother was from the chiefs’ family of Sisakht. Abdullah Khan ordered him killed, and this fratricide lives on vividly in people’s memory. For Brno see Glossary. 22. Boir Ahmad khord o drosht konin hala¯lom. I safar ke ira¯yom va¯pas nia¯yom. [People of] Boir Ahmad, small and tall, make me lawful. From this travel I won’t come back. Although Khosrow Khan is not mentioned, the singer said the verse was about Khosrow’s premonition of his impending death. He knew that his half-brother, the paramount khan of Boir Ahmad at the time, planned to kill him. ‘To make lawful’ here is his plea for forgiveness for any pain he might have caused his supporters. See Glossary for Khosrow Khan and hala¯l. 23. Asbe se tofang setir, da¯re ta¯ma¯sha. Abdullah Khosrouna kosht pa¯zava ha¯sha¯. Black horse, three-shooter rifle, good to look at. Abdullah killed Khosrow and denies it. Allegedly, Abdullah Khan denied having ordered the assassination of his half-brother as long as he lived, but today the fratricide is accepted as a fact even among his own descendants, and is a blemish on the khan’s memory. For Abdullah Khan and Khosrow Khan see Glossary. Songs about Abdullah Khan Zarghampour. See Glossary. See Nr. 541 for another verse about him. The khan was unpopular in Sisakht, and we did not hear laudatory songs about him.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

24. Ba¯lei bakht, u karabol nekerde dia¯rom. Zade bi mene kamarom ve jei qa¯ta¯rom. Oh, my bad luck, [why did] my servant not wake me [before the fight]? I was shot in the back in the place of my strap. Or: Oh, my bad luck, my servant did not wake me [but] shot me in the place of my strap. Both versions can be read into the text. They refer to the assassination of Abdullah Khan Zarghampour, the last paramount khan in Boir Ahmad, by a servant, in 1963, while on the run with a bounty on his head. For bakht see Glossary. 25. Qorbune khodat berram vou borget sandel. Ve hame aziztare Zargha¯mi zanal. I’ll be your sacrifice and that of your sandalwood eyebrows. The Zarghami women are dearer than all others. The women of the Zarghampour family in the patrilineage of the last khan of Boir Ahmad were proverbially beautiful. The song of praise can also have the meaning of a love song: the second line may refer to the ‘you’ in the first line: you are dearer/sweeter than even the Zarghami women. For qorbun see Glossary. 26. Zerjume Bi Akdas ye roush telifun. Golaku ve khosh veicˇenne, ezmesh ve Tehrun. One of Bibi Akdas’ skirts is made of expensive fabric. She is right here – her name [fame] is in Tehran. The woman praised here was of the khan’s lineage but the praise easily fits any woman whose name appears in the first line. For gol see Glossary. Songs About Other Intertribal Hostilities. 27. Asbe se pei qaleiya nuzina sin kon. Vou darre Naleshkenun (or: Tange Nali) ri kha¯na zir kon. Saddle the black horse at the foot of the fort. In the Naleshkenun valley (or: Nali Canyon) defeat (kill) the khan. Particulars of the battle at Naleshkenun (near Sadat in south-central Boir Ahmad) are not known. The story has no graphic image of violence, but a fort, black horse, a canyon where an ambush is likely, and the phrase, ‘to push a face down’, meaning to humiliate or kill an adversary, signify mortal danger.

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28. Sangelta dojer bezan, mohqam buvandesh. Bernouyal khorde izanen nacˇi bolandesh. Build a strong, two-sided rock-blind. The Brno rifles hit small aims, let alone large ones. The advice supports the fighting spirit emerging from the link between the defence structures, expensive rifles and danger. Over the years, several such structures were built on the hills surrounding Sisakht. For Brno and sangar see Glossary. 29. Beiramad hei dou hei dou sine Beiraftou, Dase rasom nigire konda¯ge pishtou. Boir Ahmad [men] quickly run to the Baraftab slope. My right hand can’t grab the pistol. People remember hostilities between Sisakht and Baraftab, a village built on a long slope to the east of Sisakht, but not the particular incident described here. ‘Beiramad’ (see Boir Ahmad in the Glossary) here most likely stands for a particular chief and his fighters. 30. Kouge mase Mamasani ra¨te ve amorat. Kouge rashtei pa¯ safid ma¯le da¯ va ghorat. The drunken partridge Mamasani stormed the fort. The pretty partridge with white feet lost its property in the attack. ‘Drunken partridge’ stands for love-drunk man, and ‘white feet’ for a beautiful woman. The song describes an attack on a woman’s place by a man from the Mamasani, a Lur tribe southeast of Boir Ahmad. Names and circumstances are lost in the story but the link between violence, intertribal hostilities and love-crazed aggression toward women is explicit. 31. Karabol o ja¯hel shou niberesh khou. Tavile kha¯n ishkene Lohrase bidou. [For] servants and young men the night doesn’t bring sleep. The worthless Lohras is breaking [into] the khan’s stable. The historical incident of a theft of animals is remembered, without particulars, as an infamous violation of the khan’s property. Thefts of lifestock, usually done at night, were common in the past among villagers, camps, and even neighbours. I do not know the circumstances of this verse, but the internecine strife and the audacious Lohras’ leadership are clear. Ghafari (2012: 28) has another Lohras-song, equally enigmatic: ‘Ke Lohras

22

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN with the white scarf came in front of the shrine. The Boir Ahmad [chief] fights against a six-shooter cannon.’ (Kei Lohra¯s ˆceqa safid umad deme pir, beiramad jar ikone be tupe shas tir.) The term of address, ke or kei (from Arabic qa¯yed), though, mark him as a tribal man of some repute.

32. Berrim ve sahr vedar ta¯ begom ye ˆci sit. Shou koshtenet ikonen mo ˆce konom sit. Let’s go outside, I want to tell you something. At night they will kill you – what can I do for you? The desperate situation was quite realistic, as was the necessity to have allies. The porch-wall of one of Sisakht’s last two chiefs was fortified with embrasures until the 1990s, long after guns were outlawed. A quite popular and similarly realistic theme in the verse is the lack of privacy in the small, cramped houses and packed settlements of the recent past. ‘The walls have mice, and mice have ears’ is a much-used proverb deploring this condition. Songs about the Pahlavi armies were not popular locally except for a few dealing with Lur fighters’ problems with them. Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which ended Pahlavi rule in Iran, these songs no longer are in use in Sisakht. The plight of young men’s long, badly paid military duty, however, is the same now. 33. Mulla Shahrom pas ˇce merdi, ile za vou tange dar. Khalat vash da¯ Sha¯h ve Tehrun, yek nafar kerde honar. Mullah Shahrom, what a man, he led the tribe out from a tight spot. The Shah in Tehran gave him a big present to honour him. The verse seems to speak to a particular story that is lost by now. The singer made sure to paint the brave man as a true supporter of the Shah, a wise political move during the Pahlavi reign. Any man’s name can be inserted in the beginning of the first line, and the verse also served as a mourning song. For Mullah see Glossary. 34. Beiramad hei dou hei dou nehenge ser tang, Ke dideme bacˆe Luri be sha¯h kone jang. Boir Ahmad run, run to the canyon Where we saw young Lur men fight against the Shah. Several times tribal men fought against the Shah’s soldiers in Boir Ahmad. Stories about these events are partly bragging and partly sad, expressing pride and grief for the brave men but also unease about the fights: a shah

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ought to be honoured, not fought against. The first line was reconstructed from a garbled original text by Mrs. Boir Ahmadi, a local teacher and folklorist. For Boir Ahmad/Beiramad see Glossary. 35. Reza Shei sha¯h Pahlevi leba¯s triki. Menna bord ve sarba¯zi (or: lashkari) nuzadom si ki? Reza Shah, Shah Pahlavi with satin clothes Made me a soldier. Who will get my betrothed now? The Shah’s conscript will not have enough income to support a wife and may lose his life too. His fiance´e’s people may prefer a more promising suitor than a poor soldier. Being drafted into the army changes a young man’s life profoundly. For Reza Shah see Glossary. 36. Ejva¯rina rou da¯ne ve si Semirum, Shoue¨ ma¯h, hava¯ konak, bel ta¯ (or: nalom) bemirom. They put the soldiers on the road to Semirom. Moonlit night, cool air, let me (or: don’t let me) die. A pleasantly cool, light night is contrasted with a pending fight, pain and loss. The battle of Semirom, a town in Fars Province north of Boir Ahmad, was between the Shah’s army and a coalition of the Qashqa’i and Boir Ahmad khans, in 1943. Tribal issues were complicated by European rivalries during World War II. The tribal fighters lost against the soldiers. For Qashqa’i see Glossary. 37. Ejva¯rina rou da¯ne va si Tehrun. Har zani korr khub a¯vord va¯bi peshimun. They put the soldiers on the road to Tehran. Every woman who has born a good son is sorry. ‘Tehran’ stands for the tribal fighters’ national political goals during the tribal uprising that ended in the battle at Semirom and cost many men’s lives. In wars, the women suffer the pain and sorrow of losing their men. Such an explicit female view of life is part of the war-schema but rare in the songs of war. Peshimun means the feeling of remorse and severe regret. 38. Bernou kule ˇcepom, durbin ve ra¯som. Darajei heza¯r zada vam da¯n, nakha¯som. A Brno on my left shoulder, binoculars on my right. [They] gave me a big promotion [but] I did not want it.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN A man wishes to be in the mountains fighting and hunting rather than sitting in an office or being a poor soldier far from home. A military career was not attractive. For Brno see Glossary.

39. Eimure kurr Abdullah ma karre koshti? Dig pasin dem Sei Mamad sarhanga koshti. Eimur, son of Abdullah, have you maybe slaughtered a kid? Last evening you killed a colonel near the shrine of Seyed Mahmad. The song was created after this son of the last khan of Boir Ahmad had killed a colonel of the Shah’s army in an ambush near Tutnadeh, a village west of Sisakht. The question is mocking Eimur who, people said, at first denied his deed. To place the killing near a shrine emphasises the gravity of the sin in the verse. For shrine see Imamzadeh in the Glossary. 40. Fa¯timi bong izane sarhang Sala¯ti. Khoma kosht, pishtouma bord Hada¯d Pena¯hi. [Colonel] Fatimi shouts to Colonel Salati: Hadad Penahi killed me and took my pistol. This, too, refers to the ambush near Tutnadeh. Hadad Penahi was a chief of the Tamradi, a large Boir Ahmad tribe, and a famous fighter and powerful politician who opposed the Shah’s political goals in Boir Ahmad. 41. Asbe se, ma¯diune se, mirele ghaza¯ghi, Va khoda¯ shour ikone kha¯n bidama¯ghi. Black horse, black mare, important army officers. The troubled khan implores God. The khan (probably Abdullah Khan, see Glossary) is about to fight the Shah’s soldiers and knows that he does not have a good chance to win the battle. Such situations happened quite frequently in the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The black horse is a symbol of death. 42. Da¯l iya¯, da¯l ira, na da¯le Dena¯ye. Da¯le parcˇe sefid, ma¯l Tang Bireza¯ye. The eagle comes, the eagle goes – not an eagle from the Dena mountain. This eagle [carries] a white piece of fabric; it is from the Birezad Canyon. The canyon is north of the ancient, large town of Deh Dasht in the south of Boir Ahmad. The white fabric is a piece of a shroud. The verse refers to a military incident there, but the incident as well as the flight of the eagle meant only ‘innocent death’ to the singer.

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43. Mo bernou nilom ve kul gheir az miuna. Afsarkha¯n ˇcel kadkhoda¯ vam kerde buna. I won’t put a Brno rifle on my shoulder other than [at least] a medium one. The Colonel made 40 chiefs complain about me [or: mourn me]. Referring to a battle with the Shah’s army that ended in the speaker’s death, the dead man is praised (the singer assuming his voice) as a brave fighter: the expensive Brno (see Glossary) speaks to his prowess. 44. Qava¯mi za men jerrom, teki ye bardi. Biou rasom kone gol jume zardi. Qavami joined the fight against me, he threw a rock. [Beautiful] woman with the yellow shirt come help me up. Qavami refers to a politically and economically powerful family in Iran whose members supported the Pahlavi shahs in skirmishes in Fars and Boir Ahmad. The memory also serves the love-motif: ‘yellow shirt’ means a beautiful woman (see Glossary) and here helps the hero and the rhyme. 45. Hoy ba¯nu, ba¯nu, ba¯nu, Sha¯h ikha¯d bemire. Nagir, nagir, Sha¯hba¯nu, Karter tona migire. O Lady [Queen], Lady, Lady, the Shah is about to die. Don’t cry, don’t cry, Queen, [President] Carter will marry you. Schoolgirls were chanting this during the American hostage crisis in 1981, making fun of the dethroned Shah’s friendship with the powerless United States. Like any other widow, a widowed queen needs protection.

CHAPTER 2 LOOKS, DESIRE, PASSION

In the local vernacular ‘love’ is a difficult concept – there is no one term for it in Luri and in the songs. Persian eshq means passion, dust means liking, from liking food to loving one’s child, while khastan, traditionally the preferred Luri expression for what in English would be ‘love’ between people, means ‘to want’. ‘We want him very much’, said about a child, for example, is just about the strongest way of expressing love. It also may express attraction, as when a young man tells his beloved, ‘I want you’. Ba¯ham khuband, to be on good terms with each other, to be friendly, supportive with a spouse, a neighbour, a relative, may reach from having no enmity to being close and loving. Given these roundabout, mild ways of expressing affection I avoided the word ‘love’ in the texts. Content and messages of the so-called love songs correspond to – or are a function of – the markedly androcentric culture and social structures of the people of Boir Ahmad. Most songs take a man’s point of view of women and of infatuation, no matter who sings them, men or women. Feelings described in the songs are men’s feelings; reactions to beautiful women are men’s reactions; features of beauty are those that excite men. The various schemas to which affections, images and behaviours belong are lopsided as to gender. Given that traditional and contemporary local standards of modest dress in public demand that women be covered from head to toe, a man outside his family can see only women’s faces and hands and the contours and postures of women’s bodies. In addition, in traditional Sisakht he may have had glimpses of necks and braids under headscarves and of a naked foot, heel and lower calf under long skirts as women moved. The increasingly popular urban styles of dress since the Revolution of 1979 are even more restrictive than was the tribal dress. (See dress in the Glossary.) These few uncovered spots are the focus of men’s gaze, the erogenous zones triggering strong feelings and inspiring songs of rapture over white skin, light hair, dark eyes and brows, tattoos, lips, teeth. According to the lyrics, a smile and a come-hither look, thoughts of soft skin, a navel, a firm breast may rob a man of his senses or drive him to violence. Yet, just

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as easily they may mark the alluring woman as lacking in virtue, as immoral. Enticing a man is taken to be a sign of weak moral fibres, and thus any man may turn against a smiling woman, even if she is smiling at him. In a few songs women express what they think and feel about men, marriage, their lives. These thoughts are mostly critical. With these rare lines, the women’s silence in the majority of the songs becomes heavy with meaning. The majority of verses sing of women’s beauty. Features of beauty are attributes of youth, starting with pre-pubescent girl-bodies. Signs of wealth are in the picture, too. Gold jewellery, wide, heavy skirts and expensive fabric enhance the appeal. The economics of beauty and passion entail the brideprice and the heartbreak that follows when the social and economic status of the suitor do not match the expectations of the father of the young woman: many love songs are sad songs. Metaphors and similes facilitate endless permutations and variations of the themes of infatuation. The imagery of male (sexual) prowess and of violence corresponds to the conventions of Freudian symbolism and vocabulary, such as, for example, in the triangle of guy–gun–girl. A great many songs in this genre suggest the transcultural relevance of the psychoanalytic language, here in an illiterate setting where nobody had heard of psychoanalysis when the songs were most popular. The lusty, loudly passionate lyrics with their stories of love-sickness, longing, trysts and love-making do not fit easily the austere and reserved interaction patterns between men and women in Sisakht at the time when I heard the songs. Some local people relegate the creation of the songs to a time in the past when gender relations must have been a lot more relaxed, they say; others try to purge the lyrics of ‘immodest’, especially sexual, connotations. But the discrepancy between the minnesong-tradition (for want of a better word) exhibited in many songs and the ethnographic reality is striking and remains puzzling.1 In order to make the large number of these short poems accessible I imposed a few categories on them. Their boundaries are fluid though, and themes and messages overlap.

How Beautiful cˇe maluse 46. Suratet bercˇe izane mei ma¯h damide. Ya¯ qeya¯mat uma, ya¯ sob damide. Your face shines like the rising moon. Either the Last Day has arrived or the sun has come up. Infatuation is laughable. A lovelorn man’s self-mockery of his confounding beginning (the sunrise) and end (the Day of Judgment), all bathed in a moonshine of infatuation, reveals a down to earth

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pragmatism. A roundish, glowing face ‘like the moon’ is considered the epitome of female beauty. The moon is popular in women’s names too. 47. Tie¨le ka¯li da¯ri, surat mei ma¯ye. Qadema dokal kerdi, khoda¯ gova¯ye. You have dark eyes, a face like the moon. You broke my back in two, God is my witness. Beauty is painful. A round, flat face is called ‘moonface’ and admired. ‘Dark Eye’ (tie¨ ka¯l, see Glossary) stands for ‘beautiful woman’ in the lyrics. The broken back is a metaphor for ultimate pain and incapacity, one’s inability to function normally, the last stage before death. 48. Tie¨let khoma¯r, khoma¯r, borget homa¯re. Passe pa¯t mei pambeia, mei botoma¯re. Your eyes are shiny, shiny, your eyebrows are smooth, Your heels are like [white] cotton, [dangerous] like a poisonous snake. Beauty is dangerous. Bright eyes and white skin (on the heels; hands and face might be tanned and thus not as beautiful) are what makes a woman attractive at first sight, and a man might not get her out of his mind. 49. Sirmei vou tie¨t nakon, bi sirmei ka¯le. Har kurri seilet kone haf sa¯l ina¯le. Don’t put mascara in your eyes, they are beautiful without it. Any young man who looks at you will moan for seven years. Beauty causes suffering for a man. The infatuation in itself is painful, especially so if it has to be suppressed. In the times of arranged marriages, a man had a hard time getting access to the woman he was infatuated with if his wish was out of line with his (or her) people’s interests or if the status difference was too big for a marriage. But even with today’s greatly relaxed social conventions for young people, economic hardships and family politics may trump individual choices and make the young man suffer. See tie¨ ka¯l and kurr in the Glossary. 50. Sirmei vou tiat makash, khodet malusi. Zirjumat ma¯ba¯dula, jumet khorusi. Don’t put mascara in you eyes, you are beautiful as you are. Your skirt is gorgeous, your shirt is expensive.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Beauty is expensive. The second line adds clothes and thereby expenses and social standing to the picture of natural beauty. ‘Beauty is the total appearance, not just a face’, said a young man about women.

51. Tie¨le ka¯li da¯re, suratesh safid va¯sh. Makonin mane dellom, ikha¯m berram ba¯sh. She has beautiful eyes, a white face. Don’t estrange her from me, I want to be with her. Light skin is beautiful, the more so when paired with big, dark eyes. Young people had (and many still have) few occasions to get to know their peers of the opposite sex, and thus rely on go-betweens to provide information for assessing each other’s character and compatibility, and to establish contact. The man pleads for support of his wooing. ‘Speak well of me’, he tells his relatives. See del in the Glossary. 52. Tie¨let Zargha¯mie¨, da¯ret kuta¯ye. Akhla¯qet men tie¨ltun, khoda¯ geva¯ye. Your eyes are like the Zarghamis’, your body is short. Your [good] character is in your eyes, God is my witness. The members of the Zarghami patrilineage of the last khan of Boir Ahmad (see Abdullah Khan in the Glossary) were famous for their beautiful eyes. The ‘short body’ here serves the rhyme more than the ideal of beauty. 53. Dasma¯le kacˇ base bi, ma¯shalla¯h ve i zan. Abruyal keshide bi mes sha¯khe pa¯zan. The headscarf was jaunty; may God protect the woman. [Her] eyebrows were traced [to look like] the horns of a ram. The crookedly tied headscarf was a daring fashion at one time. Ma¯shalla¯h, God be with you, is said for praise and protection against the Evil Eye (see Glossary). The ram’s horns, an emblem of virility, here means that the eyebrows meet above the bridge of the nose, traditionally a sign of beauty and here linked to hunting and male power. 54. Didemet neshaste bi men konje diva¯r. Louelet qalamda¯r, ranget gole na¯r. I have seen you sitting against the wall. Your lips are tattoo-lined, your colour is [that of] a pomegranate blossom.

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Beauty is a flower. An attractive face has red lips and a healthy complexion. Girl/woman and blossom/flower are synonyms in poetry, equal in colourful beauty. Except in spring, colours were rare among the dusty greens and muted beige hues of dry grass, soil and rocks, and in the snowy landscapes of winter. Women’s traditional (in contrast to modern, especially post-revolutionary) clothes were colourful ‘like flowers’, people said, catching the eye when women worked on rooftops or out in the pastures, for all to see. Accenting and modifying the contours of lips with a dark line has become fashionable again in the present generation of young women. 55. Dendunet mei sadafe ya¯ shire ma¯hi. Mo emshou memune to, kha¯hi, nakha¯hi Your teeth are like mother of pearl or like milkfish [scales]. Tonight I am your guest whether you like it or not. Beauty is youth. Good teeth signal youth. By early middle age people’s teeth were in bad shape, destroyed by ‘sugar and tea’, as people say, and by an insufficient diet, as a local physician said. The infatuated man’s announcement of a visit is a kind of flirtation – he is willing to risk everything to be with the beautiful woman. Yet, the flirting is delivered like a threat. Indeed, men’s attentions to young women are mostly seen as a danger to the reputation of the girl and her brothers, and to her future. A young woman might wish to study before getting married, for example, and therefore avoid amorous attention from men. Milkfish reportedly is a fish with whitish scales. 56.

¯ samun mouj izane zamin beza¯ke. A Har goli por khandeye u gol napa¯ke. The sky is raining to soak the earth. Any girl who smiles a lot is not pure. Beauty corrupts. A girl with quick eyes and an easy smile may be accused of being a flirt with lax sexual mores, corrupting men. The first line facilitates the rhyme and establishes the sexual implication.

57.

Dahtiral kuta¯, zanal pansh shish seya¯khash, Khandei dir va diret del ma zade tash. A ten-shooter rifle, five, six women talking pleasantly – Your laughter from afar set my heart on fire. Laughter and giggling are said to make it easy for a devil to corrupt people, especially women. Such corruption, in turn, corrupts men. Men here are

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN painted as victims of women’s lack of restraint that even at a distance endangers men’s peace of mind. The potent rifle connects laughing women and sex. For del see Glossary.

58. Serre kol seil izanom, zahre berenshka¯l. Numzadom ˇcarq zarati, mo gerefta¯r. I look down from the hill: poison on the rice-growers! My betrothed has cornsilk hair – I am caught. In Iran, where most people have black hair, brownish or – even better – blonde hair is a mark of beauty in women. South of Sisakht is a place where rice grows. It is not clear why the singer is cursing the ricegrowers, but as the suitor of one of their girls the context suggests that the elders are giving him a hard time with demands, exploiting the fact that he is hooked. This was the interpretation given by a woman who knew the song. The following three verses start with the same phrase, describing the setting and the mood of the verse. ˇ e khoshe sa¯ye kamar, na¯le kemutar. 59. C ˇ Ce khoshe ba¯zi koni be zolfe dodar. How pleasant are the shade of the rock, the cooing of the dove. How pleasant it is to play [there] with the braids of the girl. Beauty is a pleasure. The locus amoenus is described in three words: shade, mountain and dove provide the pleasant background for a tribesman’s love tryst. The term for ‘play’ (ba¯zi, see Glossary) ranges in application from children’s play to petting and sex. ˇ e khoshe sa¯ye kemar, na¯le kemutar, 60. C ˇ Ce khoshe bus bekonom loue¨le duar. How pleasant are the shade of the rock, the cooing of the dove. How pleasant it is when I kiss the girl’s lips. From playing with hair to a kiss is a short step in the pleasant pastoral surroundings. The man is in control of the scene and speaks only for himself, taking the girl’s compliance for granted. For duar see Glossary. ˇ e khoshe sa¯ye kemar, na¯le kelacˇik, 61. C ˇ e khoshe ba¯zi koni ba¯ tolke ta¯jik. C How pleasant are the shade of the rock, the sound of the little bird. How pleasant it is to play with the soft tolke.

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The meaning of tolke is unclear. Everybody I asked was ready to discard it and suggested substitutes: gol (girl), mama (breast), zolfe (braid) – all fit and stand for pleasant petting in the schema of amorous play. For ta¯jik and ba¯zi see Glossary. The next two verses start with another popular phrase about place and the object of admiration. ‘A girl in my camp – ’ is used to introduce various similes on the theme of beauty and attraction of women. Ma¯l (see Glossary) is any place of habitation, from a nomadic camp of tents to a village or neighbourhood. 62. Ye goli mene ma¯le mun mahli qashange, Na bernou miyuneye, bernou bolande. A girl in my camp is very beautiful, Not like a medium size Brno rifle [but] a long Brno. Good guns and a beautiful woman mark successful traditional manhood. Aside of the explicit linking of girl and gun, the bumpy rhyme is an example of the occasional use of Farsi words: qashang is Farsi. (The Luri word, malus, would not rhyme at all.) For Brno and gol see Glossary. 63. Ye goli mene ma¯le mun gardan keshide. Mesle kouge sarhadi sinash safide. A girl in my camp became famous. Her breast is white like the partridge in the summer quarter. Beauty is white. While the sun will tan face, neck and hands, the chest is protected from the sun and shows how white the woman’s skin really is. The opening at the neckline of the traditional shirt afforded glimpses of skin as women worked. The summer quarters in the high mountain pastures are nostalgic and iconic markers of the good life for tribal people. For gol and koug see Glossary. 64. Nisunom qad ba¯rik, ni la¯ghare bu. Isunom gonje gola por baghalom bu. I won’t marry a beautiful girl, not if she is thin. I marry the blossom-bud girl who fills my arms. Beauty is plump and soft. A thin, bony body is taken as a sign of hunger or ill health, unattractive qualities in a wife who has to work hard. The word for ‘to marry’ is the same as for a business transaction, an acquisition, and is used when men get a wife but not when a woman is getting married. For gol see Glossary.

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65. Qade ba¯ley gola ku darakhte ka¯je. Ye bus men loue¨lesh sim ba¯ze ha¯ˇce. The girl’s body is [like] a fir tree. A kiss on her lips for me is better than anything. Beauty is a kiss. The kiss is from the man to the girl. A girl possibly may take the initiative in kissing but this is not what a man wants to sing about. Reference to the fir-tree here describes a straight, erect body. For gol see Glossary. 66. Ve sarti ye kerabi, ve sorkhi ye moniri. Va qalam nazoktari, tei kurr azizi. White as a lamb, healthy as a brown horse, Slimmer than a pencil, you are dear to a young man. Or: This is what a young man likes. Beauty is ‘red-and-white’. Moniri may be a kind of brown horse, but the important issue is yet another facet of beauty: youthful (‘red’) health in addition to white skin and a slim, shapely (in contrast to dumpy or bony) body. For kurr see Glossary. 67. Duar pei mishi, malus tombun keshkishe. Ye angi da¯re, ye khorde lishi. The girl has [slim] legs like a sheep [and] a beautiful swishing skirt. She has one fault, she is a bit thin. Comparison to a sheep is high praise. The skirt speaks to the girl’s chic attire. The verse is amusingly self-mocking: one can always find a fault in one’s beloved. 68. Gukelet barfamba¯re, sinat ˇcavildun. Shou se barf ham gero, sei ˇcine tumbun. Your hip is a snow container, your bosom a meadow of cˇavil. Snow fell in the dark night – look at the ruffle of your skirt. Cool white snow in the summer is a treat found in shaded hollows high in the mountains and here, with the white colour of skin, marks beauty. However, the fragrant grass ˇcavil (see Glossary) and snow in the dark night covering the seam of the skirt are signs of death, too. The verse can be sung as a mourning song for a woman. 69. Zir jumelet barfamba¯re mei barf o ba¯run. Barf o ba¯run ham gero delcˇin tumbun.

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Under your shirt is a snow container, like snow and rain. Snow and rain also got into the folds of [your] skirt. Snow, both simile and metaphor here, links the beautiful body to a cold, wet garment. The phrase ‘snow and rain’ characterises cold, unpleasant weather. This is a sad song unless somebody is making fun of the bedraggled looks of a beautiful girl in soggy weather. ˇ efte yeqad va¯z a¯bide mamat belure. 70. C Sar Ali ˇceftesh nakon tiam nasure. The button opened a little [over] your alabaster breasts. By Ali’s head, don’t button it – I don’t have the Evil Eye. Beauty attracts the Evil Eye. Ali, the Prophet’s powerful son-inlaw, is evoked when the speaker tries to convince his woman that she will not come to harm letting him admire her bosom when her shirt allows a glimpse of her skin. In Iran, the Evil Eye (‘salt-eye’) is feared as a harmful extra-human power. For Ali and Evil Eye see Glossary. ˇ e khoshe shou davati, ru il ve ba¯ri, 71. C Das koni haqei sefid, mama dera¯ri. How pleasant it is to have a party at night, to be on the tribe’s migration by day, To put your hand inside her shirt and take out a white breast. The tribal migration with its casual social interactions between men and women offers occasions for flirting and stands for a good life despite the hard work during the day. 72. Qorbune da¯ret berram u da¯re ta¯ke. Pesunelet zerjumeit mei jofte kha¯ge. I am a sacrifice to your body, it is a tall body. The breasts under your shirt are like two eggs. Beauty is an adolescent girl. The egg simile rests on the colour white but also on breasts that are not, in the words of a man, ‘ripe’ yet. The girl – or the speaker’s wife – is very young. For qorbun see Glossary. The following two verses open with a standard phrase locating the singer at a favourite spot, on a hill. ‘From the hilltop’ is a popular beginning of migration songs.

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73. Serre kal seil izanom ile bout vaba¯re. Jumat ˇci kudari, mamat dia¯re. From the hilltop I look down [and see] your father’s tribe on the move. Your shirt is muslin, your breasts show. The vista of busy people and animals is a pleasant scene for the man who sees his beloved in the crowd. 74. Ser kelle koh seil izanom, il veba¯re. Ye gole pa¯pembei menshun dia¯re. From the hilltop I look down, the tribe is on the move. A girl with legs [white as] cotton is visible among them. The long, wide skirts women used to wear allowed no more than glimpses of legs; white skin, including on legs, is a mark of beauty. It is a pleasant, cheerful scene. 75. Kha¯le souz dia¯r a¯bi zir ˇcine tumbun. Qad ba¯rik hibeim neshast moshkel bedom jun. The dark tattoo is visible under the ruffle of the skirt. [If] the beautiful woman (‘slim back’) sits next to me it would be difficult to give up my life. Beauty is a tattoo. It is on the woman’s calf right above the heel. Here as in a few other verses a beautiful woman has a positive effect on the lovedrunk man. ‘As long as I have my slim back waiting for me at home my life is good’, said a man about this feeling. For tattoo, qad ba¯rik and jun see Glossary. 76. Ye sadi ye punsadi, kha¯l doure daset, Mordena zendei koni mamei por daset. One hundred, five hundred tattoos around your hand. You make the dead alive [with your] breast in (your) [their] hand. Beauty is life. Positive effects of beautiful women on men are rare in the songs. The ‘you’ first addresses a bewitching girl but at the end of the second line, ‘your hand’ means ‘anybody, and be he dead, who is holding your breast’ will be revived. Some women had a tattoo pattern around the base of the hand. For tattoo see Glossary. 77. Ba¯danet ta¯jiktare ve gushte ma¯hi. Ferdashou mehmun tonet, kha¯hi, nakha¯hi. Your body is softer than the meat of fish. Tomorrow I’ll be your guest whether you like it or not.

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Beauty is inviting a threat. In a woman a soft, white body is beautiful, in contrast to an angular, bony, dark-skinned one. The infatuated man announces his flirtatious intention of a clandestine visit like a threat. Indeed, people see men’s attentions to young women as a potential danger to both families’ reputation and to the young woman’s future, if she wants to avoid the possibility of an untimely early marriage. For ta¯jik see Glossary. 78. Do zolfeinat ˇce ma¯ri khofte bar ganj. Zire jumat benhofte naranj. Your two braids are coiled like a sleeping snake on a gold treasure. Under your shirt are two oranges hidden. ˇ erami, a khan of C ˇ eram in southern Kohgiluye, made this song Iskandar C for his wife, around beauty, wealth, danger and sweet food. It is well known in Sisakht. 79. Duvaru ˇca¯rda pelli pal bos pas gush. Ja¯hela kone kelu, piruna bihush. The girl with the 14 braids threw the braids behind her ear. She makes young men crazy and old men faint. Beauty makes crazy. This joke about flirtatious girls and lusty old men is also a critical assessment of young women’s limitations in public. ‘Although I am wrapped in black from head to toe and I cast down my eyes the boys won’t let me be’, said a 16-year-old high school student about walking to and from her school. Traditionally, women braided their hair in several thin braids and covered them with a large, light headscarf. For kelu and duar see Glossary. 80. Palelet mei kemand suva¯re, ˇ a¯l nafet gole la¯leza¯re. C Your braids are like a line of horsemen, Your navel’s nest is a stand of tulips. Hair, here connected to male high status (horsemen), and the beauty of flowers are similes for women’s features that excite men. 81. Palelet sorkh ikone gardanet bolur, Del mikha¯m mene baghalet bernou teim bu. Your braids darken your alabaster neck. I wish I was a Brno rifle in your arms.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Or: In your arms, I wish I had the Brno rifle with me. Beauty creates potency. Either reading of the second line is possible, and both link gun, man and beautiful girl tightly. For Brno and del see Glossary.

82. Baghalela ioushanid mabeine do bor ma¯l. Dera¯rde gardane, zolfe kerde tima¯r. She swung her arms [walking] between the two camps. She uncovered her neck [and] combed/braided her hair (?). Beauty is disquieting. Just in case I missed the point, a man in the audience explained that this girl was a shik woman everybody was watching. The song was also recorded on vinyl, he said. The young woman makes her presence felt, disquieting men. The end is unclear – a listener suggested that the braids became a snake (ma¯r), and that the young man was dangerously infatuated. For ma¯l see Glossary. 83. Zirjumat ˇcelcˇa¯r gaze, mirat nemedma¯l. Men qa¯be palelet koug ikone ˇca¯l. Your skirt is 44 metres wide, your husband is a felt maker. In your braids a partridge makes a nest. This joke describes the wife of a craftsman, well dressed and with spectacular braids. As local people became more prosperous (in the 1970s) women’s wide skirts became increasingly more voluminous. ‘Forty-four metres’ is an exaggeration of this trend. A woman pointed out that felt making was not a lucrative job; the need for a rhyming word trumped experience, adding to the humour. 84. Duaral Ali Vali raten si serre ou. ˇ ish gole, ˇcish nimgole, ˇcish kha¯l serre lou. C Ali Vali’s daughters went for water. Some are flowers, some are little flowers, some have a tattoo above the lip. This makes self-deprecatory fun of men’s appreciation of women’s beauty. Fetching water was a woman’s chore. At times and in some places it involved long walks from far away wells or brooks with heavy water bags on the hips. This gave men occasion to look at women from outside their own kin group. The first words, ‘Somebody’s daughters went for – ’ is a popular opening phrase for describing girls in songs. For duar and gol see Glossary.

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85. Kha¯lele daset koshtom, pa¯t bereshtom, Kopa kha¯l men dul sinat ke juna poshtom. The tattoos on your hand killed me, [those] on your feet roasted me. The tattoos in the valley of your breasts took my life-soul. Beauty kills. Burning pain and loss of life are consequences for a man who sees a beautiful woman. For tattoo and jun see Glossary. 86. Das naha¯ ser radiu, kha¯l da neshunom. Mes ba¯rut farangi tash bos ve junom. She put her hand on the radio [and] I saw her tattoo. Like imported gunpowder it threw fire into my soul. The verse manages to make the radio (modernity and money), the gunpowder (weapon, money and power), and the tattoo (beauty) equally important to explain the man’s infatuation. The tattoo (see Glossary) at the base of the hand is visible when a woman extends her arm and the long sleeve slides up a bit. 87. Shoue¨ ma¯h si kor ja¯hel safeye nada¯re. Kha¯le souz teke safid sesmei dera¯re. A moonlit night is no good for a young man: The dark tattoo, the white ankle pull out his spleen. Beauty makes sick. To have one’s spleen ‘pulled’ means to be at wit’s end, to be lost, in pain, as with infatuation. The moonlit night brings longing and sleeplessness for a lovesick young man and the danger of being seen if he ventures out to visit his beloved. For tattoo see Glossary. 88. Kha¯le souz dun ma¯sheki menne kote borget. Ar va¯bei berrei sisa¯r, ia¯bum ve gorget. The tattoo [is like] a mung bean between your eyebrows. If you turned into a lamb I’d turn into your wolf. Beauty is hunger. The young man says, ‘I love you so much I could eat you’. Passion is linked to violence through references to eating and to the wolf, a deadly threat to lambs. (A variant likens the tattoo to a hawk’s talon, zahle kela.) The favourite mung bean supports the eating metaphor, too. In the local traditional colour scheme, the word for the dark green colour of the mung bean and the blue-black tattoo pigment is the same. For wolf and tattoo see Glossary. 89. Ye kha¯li ser kecˇete, yeki ser loute. Khosh baha¯le u kessi hamserre shoute.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN A tattoo on your chin, one above your lip. Lucky the one who is your night’s companion.

90. Ye kha¯li ser lou gole, kha¯le toke geshnize. Itarsom tie¨ ka¯let khinom berize. A tattoo is above the girl’s lips, an ace of clubs. I am afraid that your beautiful eyes will spill my blood. Beauty is troubling. The man is infatuated with a girl/woman he cannot have and he knows that his passion may cause trouble. He presents his readiness to die as a measure of his infatuation. For tie¨ ka¯l and tattoo see Glossary. 91. Ashtafi men ˇcerkellet mes ma¯h beriza, Ikha¯som buset konom dellom periza. Gold coins on your headscarf shine like the moon. I wanted to kiss you [and] my heart trembled. Beauty makes bashful. Small gold coins may hang down on the forehead from the cap or the scarf and make the woman’s face even more precious. For del see Glossary. 92. Zardiun ser daselet, mahmal gerune. Mendekei mile zardiun mei barf o khune. A golden bangle is on your hand, expensive velvet. Between the golden bangles [your skin] is like snow and blood. Beauty is wealth. Zardiun may be gold but also a yellowish stone such as amber, used in rings. Snow here stands for unblemished, light skin, and blood for healthy, rosy lips and cheeks. The velvet refers to women’s traditional jackets made of red or dark blue velvet: the woman here is decked out, chic and beautiful, and whoever is responsible for her (it might be the singer) is well off economically. 93. Hamei guyen ya¯rom souz o sia¯ye. Ve pishe mo men bicˇa¯re monande ma¯ye. They all say that my beloved is dark and ugly (green and black). But for me in my poverty s/he is like the moon. Beauty is for the wealthy. This lament rests on people’s purported natural inclination to want a beautiful wife or husband, and on the economic reality of the consequences of poverty and low status on marital choices. The singer (a man) is too poor to afford a beauty. Parents of beautiful

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daughters know they can ask a high brideprice. A poor man has to take what he can afford and what fits his status, and he had better make the best of it. However, the singer may also be a woman, complaining about an unattractive husband. Asked about what they were looking for in a husband, young women mentioned wealth and good looks above all else. For colours see Glossary.

Drunk, Crazy, Crazy ha ¯le mas, kelu, kelu 94. Gol veri, duar veri, dir meja¯le. Gorg gosne, kurr bizan, hardosh ye ha¯le. Get up, girl, get up, it is late. A hungry wolf and a young man without a wife are equally miserable. Wolves and young men are ‘hungry’ by nature and voracious in their appetites. The few words express the eating metaphor, the misery of sexual/food deprivation, and, by association with the wolf, men’s aggression. The first line facilitates the rhyme but also makes it clear that girls are on the young wolves’ minds. For gol and gorg see Glossary. ¯ siou ma¯l duare, ba¯r kurr ve dule. 95. A Ar duar kam ta¯qate, kurr ham fuzule. The mill is the girl’s, the boy’s wheat is in the millstone-funnel. If a girl is not reserved, the boy is misbehaving, too. This pearl of wisdom asserts that according to local morality and Islamic law it is up to a woman to guard her chastity and, through her modesty, make a man behave well. Otherwise a man is a wolf – beware! For duar and kurr see Glossary. 96. Kagha¯zi ba¯la¯ umade, pa¯kat nada¯re. Dokhtaru ca¯rda sa¯le ta¯qat nada¯re. A letter came to the summer camp, it has no envelope. A 14-year-old girl has no restraint. The verse rests on the general assumption of a girl’s natural readiness and eagerness to be married, and have sex, around puberty. In 2004 a young local woman who heard the verse thought the girl had a suitor who wrote sweet letters to her and she wanted to be with him, or else that her elders were scolding her for receiving a letter. Before phones became the popular means of communication in Iran, young men and women interested in each other exchanged notes more or less secretly.

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97. Vou Shirin, Shirin, Shirin sabzei ba¯la¯ khash, Das bele ser kulom, melkita varkash. Oh, Shirin, Shirin, Shirin with the beautiful body, Put your hand on my shoulder [while] you put on your shoes. The song works as a parody of pop love songs, poking fun at the ‘braying’ of lovelorn men, as a woman said. The popular name Shirin means sweet. 98. Kaka¯yal ve ra¯h khoda¯ nakonin kha¯rom. Ye kelicˇ ve daselesh si ˇcu siga¯rom. Brothers, by God, don’t make an ass of me. Any finger on her hand will be my cigarette. A lovelorn man implores his relatives to speak well of him in front of his beloved and her family so as to increase his chance of getting her as his wife. 99. Ve khoda¯, khoda¯, khoda¯, khodei do ma¯li, Ye gol mene ma¯l derr ikhare, ye tie¨ ka¯li. O God, God, God, God of two camps. A girl walks around in the camp, a beauty. Beautiful women are disquieting. ‘We shouldn’t walk around anywhere’, said a young woman, poking fun at what young women see as a severe limit on their movements in public. When I asked what God had to do with this, she said that the singer meant that God should not let women be beautiful. She found this idea funny, too. For ma¯l, gol and tie¨ ka¯l see Glossary. 100. Shel o mel guk eshkena¯ mabeine do bor ma¯l. Zan ve mirash iborid, duar ve numzad. Recklessly she swings her hips [walking] between the two camps. She cuts the wife from her husband and the girl from [her] fiance´. Beauty is disruptive. The few words hint at domestic drama. In a camp, tents or branch huts were clustered in kin groups, and people moved freely among them. That this young woman drove men to distraction with her sexy bearing is understood to be her fault. She ought to have made sure not to entice men other than her husband. For ma¯l and duar see Glossary. 101. Hune gol ve ba¯la, meilesh vazire. Ve dasi guk eshkena¯ ta¯ korr bemire.

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The girl’s house is up [in the mountains], her longing is below. She swings her hips on purpose to kill the young man. The woman is in the cool summer quarters, thinking of her husband (or beloved) who stayed behind to take care of the fields. The first and second lines are related only if she unwittingly is swinging her hips while thinking of him, explained a woman. Obviously the listener did not want to pass the judgment of sinful frivolity on the hip-swinger. 102. Ye krepe gol mahmadi, yeki serre jumat. Tie¨let fermunba¯re, borget hokumat. The fine fabric with roses, one on your shirt, Your eyes full of meaning, your eyebrows Judgment Day. When lovers for the sake of convention and manners will not talk and touch, a skilled look can be so heavy with meaning as to bring the end of the world for the young man. 103. Ar berrei dar asamun, ba¯run besa¯zi Tie¨lom men tie¨let (or: ser guket) ikone ba¯zi. [Even] if you were to go to the sky and made rain, My eyes [would] play in your eyes (or: on your hip). Distance will not keep me from longing for you, the man says. When a woman raised her arms while working or carrying a heavy water bag on the hip, the shirt moved, allowing a glimpse of the hip. ‘Men will ogle, they have dirty eyes’, said a young woman. 104. Tie¨lom men tie¨let, meilom ve meilet. To darakhte besedi, iyom ve seilet. My eyes are in your eyes, my longing is your longing (or: I long for you). You are a coral tree, I come to look at you. For the singer the unidentified besed-tree meant ‘beautiful as a coral’. A man is singing. A woman would hardly be foolish or bad-mannered enough to stare at a man in public, not even at her husband, ‘except from the roof’, said the singer. This caused hilarity. At public gatherings women stood on adjacent flat roofs with a good view of the proceedings below. It was an occasion for women to ogle men, the joker suggested. Women are quick to compare men’s (and women’s) looks; ‘beauty’ or lack of it are important criteria in evaluating people, from infants to old people.

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105. Qorbunet berram, berram, douret begardom. Tie¨lma idom ve to, khom kur igardom. I’ll go be your sacrifice, I’ll go; I’ll walk around you. I’ll give you my eyes [and] walk around blind. The second line of this famous deep-devotion song is used in various lyrics – ‘everybody knows it’, the singer said. For qorbun see Glossary. 106. Tie¨ ka¯lom nakhoshe mene ma¯le mardom. Tie¨lom tei tie¨let, khom kur begardom. My beautiful woman is not happy among the people. My eyes are in your eyes [and] I walk around blind. It is understood that the beloved cannot express intimate feelings while others are around. Although a woman may be speaking, the sentiment is more likely a man’s. For tie¨ ka¯l see Glossary. 107. Tie¨lesh kharsaluye, ˇceshe igarye? Kheir nebine u kessi mehrash beride. Her eyes are full of tears, why does she cry? Whoever made her unhappy may never see joy/goodness. Kheir means everything good, benevolent, enjoyable; together with ‘to see’, it is a blessing or – here – a curse. Mehr, too, means goodness, happiness. Together in one line the two terms span the ‘happiness’ fan of meaning and express the local ‘eye for an eye’ ethics of justice. 108. Qorbune khodet iram ya¯r tie¨ gerdel, Mo seile to ikonom, to seil verigel. I am your sacrifice, beloved with the round eyes. I am looking at you and you look to the ground. The enchanted young man’s beloved is bashful or flirting with him. By casting down her eyes a young woman signals modesty, a turn-on for men. For qorbun see Glossary. 109. Dideme bei duaral dasma¯li doune. Hamcˇi kouge qafasi tie¨lle khoune. I saw you among the girls, swinging your scarves. Like a partridge in a cage you cast down your eyes. In the traditional round dance women swing colourful scarves while rhythmically moving in a circle surrounded by spectators. This was one of

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the few occasions for young men to observe women at leisure without causing comment. Dressed-up women who carried themselves well, danced well and ‘kept their eyes to themselves’, as a man said, that is, looked down or else firmly, unsmilingly at nobody, were the most attractive. For duar and koug see Glossary. 110. Qorbune khodat berram ondou doba¯re. Didemet sobati kerdi zir barde Bia¯re. I am your sacrifice again. I saw you talking below the big rock in Biare. Biare is a village south of Sisakht. Most likely it just provides the rhyme here, but a bystander suggested that it might also allude to a chance observation, a little story the singer did not want to talk about openly. For qorbun see Glossary. The next five verses are of the ‘Girls went out –’ kind (see Nr. 84). In these verses women are providers of gathered food such as edible wild plants. A man speaks. A woman sang the verses one after the other. For duar see Glossary. 111. Duaral gelagela iran si lizak, ˇ is gole, ˇcis nimgole, ˇcis gole mikhak. C The girls, one group after the other, go out for lizak. Some are flowers, some are half-flowers, some are clove blossoms. Lizak, an onion-plant, is one of the earliest wild greens available after the winter. Dried, it spices up rice dishes. Girls gathered lizak in mountain meadows. To this day young men complain that girls in public are only seen in bunches. 112. Duaral gelagela iran si macˇa. ˇ is gole, ˇcis nimgole, ˇcis gole ghomcˇa. C The girls, one group after the other, go out for wild spinach. Some are flowers, some are half-flowers, some are buds. Women, girls and girl-children out in the meadows after the winter were an iconic image of beauty, spring and joy, for all to see. 113. Duaral gelagela iran si ka¯shni, Harcˇe seil ham ikonom, ya¯rmun ba¯shun ni. The girls, one group after the other, go out for dandelion. However hard I look, my beloved is not with them.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Dandelion leaves were one of the earliest wild edible greens in spring, collected mostly by girls and young women.

Another woman-singer varied the formula: 114. Dideme gel duari raten si piden. Ar bekha¯m ba¯shun berram, sir bus vam iden. I saw a bunch of girls go out for mint. If I were to go with them they would kiss me good. The young man’s wishful thinking shows ‘what boys are thinking of all the time’, said a young mother. 115. Dideme gel duari, Shamsi yekishe. Tombune ˇca¯rta, panshta, pashmi verishe. I saw a bunch of girls, one of them Shamsi, [Wearing] four, five skirts, the topmost of wool. This is a bragging song: of all girls, the singer’s fiance´e or the girl he courts – any name can be used here – has the most and best skirts, and it is understood that the singer-suitor paid for them. Once spoken for, a girl and her parents expected clothes and other gifts at certain occasions as a contribution to the expense of her upbringing. See dress and duar in the Glossary. 116. Dig pasin umam berram ta¯ gol neshase. Rish nebi ta’rof kone pahlish neshasom. Last evening, I passed [this way] and saw the girl sitting. She did not have the courage to invite me, so I [boldly] sat down beside her. Had the girl invited the man he would have thought her a brash flirt. Had she not wanted him near her she quickly would have left. In either case – invitation or rebuke – the man could have criticised her behaviour. He reserved the right to act. The following five verses use the polite opening phrase, ‘I am your servant (or sacrifice or slave)’ as a measure of the speakers’ devotion. For qorbun see Glossary. 117. Qorbune u jei berram ke gol neshase, Zolfela (or: ˇcerkela) shunei kone, dasma¯la base.

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I am the sacrifice for the place where the girl is sitting, Combing her braids (or: bangs) and tying her scarf. The man surprised the girl at her toilette. Given the lack of personal contact between unrelated young men and women, a young man got excited just observing a girl fixing her hair and covering it with the obligatory scarf. The offer of servitude is a standard phrase of polite speech, indicating devotion. For gol see Glossary. 118. Qorbune halqe duar ˇcefte ser ˇcefte. Har korri ˇcefteshe igeshe, ja¯sh men beheshte. I am the sacrifice for the girl’s neckline, button for button. Any young man who opens the buttons is in paradise. The reference to paradise is more than an expression of rapture: paradise is believed to offer men unlimited access to virginal houris. 119. Qorbune da¯ret berram, u da¯re shike. Valla¯, dira¯dir gyap mazan, bia¯ nehenge. I am the sacrifice for your body, it is a chic body. By God, don’t talk to me from afar, come close. The singer substitutes the Farsi word for ‘close’, nazdik, which rhymes with shik in the first line, with the more familiar Luri word neheng, mutilating the rhyme. 120. Qorbune da¯ret berram, u da¯re shike. Del ikha¯ ba¯zi konom bei mamei kurriket. I am a sacrifice for your body, it is a chic body. I want to fondle your cute little breasts. The man (it is understood that he is an adult) has a child bride, barely pubescent. 121. Qorbune qad ba¯riket bishtar ghola¯let. Dasom bel ta¯ berra be zire na¯fet. I’ll be a sacrifice for your body, and more so for the lock on your forehead. Let me put my hand below your navel. The man is ready for heavy petting. The ‘lock’ is the tuft of hair peeking out under a man’s traditional felt cap. Decades out of fashion for men, the singer uses it here for the lock of a woman.

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122. Ouye sard rishe kamar koug ikone mas. Ar ja¯hel zan nasada, pesune porre das. At the cold spring at the foot of the steep rock a partridge coos. [Here] a young man who has no wife has a breast in his hand. The pastoral setting in the mountains is iconic, including the bird and the girl. A partridge ready to mate is said to be ‘drunk’ (mas) with longing for a partner. About the girl a woman in the audience said, ‘If she had not wanted to be caught like a partridge she wouldn’t be there by herself’. It is understood that young men, by nature, will take any occasion to try to snatch a snuggle. The reference to marriage is not idle: only marriage is said to keep women and especially men on the straight path of morality in sexual matters. For koug see Glossary. ˇ ale kouge dideme sine benesun. 123. C Duar biou busom bede, dota da besun. I saw a partridge nest on the pistachio hill. Girl, come, give me a kiss [and] take two others. Again a bucolic place is complete with flirting lovers, with the man taking the lead, and the suggestive nest. The Zagros mountains are famous for pistachio trees ( pistacia terebinthus; see also Ghafari n.d.: 22). 124. Pa¯ bele serre reqa¯b biou pas tarkom. Arake pesunelet tar kerde dasom. Put your foot in the stirrup, come up behind me. The sweat on your breasts has moistened my hand. The two lines do not fit, but the verse is an example of the information in mismatches singers may come up with when they are improvising. Each line speaks to the drift of thoughts in the schema of infatuation with women. 125. Serre sinei dodaru mikhak beka¯lom. Khom va¯bum barzegeresh ou sish bia¯rom. On the girl’s bosom I will grow cloves. I will be the gardener and bring them water. Women, and especially brides, wore necklaces of fragrant cloves as part of their festive attire. When asked about the verse’s meaning, people obviously appreciated the sexual connotation, but first mentioned the literal, ‘polite’ one, a garden scene.

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126. Naberid khom Kerbela, porsesha nada¯rom. Ser sinei delbarom va¯kenid maza¯rom. Don’t take me to Kerbela, I don’t have to answer [for sins]. Make my grave on my beloved’s breast. To be buried in Kerbela (see Glossary) is said to assure dead people of paradise, all sins forgiven. The speaker dismisses this opportunity in favour of staying close to his beloved, but he also declares his innocence – he does not need Kerbela anyway. In the following five pars pro toto verses, a part of the beloved, such as her name or a hair, stands for the whole person. 127. Shirin, Shirin, shirin ya¯rom. Numta ya¯dasht konom mene pish qata¯rom. Shirin, Shirin, sweet beloved, I’ll write your name on my cartridge belt. With her name on the belt the brave man will have his beloved near him everywhere in a fight or out hunting. Reference to writing locates the speaker in the traditionally small elite group of literate men. (Literacy is nearly universal now for men and women in the province.) The few words again describe the all-important poetic triangle of woman manly bravery/ gun high status. 128. Ye ta¯li ve palelet sha¯l qadom bu, Ruze dour gardanom, shou zir serrom bu. One hair of your braids shall be the sash around my body. During the day it will be around my body, at night under my head. With the hair the man will have his beloved around him day and night. 129. Ye ta¯li vou palelet belom ve jibom, Dokhteduze dafenom harjei bemirom. I put a hair of your braids in my pocket For sewing my shroud wherever I die. Even in death the hair ensures the beloved’s presence. A slight change in the previous verse has a big impact on meaning: 130. Ye ta¯li vou palelet bei khom nabordom Si dokhteduze dafenom harvei mo mordom.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN I did not take a hair of your braids with me For sewing my shroud whenever I died. Without this hair and thus without any part of the beloved, the dead man is alone. The previous song of comfort is a sad song now.

The following three songs are examples of the popular ‘I wish I was – ’ songs. There are many variations in this format. 131. Khoshkenam mo bidimi ousar guaral kellepit buva¯khtemi dour qad duaral. I wish I was a calf-rope That I’d sling around the girls’ bodies. ‘I’d catch them all, if only I could,’ the man says. 132. Khoshkenam mo bidimi pashm mishe sisar, Deshkenam begardenom das nazanin ya¯r. I wish I was the fleece of a ram, To be carded and spun by the hands of my dear beloved. Processing of wool was women’s work. Spinning was done with a drop spindle that allowed women to spin while standing or moving around. 133. Khoshkenam mo bedimi ˇceshmei zir ma¯li. Ta¯ biou ou vagere u tie¨ ka¯li. I wish I was the spring below the camp, So that the beautiful girl would come and take water [from me]. Fetching water was women’s work. Hanging out around a spring or well guaranteed a man the sight of women, and a bad reputation. For ma¯l and tie¨ ka¯l see Glossary. Many verses play explicitly on the link between food and sex or the triangle of sex –food –gun. 134. Niterom teit beshinom na diret va¯bum. Mo ˇceqad seilet ikonom ta¯ siret va¯bum? I can’t sit down next to you, nor be away from you. How much do I have to look at you to be sated? It is understood that a man is talking in this popular verse, although it may fit a woman’s sentiment, too. The term for ‘sated’ is the same as is used for food, linking sex/infatuation with eating. Compare to Nr. 564, sung at a rice-planting in a neighbouring area.

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135. Gardanet livan bolur porresh gola¯be. Ye kurr ye duari si yek keba¯be. Your neck is a cup of crystal full of rose water. A young man and a girl are kebab for each other. Verses with a third person as speaker are rare. They always make a general statement or give general advice. Here the speaker shifts from addressing a woman to talking to others about young people, including himself. 136. Qorbune khodet berram, kha¯l serre penshat, junom. Nikharom yakhni khorus, keba¯be kenje ikha¯, junom. I am a sacrifice for you and the tattoo on your finger, my dear. I don’t want chicken soup, I want pieces of kebab, my dear. A lover assures his beloved that he won’t settle for anything less than the best, that is, her. The song was also taken as a joke. The last word in both lines is a common ending, a sound that lets the singer catch her breath or remember the next line. For qorbun, jun and kha¯l see Glossary. 137. Kha¯groughan sit kerdeme, roughan khub da¯re. Delle kor mei osma¯ni rake ia¯re. I made scrambled eggs for you with plenty of butterfat. The young man’s heart trembles like an Osmani rifle. A woman is speaking. Scrambled eggs made with expensive butterfat or clarified butter were the best fast-food meal a hostess could serve a hungry guest. It also stands for the best quick meal a lover could expect. A variant has the meal cooked without butterfat. In this case the meaning becomes a joke: the young man would not even notice, given his excitement. For del see the Glossary. 138. Qand az to, qand shekan az mo. Bus az to, ba¯zi az to, bus kerdan az mo. Sugar cubes from you, small sugar cubes from me. A kiss from you, fondling from you, kissing from me. A man can speak this as well as a woman. A kiss is as sweet as sugar. 139. Goftegu vou ba¯lei serrom, pas pa¯sh igardom. Ar bekha¯i men do mamat sheker berizom. [May] gossip be on my head, I [still] walk behind her [or: go after her]. If you wish I will pour sugar down between your breasts.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Gossip is a bad matchmaker, people say, but the young man’s insistence might just persuade the girl or her people to accept him, if for no other reason than to stop the talk. The lad defies the world in the first line and then addresses the beloved.

140. Bernoue¨ kurr khosh izane nacˇi bolandesh. Sama¯var jush izane, korr raft si qandesh. The young man fires the Brno rifle better than others. The samovar is boiling, the young man left to get sugar. The young man is described as quite a guy, yet, no matter how competent and brave, he easily falls under a woman’s spell. The verse makes fun of any young man besotted enough to appear at the sign of tea, turning himself into a servant for a woman. For one amused man, however, the line meant that the young man left to fetch the girl. For kurr and Brno see the Glossary. 141. Qand si to, qandun si to, qand shekan ve mo. Louella si to, dendun si to, busidan ve mo. Sugar for you, sugar bag for you, sugar breaking is on me. Lips for you, teeth for you, kissing is from me. Sugar and love-making go together, with the action provided by the man. The customary conical loaf of sugar needed to be smashed and broken or cut into small pieces. 142. Tarke pa¯t kudari, jumat harire. Qorbune na¯fet berram, mei qand shirine. Your footwear is of fine leather, your shirt is of fine fabric. I am a sacrifice to your navel, it is sweet like sugar. ˇ a¯har guri, ˇca¯r estekan, ˇca¯rta samovar, 143. C Delle kurr perre izane ser na¯fe duar. Four teapots, four tea glasses, four samovars, The young man’s pulse is beating fast [as he has his hand] on the girl’s navel. The food/sex motif is less explicit as the two lines seemingly are not connected by a storyline but it is here, in the tea-line. For del see Glossary. ˇ a¯r estekan, ˇca¯r nalbakin, ˇca¯rta pia¯le, 144. C ˇ e khoshe shi koni ve kurre kha¯le. C

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Four teaglasses, four saucers, four bowls, How pleasant it is when you marry your mother’s sister’s son. Marriage and food come together in this line to or about a woman, speaking to the value-statement about relationships: a girl’s marriage into the family of her mother’s sister (kha¯le) meant that she had a good chance to be treated well. Relations among sisters and the children of sisters were said to be close and easy. For kurr see Glossary. The next five verses belong together, linked by the use of the rhyme’s second line as the first line in the next strophe. Such songs were often impromptu creations for the amusement of listeners. This one is about the comforts or thrills of drinking tea with the beloved but ends in a sad tone. 145. Bernouyal khorde, zane mes ˇci bolandesh. Gurie¨ gol ser manqal beneshin ve bandesh. The Brno rifles are short, the woman is a little tall. The girl’s teapot is on the coals, sit down next to it. The young man with his rifle is telling himself to make use of the occasion with the teapot/girl. The innuendo made the women in the audience giggle. The manqal is a brazier, a metal box-like container on short legs, filled with live coals for keeping water and teapot hot. For Brno and gol see Glossary. 146. Guri sorkh ser manqal beneshin ve bandesh, Duara bessi bekon berra si qandesh. The hot teapot is on the coals, sit down next to it. Send the girl to get sugar. ‘The girl’ is warmth, service and sweet food for the singer. The man’s comfort is the issue. For duar see Glossary. 147. Duara bessi kon berra si qandesh, ˇ ei shirin ikhari, lou malus ikhandesh. C Send the girl to get sugar, You’ll drink sweet tea, the pretty lips laugh. The man expects the tea party to progress nicely. 148. Neiuma¯di, neiuma¯di, ei azizom. Khom ba¯shom sa¯qi, ˇcei sit berizom.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN You didn’t come, didn’t come, o beloved. I’ll be the tea-server and pour tea for you. This is a sad story about the disappointment of a date not kept.

149. Fenjun aval si azizom. Qadom eshkeneyi, kerdi gharibom. The first glass is for my beloved. You broke my back when you left me alone. The second line may also mean: You broke my back when you turned me out, acted as if I was a stranger, disappointed me, dismissed me. The disappointed man is wounded. In the following six scenes of lovemaking either a man or – more likely – a woman may be speaking. 150. Kemutar va pa¯ ku ra, biou ser zunim, Ye peiyumi vat bedom si ya¯re junim. Dove, get up, come on my knee, I’ll give you a message for my dear beloved. 151. Kot o shalva¯r surmei, sa’at serre das. Khom biam mene baghalet dar ha¯lete mas. Jacket and trousers dark blue, a watch on the hand. I will come into your arms when you are drunk/crazy for me. This is one of few texts possibly acknowledging a woman’s desires. However, the lyrics can also mean that a woman tells her lover she will come to him – chic and well-off as he is – when he wants her. The text is conveniently ambiguous in this regard but clear about the self-assurance of the young man. ‘Drunk’ means crazy with desire. 152. Ghazel suva¯r memun khomune. Kohnena narzesh konom ta¯ shou bemune. The rider on the pale horse is my guest. I’ll pledge my scarf so that he’ll stay the night. In this rare women’s voice, the woman promises her scarf to the shrine of a saint for his or her help. Her desire for the horseman is explicit. 153. Biou berrim homza¯d khomun, homza¯d khotune. Bus konim, ba¯zi konim (or: bus bedim, bus begirim) ta¯ kes noune.

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Let’s go, you are my relative, I am your relative. We will kiss and flirt (or: give kisses and get kisses) – nobody will know. Neighbours, who likely are relatives anyway, find occasions to get together without causing comment. For ba¯zi see Glossary. 154. Biou berrim hune khomun, hune khotune, Harkes pors mun ke, igim memune. Let’s go to my house [or] your house. Whoever asks us, we say it is a guest. It is understood that the houses are related and thus are accessible to the lovers without raising neighbours’ eyebrows. The schema of hospitality does not allow a host to neglect a guest even of the opposite sex, and this duty can be used for secret assignations. 155. Bus makon gulope mo, ghosei ikhare loum. Bus bekon mene tie¨lom avaze ka¯keye boum. Don’t kiss my cheek, my lips get angry. Kiss me between my eyes in place of my father’s brother. A variant is less explicit, with the second line reading, ‘You come to me instead of my father’s brother’. A paternal uncle may embrace his niece without causing comment. A listener turned the young man into the girl-speaker’s paternal cousin (a kaka, see Glossary) and thus into an eligible suitor and acceptable for social interaction: the girl is encouraging him to take his father’s place in dealing with her. She flirts with him. 156. Bus makon golopom, bus nakon kha¯le loum. Pa¯ta kon men pa¯yelom avaz kurr kaka boum. Don’t kiss my cheek, don’t kiss the tattoo on my lip. Put your foot between my feet in place of my father-brother’s son. With a few changes to the previous verse, the girl here does not want her cousin, to whom she is possibly engaged in an arranged marriage, but another ‘boy’ and invites him to play footsy. For kurr and kaka see Glossary. 157. Qad ba¯rik mashk sangin ˇce zur ia¯ye. Harkes ve ou bekhare mei zahre ma¯re. A heavy water bag is a big load for a beautiful woman. [For] whoever drinks this water may it be snake poison.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN A man feels sorry for the heavy work his beloved has to do – obviously not for him, because then it would not even be noteworthy. A high school student later pointed this out to me, without sarcasm, adding that the young man was jealous and therefore unreasonable: if the work is for the girl’s husband or father, it is in fact for her own house, and this is fine. For qad ba¯rik see Glossary.

158. Ar bekha¯m gheir az khot ya¯r begirom, Ei khoda¯ kurom bekon ta¯ pa¯m vegirom. If I [ever] wanted to take a lover other than you, May God make me blind so that my feet are stuck. Getting around and getting ahead is important, especially so for a young man. He thus swears on his future he’d stay faithful. Polygyny is allowed for men but was rare outside the local upper class of the chiefs. Nevertheless, in 2015, women, especially wives of nouveau riche men who could afford second wives, said that the very possibility of getting a co-wife worried them. Singing the first of the following three songs, the singer remembered two more about a lonely man thinking and dreaming of his beloved. 159. Eshkaft kharoshtari shou manzelom bi. Ya¯demo dush i mecˇa¯l gol hunemo (or: baghalom) bi. At night the camel-thorn cave was my shelter. I remember that yesterday at this time the girl was in my house (or: in my arms). The speaker is either travelling or out in a night-pasture with his animals, alone and roughing it but with a pleasant memory. (The cave is unknown locally. Ghafari identifies the name as camel-thorn bush, alhagicamelorum. Ghafari, n.d.: 47.) For gol see Glossary. 160. Dush ye khouı¨ dideme, haz kerdom ve khou. Na¯zanin men baghalom bi ta¯ nimeye shou. Last night I had a dream that made me happy. My beloved was in my arms until midnight. For most single men traditionally this was the stuff of dreams. Sexual mores in Iran have changed considerably over the last generation toward a more permissive attitude, but in a small town lack of privacy and anonymity make trysts difficult.

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161. Dush ye khouı¨ dideme delvar verrom bi. Har do das angoshtarin zire serrom bi. Last night I dreamt that my beloved was with me. Both her beringed hands were under my head. 162. Ye shouı¨ men Seyed Mamad manzel geroftom. ¯ shoqe zane malus, pas pa¯sh kolofte. A One night I stayed at [the shrine of] Seyed Mahmad, [Where I] fell in love with a beautiful woman with thick ankles. This is a joke-song: a man falls for a married woman who is not even beautiful. ‘The boys are crazy’, said a young woman. For Seyed Mahmad see Glossary.

Pains and Vexations dard o nara ¯hat 163. Panshta penshei nazoke goli dokht jumom, Vei khoda¯ peshimunom busesh nakerdom. The woman’s five delicate fingers sewed my shirt. By God, I regret not having kissed her. 164. Azba¯ra kerde ve sar kohne naluna. Men serrom a¯vor vazir ta¯q asamuna. Again she put the nylon scarf on her head. [It] brought the sky’s ceiling down on my head. Any small intimate gestures by a young woman can crush a young sex-deprived man. 165. Ye dasom bernou bi yekish pishtou bi. Ra¯tom ba¯lei serre gol, ta¯ gol ve khou bi. In one hand I had a Brno rifle, in the other a pistol. I went to see the girl but she was asleep. A sleeping girl/woman is a challenge: asleep she is of no use for the firedup lad, but waking her will make noise and alert others of the visit. This is how a young, unmarried woman interpreted this story of a dilemma. For Brno and gol see Glossary. 166. I dasom ou bi u dasom ou bi. Ye pa¯ine dasom duar ve khou bi. In this hand I had water, in that hand I had water. When my hands were empty the girl was asleep.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN While the man was working the girl fell asleep. The singer said she felt sorry for the guy.

167. Kha¯som bia¯yom ta’rof ke nalesht. Tie¨sh men khou bi, zolfesh ser ba¯lesht. I wanted to come [but] my politeness didn’t let me. Her eyes were asleep, her braids were on the pillow. The young man is too shy and well-behaved to take advantage of the situation. Usually a man did not see a woman’s braids as they were covered by a scarf. 168. Dellom neuma bekonemesh bida¯r. Teish neshasom keshidom siga¯r. I did not have the heart to wake her. [But] sat down beside her and smoked a cigarette. 169. Mo ˇcetour ta¯qat konom, darta¯ nabinom. Mehrta ve ki bedom, tei ki beshinom? How am I to be patient, I don’t see your door. To whom shall I give the tender feelings [I have] for you, who shall I sit with? The forlorn man bemoans the fact that he cannot get to the woman/ girl he fancies (she might be his fiance´e) because either he is far away working or studying in a city or because the girl does not encourage him. In either case her door is closed for him. For ta¯qat see Glossary. 170. Khot gofti, khot khandesi, khot vada¯ da¯di. Mo umadom ser voujo, bus vam nada¯di. You talked [to me], you laughed, you invited me. I came to the appointed place [but] you did not kiss me. A man complains: coy women are cruel. Talk and laughter in this context are synonymous with flirting, at the least. 171. Ma¯shine dia¯ria¯r, ma¯shine Forde (or: khorde). Ye goli mene pisheshe, del mana borde. A car comes into view, a Ford (or: a small car). A girl sits in it, she has taken my heart.

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The girl in a car is out of reach for a poor young man. Because in the Islamic Republic American cars are not sold, after the Revolution ‘Ford’ changed to ‘small car’ in the verse. For gol and del see Glossary. 172. Ar goti ve ton khoda¯, del kina da¯ri, Vou khoda¯ do jun kerdi, del mo va khin bi. If you’d swear by God whose heart you hold, By God, you’d tear me in two, turned my heart to blood. A young man would like to know and is afraid to know whom his beloved prefers. For del and jun see Glossary. 173. Tie¨ltun neiar mabar, borget nakhouvan. ˇ i roughane men meibriz del ma matouvan. C Don’t look around, don’t cast down your eyes. It is melting my heart like fat in a pan. The first line can also mean that the eyebrows give signals. In either case the young man tells the girl not to flirt – whether she looked at him or at others he would suffer equally. For del see Glossary. 174. Neigom, nikhandom na qadom ibandom. Ta¯ gola nabinom ve del nikhandom. I won’t talk, I won’t laugh, I won’t put the sash around my body. Until I see the girl my heart won’t be happy. ‘Happy’ literally is ‘my del won’t laugh.’ For del and gol see Glossary. 175. Dodaru ˇca¯rka safid dasma¯l la¯ki Ar bekha¯hi busam nadi ser del becˇa¯ki. Girl with the white headscarf and the violet headband, If you won’t give me a kiss [my] heart will explode. 176. Dellom divune bi, divunetar va¯bi. Tabib uma, dava¯ da¯d, vo badtar va¯bi. My heart was crazy and became crazier. A physician came, gave medicine, and it became worse. When the beloved (the ‘physician’) finally came with a kiss, pain and longing became even worse. A second interpretation of the story has a real physician being unable to stop a lover’s pain. For del see Glossary.

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177. Bernou kol, bernou boland, bernou miuna, Didane qad ba¯riket kerdom divuna. Short Brno, long Brno, medium Brno – The sight of your slim figure made me crazy. Gun and girl appear in the same breath. The powered-up man feels powerless. For Brno and qad ba¯rik see Glossary. 178. Nuzadom qad ba¯rik men hamin ma¯le. Piremerd ja¯hel ikone bernou shela¯le. My beautiful fiance´e is in this camp. The old man makes himself [look] young with a valuable Brno rifle. The singer said that ‘fiance´e’ here means ‘beloved’. The story behind this bitter joke is about a man who could not compete with a rich old man for the girl he wanted and who might even have been promised to him. The rifle’s symbolic meaning is explicit here: An ‘old’ man makes himself look and feel young and potent with a young bride. For Brno, ma¯l and qad ba¯rik see Glossary. 179. Har do das angoshtarin zei zire sha¯lom Ve shashpar badtartare, khom vash nina¯lom. The rings on both her hands under my shawl Are worse than [the blow of] a cudgel [but] I don’t moan. Being touched by a beloved woman is an acute pain for the man. 180. Dada teim beneshin pahlim geva¯le. Na jei osmaniye, jei tie¨ ka¯le. Sister, sit next to me, my side is wounded. It is not from a rifle shot, it is from a beautiful woman. This is a rare verse involving a man’s sister. She is there to comfort and help her infatuated, pained brother. For tie¨ ka¯l see Glossary. 181. Shou ve ruz men balunom na ser zaminom. Jume zard tashom zade, nile beshinom. Day and night I am [like] in a balloon, not in my field. The beauty has set me on fire and won’t let me rest. A lovelorn man cannot concentrate on his work. ‘Yellow shirt’ (see Glossary) is a metaphor for a chic, alluring woman.

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182. Harcˇe mo ve to neveshtam nadei java¯bom. Tash bosi men jigarom ham kerdi keba¯bom. However often I wrote to you, you did not answer. You threw fire into my liver and roasted it to kebab. A man describes the pain caused by a girl’s indifference to him. A generation before the appearance of the telephone and the internet, young people interested in each other wrote clandestine notes, usually initiated by the young man. 183. Go¨la ku ye band a¯bi men ra’m neshase, Louelesh gofta¯r a¯bi, daspa¯ma baste. The girl became a rope, sitting in my way. Her lips started to talk [and] my hands and feet were bound. 184. Ra¯h dra¯z, melki khekash lah kerde pa¯ma. Khom biha¯l lik izanom gol buye ja¯ma. The long road [and] the tight shoes hurt my feet. I am ill and moan – if [only my] girl was with me. 185. Kellekhong ve kamari karre jerd a¯bi. Gol veri beshkan bia, korr dokal a¯bi. A kid [climbed onto and] ate the wild pistachio tree in the rocks. Girl, get up and move, the young man broke apart. The familiar pasture scene in the first line relates to the second line with the comparison of the pain the young goat inflicts on the tree and the girl who inflicts pain on the young man. It is not clear what she ought to do for him, though. For gol and korr see Glossary. 186. Qad ba¯rik gukel ishkene mene ba¯la¯ziri. Kamarom kerde dokal hune fakiri. The beauty swings her hips between uphill and downhill. My poverty broke my back. The 11 words tell a story: the infatuated man wails because he is too poor to get the girl. ‘Uphill and downhill’ refers to houses lined up and down on the hill. Many settlements are informally divided between an ‘upper’ and a ‘lower’ part, often along lines of different kin groups. 187. Bernoyal khorde, zane mes ˇci bolande. Kemarom kerde dokal zolfela bolande.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN The Brno rifles are short, the woman is a bit tall. Her long braids broke my back. In 2006 this caused hilarity among a small party of women. One woman said that the braids were surely made of iron and hit the man when she turned her head. For Brno see Glossary.

188. Qad ba¯rik, ba¯rik, ba¯rik, mei bide majnun, Kemarom kerde dokal vash niberom jun. The slim body, slim, slim like a willow, Broke my back [and] I will die. For jun see Glossary. 189. Mameye gol kheng va¯bide mei limu Bazra. Ser Ali, ka¯ri sish kon junesh ve das ra. The girl’s breasts are full like the lemons of Basra. By Ali, do something for him, his life has left him. An outsider (the man’s mother, for example) gives a reason for the young man’s sorry condition and makes a plea to the girl’s people to save him by letting him marry the girl – she is ‘ripe’ anyway. Iraq’s city of Basra is famous for its fruits. For Ali and jun see Glossary. 190. Khom o gol basim gero, khom gola bordom. Golaku lou khande da¯, mo jun sepordom. I made a bet with the girl [and] I won. The girl laughed [and] I died. For a man to see a girl/woman smile or laugh is a turn-on, a sign that she is willing to flirt with him. A woman has to be careful with such gestures. In this tiny story of a bet won and life lost, the man is beside himself with pleasure near his fiance´e or a woman he is allowed to talk to by virtue of close kinship relations. For jun see Glossary. The the next two verses describe the enchanting swishing noise that long, wide, traditional skirts make when women walk. 191. Hufe hufe zerjumelet mei ba¯de qouse. Sha¯q bego bus vat nidom ta¯ korr bekhouse. The swishing of your skirts is like the strong wind [of the month Azar]. Clearly say, I won’t give you a kiss, so that the lad may sleep.

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Here is a hint of how women can tease and disquiet a man. Most likely the young man’s mother or sister is talking to his fiance´e or his young wife, telling her to stop toying with him. For korr see Glossary. 192. Hufe hufe tombunelet mei ba¯de qouse. Dir bu, ja¯hel nabu tei gol bekhouse. The swishing of your skirts is like the strong wind [of the month Azar]. Take your time – there is no young man to sleep with the woman. The two lines are disjointed. The first expresses admiration. The advice of the second line might be for a woman, telling her not to hurry as if her house was in danger. Or else it was a warning to a husband: while you are away may no young man be around to bed your wife. In this case it is assumed that women prefer to make love to a young man rather than an older one. The same assumption is also guiding songs about widows: a woman without a man is taken to be sex-deprived and lusty, and better be guarded. 193. Har do das angoshtarin zei serre gordam. Doutore inglisi nikone zendeyam. Both her ringed hands around my neck. Not even an English doctor can bring me back to life. In the first sweep of modernity in the area, around 1920, one of the early victims were local healers and the house-apothecaries with their herbal remedies and amulets. The first modern hospital in Shiraz, the nearest big city, was established by the Christian Missionaries Centre in 1924. It had the reputation of being the best because the physicians there were Inglisi. The verse thus includes a comment on modernity and a value judgment on traditional local vs. foreign ‘modern’ medical practice (Sajjadi 1989.) 194. Sha¯lbandom lah va¯bide, kul ma derese. Golaku pa¯pa¯ bekon da ha¯lema nise. My sash is torn, my hip is wounded. Walk away, girl, I no longer am well. A wounded fighter (or impoverished or socially disgraced man) will not be able to take care of a wife and can no longer count on being attractive to a woman.

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A few verses praise the invigorating and healing qualities of women. 195. Ar men jange bernou tie¨llom koshte va¯bun, Das bele serreshun ta¯ zendei va¯bum. If in the Brno fight my eyes got hurt, Put your hand on them to make me alive again. ‘Hurt eyes’ here are eyes closed by death. For Brno see Glossary. 196. Yo emshou ˇca¯rda shoue¨ del korr ve darde. Darmun deldarde korr tei jume zarde. Tonight it is 14 nights that the young man’s heart is full of pain. The medicine for the boy’s heartache is with the beautiful girl. Somebody is talking about the stricken young man: infatuation for a man is a sickness that only the object of his desire can cure. For jume zard, korr and del see Glossary. 197. Vou khoda¯ menna bekosh, koshta¯r sesame. Serre sinat jumeiye dorrou, lout ham dava¯ me. O God, kill me, death would be good for me. Your breasts are covered by a fine shirt [and] your lips too are medicine for me. Love-pain is so intense that death would be a release unless the girl offered herself as medicine. 198. Gol lou ˇcei, pesun guri, golopelesh qande. Mordena zendei kone harvei ikhande. The girl’s lips are tea, her breasts are a teapot, her cheeks are sugar. She brings the dead back to life every time she laughs. Two variants add the neck, breasts, lips, and braids to the sugary body parts and the laughter, with the same invigorating effect. For gol see Glossary. 199. Sine gol mei majema, mamash polou bu. Vagero tekash konom darmune loum bu. The girl’s chest is [like] a big tray, her breasts are [like heaps of] rice. I form a bite with my fingers as medicine for my lips. Traditionally, food was eaten with fingers. If one wanted to express great fondness for a toddler, e.g., the adult with three fingers made a movement

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on the skin of the baby as if taking a mouthful of rice from a tray and ‘eating’ it, smacking the lips. 200. Gol veri ou vam bede balke shafa¯ bu. Ya¯ ve ou Sei Mamad bu ya¯ ve Dena¯ bu. Get up, girl and give me healing water, Either water from the shrine of Seyed Mahmad or from the Dena [mountain]. A man (or, less likely, a woman) is singing the praises of the environment: the natural water from the mountain’s springs and brooks is just as beneficial as the water from the tomb of a saint. (Most shrines are built near or even over a spring.) The woman is not the medicine but is instrumental in getting the healing water to the patient. For gol and Seyed Mahmad see Glossary.

Sad, Mad and Sorry nara ¯hat, irad, peshimun 201. Ye goli mene ma¯le mun ta¯ze shokofte. Na dasom vash irase na khosh iofte. In my camp a blossom just opened. Neither can my hand reach it nor does it fall by itself. This is the most popular and beloved of all love songs, an unsentimental story about the hardships of marriage politics. The man knows and laments that he is poor or in other ways not acceptable to the girl’s family as a suitor. For gol and ma¯l see Glossary. 202. Palelet sorkh o boland mei ya¯l ia¯bu. Kam biou kam kam berra ka¯ret nia¯bu. Your long, reddish-brown braids are like a horse’s mane. Don’t come [toward me but] go away slowly; I can’t have anything to do with you. For reasons such as his low status or poverty, a man discourages his beloved from paying any more attention to him. The good-bye-for-your-own-sake motif is well established in the economic part of the love-schema. 203. Ye goli mene ma¯le mun mahli galize. Itarsom si ye buse khunom berize. A girl in my camp is very attractive. I am afraid that for one kiss my blood will be spilled.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN If the man is caught kissing her, her male relatives (or her husband) will be after him. Galiz has the slightly negative connotation of being too strong (tea, for example, or a lie) or too obvious, too sexy. For gol see Glossary.

204. Kha¯le souz tike safid mene ou dia¯re. ˆ eshmele a¯dame fakir khasma¯ni da¯re. C The dark tattoo above the white heel is visible in the water. The eyes of a poor man make enmity. A poor man looking at a woman above his economic or social standing will create an awkward and embarrassing situation, if not violence. For tattoo see Glossary. 205. Serre koye boland nei izanom. Mo goli gom kerdeme, pei izanom. On the high mountain I play the reed-flute. I have lost the girl, I go after her. The man who had to let go of the woman he fancied is cast out in the wilderness but will not give up wooing her. Another reading makes this into a story of discord, with the man suffering under the estrangement from his beloved. For gol see Glossary. 206. Shetor gom kerdeme ve ba¯re ka¯shi, Goli gom kerdeme balke to ba¯shi. I lost a camel with a load of saffron [?] I lost a girl, maybe she is you. To the women who discussed this with me, the teasing rhyme meant that the lost lover was as valuable as saffron (ka¯shi was not quite clear to them; they settled on saffron, a rare, expensive item in this area); or else that a man told his sulking lover that she was dear to him and should make peace. A young man, however, thought that in the second line the man told the girl that he was interested in her and tried to persuade her to talk to him or flirt with him. 207. Serre ra¯hat ishinom, khord o khase, Becˆinom gol o reihun, dase, dase. I linger on your road, broken and tired. I will pick flowers and basil, bunch after bunch. A lovesick man (or, less likely, woman) is waiting for the beloved. This verse also may be sung as a mourning song.

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208. Nuzadom ˇcarke sefid men eine ma¯h bi. Ye nakhsi dei demmesh didom, tiash naka¯li. My fiance´e with the white headscarf was like the moon. I saw one fault in her: her eyes were not pretty. Considering that for a man only the face of a woman was visible (everything else being hidden under clothes), a woman’s eyes held special fascination and were observed and judged critically. 209. Rakhtela kerdi ve var, rafti men davat. Gukela bad ishkeni, ei bimuravat. You put dance clothes on, went to the party. You swing your hips badly, oh, graceless boor. In this mocking verse, a woman or girl is scolded for being an inept dancer, or maybe for going to the dance. Wedding dances were in public, ‘everybody’ loved them and participation was a social obligation especially in festivities of the chiefs. Nevertheless, officially, women needed the father’s or husband’s permission to go. In a few families, such as those connected to the village akhond (the clergy), women were not allowed to look at dances, let alone participate in them, even before the Revolution of 1979. 210. Kurr igo gol khoda¯ hafez, pa¯ ke ve giva. Gol igo, korr biqa¯sa, lou va giriva. The young man said, girl, good-bye, [and] put his feet in the shoes. The woman said, boy, be well, [and] her lips trembled. A third person tells the story of two people who are fond of each other – lovers, cousins, betrothed to each other – take leave, but the verse also fits a mother and her son. In any case it is about a drama of modernity: the man may be drafted into the army, going away to school or to seek a better life. He may not be back for a long time. The next four verses speak to the theme of ghemme, grief, sorrow, usually about the absence of a beloved. It is a popular topic in songs. 211. To bio teim beneshin, ta’rif konom sit. Ghemme dirit mena ke ba¯riktar ve mit. Come and sit by me, let me tell you: The grief about your absence has made me thinner than your hair.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN A man or woman may be the speaker: the absent beloved may have returned or else the speaker is thinking aloud, longingly talking to the absent partner. A variant begins with, ‘My arm around your neck, I’ll tell you –’ and now clearly a man is speaking. Self-respecting women do not put their arms around a man in public, not even around a husband.

212. Biou berrim shahr ve dar ta’rif konom sit. Ghemme to kerde mane ba¯riktar az mit. Let’s go outside, let me tell you: Worry about you has made me thinner than your hair. This variant of the ‘worry’ songs has a twist in meaning: not the beloved’s absence but his/her troubles worry the speaker. Avoiding the eavesdroppers in the house makes it easier for the beloved to talk. Privacy is dear in cramped quarters. 213. Dellom tang, asamun tang, zamin tang. Ghemme durit men junom ikone jang. My heart is tight, the sky is tight, the ground is tight. Grief over your absence fights in my [life] soul. The absence of a beloved makes one anxious and sick with longing. For del and jun see Glossary. 214. Ghemme harke ye ruze ya¯ do ruze, Ghemme mo ruz ve ruz ba¯la¯ gerote. Anybody else’s grief is for one or two days. My grief increased day by day. This applies to grief over the absence of a beloved as well as any misfortune. In 1981 a woman with four children whose husband had left to work in Kuwait sang this: he had not come home in over a year and she felt abandoned and at the mercy of her husband’s people. 215. Safar kerdi, safara dur kerdi, Delomra kha¯neye zanbur kerdi. You went on a journey, on a long journey. You turned my heart into a beehive. 216. Safar kerdi, hunat monde kha¯li, Besuzom hamcˆe konda¨ dar bekhori. You went on a journey, your house is empty. I burn like a big log in the stove.

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‘Empty house’ and ‘dead hearth’ routinely are used to describe a situation where the matron of the house is absent. The sentiment of the text fits best a husband whose wife has left to visit her family or to accompany a family member on a trip. 217. Az baske mo neshasom enteza¯ri, Serrom mes balge bid va¯bi. I waited so long for you [That] my head became like a willow leaf. A willow leaf is thin and pale. 218. Ashtafi men ˇcerkellet, limu pasunet. Itarsom mo bemirom kessi da besunet. Gold coins on your headscarf, your breasts [like] limes. I am afraid I’ll die if somebody else marries you. (Or: I am afraid that if I die somebody else will get you.) There is more at stake than an insecure lover’s anxiety over his beloved’s faithfulness. At a time when women were scarce, for many men finding a wife meant to compete with other men, to work hard, and with their elders to engage in public relations efforts to make themselves attractive. Small coins (of gold or yellow metal) were dangling off the front of a woman’s velvet cap or headscarf. This girl is young, pretty and of a good family, and the suitor is not sure he will get her. 219. Ashtafi men ˇcerkellet, limu pasunet. Sahmat ke douret ikeshom, kessi da besunet. Gold coins on your headscarf, your breasts [like] limes. The troubles I take for you! [And now I am afraid that] somebody else will get you. The slight change to the previous verse alters the suitor’s tone from anxiety to complaint. ‘In spite of my great efforts and the financial troubles I take for you, in the end you might marry somebody else!’ the man says. Suitors are obliged to be generous with services and gifts to the bride and to her people to show serious commitment to the engagement. 220. Tie¨lom men tie¨let, hardame veshoure. Itouri ke del mene, del to ˇcetoure?

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN My eyes are in your eyes, always sharing a secret. Thus is my heart; how is yours? This drama is the lament of an unsuccessful suitor who is in love with a girl who is about to be married to somebody else, probably against her wishes. As in most similar poems the sentiment here is the man’s, leaving the woman’s thoughts unspoken – not even the lover knows what she is thinking. For del see Glossary.

221. Vou Shirin, Shirin, Shirin, Shirin shela¯lom. Ya¯ bena¯l, bena¯l, bena¯l, ya¯ bel bena¯lom. Oh, Shirin, Shirin, Shirin, my tall Shirin. Either you moan, moan, moan, or let me moan. A young man wants to marry Shirin (‘Sweet’) but her parents don’t agree. The man tells her to either make her parents agree (by whining) or else let him go and be unhappy. Another parody of pop-love songs, these lyrics elicit snickers and giggles. 222. Ye sadi, ye punsadi, sad o shish o panshi, Nazadom harfi bade, to vam beranji. One hundred, five hundred, six hundred and five, I didn’t say anything bad [but] you got mad at me. The counting in the first line provides a rhyme but also is like a polite curse. Bad words are a frequent reason for fall-outs, as is gossip. 223. Arkheloqe terma, tie¨ ka¯le sirma. Ma mo ˇce gotom geroti dir ma? A fine mantle, mascara in the beautiful eye. What have I said that you keep away? The male speaker describes himself and his girl as chic – he has an ‘Arabic’ mantle of fine cloth, she is beautiful – and, if this isn’t enough for her, he must unintentionally have insulted her. His wife’s sulking is one way to keep a man on his toes, said a young wife. 224. Mo tenna ve jei kaka¯m hesab ikerdom. Nounesom bad gyap zadom, bad ka¯ri kerdom. I regarded you like my brother [or: paternal cousin]. I didn’t know that I talked badly, behaved badly.

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This is a short, dramatic falling-out story, told by a woman. Two women and a male listener understood the verse differently. One young woman said that the speaker protests that the man she had favoured suddenly treats her with disdain. The second listener said that the woman regrets having shown affection for a man who disappoints her. And the male listener had the girl treat the man (a paternal cousin) like a potential suitor, only to realise that he did not want her after all. 225. Ar siga¯r si mane, mo nisom didi. Kamarom kerdi dokal, mehr ham boridi. If the cigarette is for me, I don’t smoke. You broke my back [and] also cut the affection [between us]. The young man is truly ticked off but the verse does not tell the background story. The verse might be one half of a dialogue. ˇ eshmelet ˇcera¯q turi, borget khia¯bun. 226. C Dush yeshou, emshou do shou kerdim bia¯bun. Your eyes are lamps, your eyebrows are a street. Last night was the first, tonight is the second that you turned me out. This is a man’s lament about an angry fiance´e or wife. The reason for the anger is anybody’s guess and not important: the listener is asked to feel sorry for the man. A variant extends the time to 14 days. The lamp (cˇera¯q turi) at that time was a kerosene pressure lamp, a novelty and as great an improvement over previous lamps as was the paved ‘street’ over the old rocky dirt roads. 227. Lokht a¯bum se shou se ruz, dem tut ham bekhousom. Sum o sarma¯ vam benne, ru gel ham bejousom (or: dem tu gol bekhousom). I am naked/destitute, for three nights and days I sleep outside your house. I have to put up with morning shivers and cold, resting on the dirt (or: sleeping outside the girl’s house). A man feels sorry for himself and hopes his beloved will relent and accept him again. 228. Qorbune ha¯l kheslatet, ekhla¯q shirine. Majburom ar qar koni berrom vadinet. I am a sacrifice to your disposition, to your sweet personality. If you leave in anger, I have no choice but to go after you.

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229. Bargemo dolulena, berram ve kohzar, Bezanom kouge mene ba¯l, duarta varda¯r. My rifle is a two-shooter, I’ll go hunting. I’ll hit a partridge in flight [and] take your girl. The end of the second line may also mean, ‘[. . .] and you [better] hide your daughter.’ In any case, the bragging young man utters a threat: he will fight for the girl he fancies. The following three verses about a lovers’ spat tell one story. A woman speaks. For korr and koug see Glossary. 230. Va¯vela sad va¯vela, sad Da¯d o Bida¯d. Si ye bus ser da¯seki kurr kerde ira¯d. Oh, misery, hundred miseries, hundred woes to me. Because of one quick kiss the lad got mad. A girl made her young man seriously jealous. The first line is a string of ejaculations of pain and discontent. 231. Verisom pa¯pa¯ konom mene rie¨ korr, Vash bedom dota ma¯ci, ta¯ ba¯m kone solh. I’ll get up and walk in front of the lad. I’ll give him two kisses so that he will make peace with me. ¯ samun be i bolandi berra bolandtar. 232. A Kha¯som khubesh konom, va¯bi badtartar. Oh, high heavens, go higher yet. I wanted to make it well but it got worse. The attempt to make peace, to flirt or to be persuasive, failed. 233. Ar bekha¯hi busam koni ta¯ berreim ˇcap rou. Dahtire bei khod bia¯, hatman jerr eibu. If you want to kiss me, let’s turn left. Take the ten-shooter with you, there will be a fight for sure. A woman foresees trouble from her people over her association with the man. To turn left means to step aside, out of sight of others.

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234. Azizom bernou boland, shirinom rusaki. Ka¯rele khod ikoni vash igorusi. My beloved is a long Brno rifle, my sweetie is blonde. Your behaviour makes her leave. A man’s chic (blonde) and valuable (Brno rifle) girl is taking offence at his behaviour. The speaker’s shift from first person to second is quite common. For Brno see Glossary. 235. Vagerom fera¯r konom berram neia¯yam. Golaku kheng a¯bide mes gole ba¯yom. I’ll pack up and flee, go away, never to return. The girl dried up on me like an almond blossom. The woman turning cold on her suitor or fiance´ distresses and shames the man so much that he wants to flee. People remember several such cases. Inevitably they cause friction among the families involved, one blaming the other for whatever caused the break-up. 236. Dovaru bezan vepar bel begodardom. Ye jerri ve na¯m name kelle ma¯le mardom. Girl, move aside, let me leave. Don’t put a fight on my neck in front of the people. A suitor or husband does not want to get into a public argument or fight over an issue involving his girl or wife, or her people. The reason for the disagreement is not given, but the aversion to a public row is clear. The verse may have been part of a dialogic song. 237. Didemet tei zanela sarcˇu pishuni. Tonna da¯n ve Sey Mamad numza¯de kishuni? I saw you among the women as their lead-singer. They gave you to (the shrine of) Seyed Mahmad, whose fiance´e are you? A genre of songs performed by women has a lead singer who sticks out from the chorus by her voice, skills and importance and thus is of special interest to the audience. The man or woman who sings this song wonders about the lucky man who will marry this remarkable girl. To give somebody to a saint means to make a votive promise to give her to a descendant of the saint (usually the caretaker of the shrine) or to let him decide her spouse, without asking for the brideprice. For Sey Mamad see Glossary.

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238. Delvare del va do ja¯, dar alam ˇce zeshte. Niterom tarkesh konom, mei hurie¨ beheshte. A beloved whose heart is in two places, how ugly before the world. [But] I can’t leave her, [she is] like a houri in paradise. The singer said that he heard this song, also on vinyl, in 1971. It struck a chord locally although polygyny was rare in Sisakht and the equally rare extramarital affairs were hushed up, for the sake of peace. In 2016 a woman murmured the second line with meaningful looks when somebody asked about a neighbour’s frequent absences from home: he was rumoured to have a lover or even a second wife in the next town. For del see Glossary. 239. Zardiun ser daselet, ka¯r Abada¯ne. Haqe korr duara za, goften yema¯ne. Amber on your hands, made in Abadan. The [spurned] young man’s claim hit the girl, [but her] people said, she is sick. The first line, addressing the girl, suggests that she had accepted a suitor’s jewellery and was promised to him. In the second line a domestic drama unfolds: when she rejected him she violated his right to her, and this ‘right’ turned against her and made her sick. The belief in the vengeful power of a foiled rightful claim is popular. By calling her illness yema¯ne, a donkey’s ailment, her people showed their anger with her – she had embarrassed them by refusing the fiance´. In everybody’s view any girl who broke an engagement was stubborn and unreasonable. Abadan, a town outside the province, was famous for its jewellers. For kurr see Glossary. The following 11 verses bemoan the lack of privacy. In the crowded compounds one hardly ever was alone, and unaccompanied women rarely were seen outside in the lanes or gardens. ‘Everybody has big eyes and long ears’, said a woman about observant neighbours. 240. Sirmei ve ˇceshmet mane, mardom shek eibun. ¯ qelun famideyen, si mo bad eibu. A Don’t put mascara in your eyes, people will get suspicious. The smart ones will understand, [and] this will be bad for me. Wearing make-up without a good reason such as for a wedding party, will easily make the girl’s people aware of a flirtation and put an end to it. The singer used the Farsi word for ‘eye’ here (cˇeshm instead of tie¨) to make the line easier to sing, she said.

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241. Ruberu seilom nakon, mardom shek eibun. Va borget hesha¯r bekon, khom yepar eibum. Don’t look at me directly, people will understand. Raise an eyebrow, I will step aside [to meet you]. Variants change the first part: mene ma¯l seilom nakon: don’t look at me in the camp; Mene mardom bongom nakon: don’t call me around people. The popularity and the many variants of this song show that people suffered greatly under lack of privacy in the camps and settlements. 242. Ye sadi, ye ca¯r sadi kha¯l pesse pa¯sh bi. Kha¯som busesh konom, kaka¯sh vaba¯sh bi. One hundred, four hundred tattoos were on the back of her leg [above her heel]. I wanted to kiss her [but] her brother was with her. The tattoos stand for the girl’s enticing beauty. Brothers are the most attentive and fearsome guardians of their sisters’ conduct. Just about every suitor has such funnily disappointing and embarrassing stories to tell. For tattoo see Glossary. 243. Keparmun ye kepari, hunemun ye hune. Ye da¯lu sag pederi pa¯hende mune. Our branchhut is one branchhut, our house is one house. An old woman – the bitch – is shadowing us. A man and a woman who are neighbours and of the same kin group may have relaxed social relations, but in this case they cannot make use of the shared space because an old crone, having nothing better to do, is suspicious. Lack of privacy is a problem. Da¯lu is an old term for an elderly woman, by now deemed derogatory and no longer used in Sisakht. 244. Das kerdom men kerredun, kerre dera¯rom. Tarkema¯r dasom zade, pit iara¯rom. I put my hand into the buttersack to take out butter. A snake bit me [and] I writhe with pain. A man laments that while fondling a girl’s breast somebody saw him, talked, and now he was in trouble. Butter and the girl are equally appealing, expensive, ‘good food’.

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245. Umame pas hunetun, khou borde bidom. Si ye bus marhamati ma¯r kharde bidom. I came behind your house and fell asleep. For one lucky kiss a snake could have bitten me. A man speaks: had anybody seen me I would be in big trouble. The warning in the following two verses reflects changing norms of morality over a span of 20 years, from 1980 to 2000, from right after the Revolution of 1978 to 21 years into the Islamic Republic. A woman is speaking to a man. 246. Nakoni kelugiri shou ma¯h bia¯yi. Na khota koshtan bedi na ri sia¯yi. Don’t be so crazy as to come in the moonlit night. Don’t let yourself be killed nor shamed. (1980) You cannot hide on the way to me if the moon is shining, and if anybody sees you, you will get hurt by gossip or by being beaten up. 247. Nakoni kelugiri shou ma¯h bia¯yi. Khota khosh zan bedi ruhet sia¯yi. Don’t be so crazy as to come in the moonlit night. [If] you give yourself a wife your soul will be black. (2000) The singer here changed the second line into a moralising song: what in the 1980 verse was a warning of shame and violence if the tryst were to be known, in the second verse became a religious/moral warning against committing a sin, suggesting that people’s sensibilities in the schema of gender relations had changed. Moonlight is an enemy of lovers: a moonlit night ‘has eyes’, people say. ‘Crazy’ (kelu, see Glossary) is used for any kind of mental derangement, including infatuation. 248. Bio berrim sizda ve dar vou menne na¯na¯dun. Hijkena nikha¯m bia¯ gheir a doteimun. On the 13th day of the New Year let’s go to a meadow of mint. I don’t want anyone else to come along beside the two of us. A variant emphasises the food aspect, starting with, ‘Woman, cook picnic food for three dinners’ (gol bepaz tusheye se shou). Families traditionally spend the 13th day of the New Year outdoors, taking along food. The line shows that (young) couples suffer under the impossibility to spend private time together at such outings.

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249. Ta¯ ser u ma¯zei bieiyi, khom serre bunom. Pa¯gire memunelom; a¯kh mene junom. When you will come over the pass, I am on the roof. I am stuck with my guests, woe my soul. The speaker will not be able to join the beloved because of the allimportant hospitality duty. The flat dirt-roofs were easily accessible and used as an additional work and living space for people in the cramped houses. For jun see Glossary. 250. Suva¯re sorkhan suva¯ru umad mene deh. Rim se bu, bus vash nada¯m, mene rish begom ˇce. A handsome rider came to the village. I was embarrassed, didn’t kiss him, [and now] what do I tell him? A young woman is talking about the delicate balance between shyness becoming to a young woman and keeping one’s suitor/husband happy. Shyness may easily be seen as disinterested coolness. 251. In qadar kuh o kamar sit ra beridom. Didemet bisafati, mehrat beridom. Through so many rocky hills I cut a road to you. I saw you, you were unfriendly, [and] I cut my liking for you. The lover or suitor is disenchanted by his intended’s cool behaviour.

Girls, Guns and Violence gol, tofang, zolm ˇ e khoshe suva¯r gha¯zal, bezanim ghei gha¯c. 252. C Gola suva¯r konim, ri gola konim ma¯ˇc. How pleasant it is to ride a dun (light-coloured) horse for a horse game, To lift the girl onto the horse and kiss her face. The girl’s reaction is no issue. Horse and leisure mark the man as belonging to the tribal aristocracy. 253. Va¯bidom suva¯re bur, bezanam gheye gha¯ˇc. Bezarom ser dase ra¯s gola konom ma¯ˇc. I mounted a brown horse to play a horse game. I’ll turn to the right and kiss the girl. I am quite a guy. A horse, play, leisure and casual, easy access to a woman were attributes of the families of the chiefs.

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254. Ar bekha¯hi ma¯ˇcesh koni voura ˇcepesh kon. Dasta bele ser gukelesh, koug tapanesh kon. If you want to kiss her, turn her to the left, Put your hands on her hips, and push her down [like a] partridge. Any bird can be handled easiest when pushed down into a sitting position. The verse suggests that a girl can be handled the same way as a partridge, a favourite game bird. The assumption is that any honourable girl will resist a man’s advantage even if she wants it, and that a man can overcome this resistance easily. To ‘turn left’ means to separate oneself from others. For koug see Glossary. ˇ e khube dum bezani ˇceshmeye zire ma¯l. 255. C Ta¯ bia dum begire kouge sine kha¯l. How pleasant it is to set a rope-trap at the spring below the camp, So that the trap catches the partridge with the speckled breast. The spring near a camp is a familiar bucolic scene, and trapping the proverbially slow partridge is a pleasant memory of the good old days of easy hunting. A second meaning puts a man in wait of his beloved at the spring. Both readings reflect the experience that partridges are easy to catch, especially when heavy with water, and that girls are easy to catch, too. Dum is a bird trap made of string. For ma¯l and koug see Glossary. 256. Pa¯zan ser gukte, sha¯khesh bolande. Mirsheka¯l Esa Ali sish va¯yemande. A ram with big horns is on your hip. Master-hunter Ali is eager to meet it. A man who is after a woman has his eyes set on her hip as if it were a game. A man is a hunter. The following 17 verses combine guns with women. While guns traditionally were the most powerful image of brave manhood, the sexual implications are quite obvious to people, too. 257. Ratom serre ou didom pesunesh. Del bede ve bernou bede besunesh. I went up to the spring and saw her breasts. Give [your] heart and the Brno rifle to get her.

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The coveted young woman likely is fetching water or else might be cooling off in the water. (Girls rarely did this, though.) In the first line the young man establishes the situation and in the second line he speaks to himself: I will give everything dear to me (for the brideprice) to get her; a gun for a girl. For del and Brno see Glossary. 258. Duar veri, dera¯r bedom bernou bolande. Ta¯ verisom bus konom vei jume zarde. Girl, get up, take out the long Brno rifle and give it to me. I’ll get up and kiss the beauty. The man orders his sister to help him. The first line facilitates the rhyme and plays on the popular poetic association of gun and woman. For jume zard and Brno see Glossary. 259. Doure Alma¯ni umadeye, shekil vera¯fta¯. Tie¨ ka¯le kha¯nomja¯n kerdeme gerefta¯r. Now is the time of the German rifle, it is beautiful. The beautiful lady captivated me. The beautiful gun is the beautiful woman. For alma¯ni see Glossary. 260. Bernou kol, bernou boland, daraja pishi. Na takhsire bernoue¨le, tiam ye ˇcish bi. A short Brno rifle, a long Brno, the very best. It is not the Brnos’ fault. My eyes had a problem. This may be read literally as a hunting story that was unsuccessful despite the best equipment, or else as the story of a marksman who was so distracted at the sight of a woman that he missed his shot. 261. Renge renge (or: tateke) putinellet, goftom shika¯le. Das kerdom si osma¯ni (or: alma¯ni) ta¯ tie¨ ka¯le. The clatter of your boots – I said it is an ibex. I took my Osma ¯ni (or: German) rifle but saw that it was a girl. Although the hunter does not hunt a girl explicitly, the link between the girl and the male cliche´ symbols of gun and ibex are obvious in this short story. For tie¨ ka¯l, osma¯ni and alma¯ni see Glossary. 262. Ar va¯bum men kamarom pansh tire bernou, Ta¯ vellom lou serre lout shou nibarom khou. [Even] if I had five Brno bullets in my back, Unless my lips are on your lips I won’t sleep at night.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Although the gun violence is directed at the man, the association between gun and sex is explicit. For Brno see Glosssary.

263. Ar va¯bum men kemarom pansh tire ra¯jes, Itana bus konom loue¨lta nakonom khoda¯ hafez. [Even] if I had five bullets in the back I’d not say good-bye until I kissed you hard. Or: I’d kiss you so much that I’d not [be able to] say good-bye. Here, gun, man and woman are connected to death. In the first reading the death motif extends the drama, while in the second the kiss might ward off death. 264. Gol veri, dera¯r bedom dolule kusa. Ta¯ nalom junom nabare zan malusa. Blossom get up, take out the double-barrelled gun and give it to me. I won’t let the pretty woman take away my life. In the two readings I heard, one was that the male speaker wants to leave for the mountains in order not to be tempted by an alluring woman in his camp; the other, that he is about to go after the woman because ‘he is so crazy about her that he can’t stand it’, as a young woman said. The blossom, that is, the girl or woman who is to hand him the gun, is not easy to identify; she might be the man’s wife. An elderly woman declared gol, woman, in the first line a mistake: the man tells his mother, da¯, of his pursuit. See also Nr. 275. For gol and jun see Glossary. 265. Seil kerdom men penshera ta¯ gol ve khoue¨. Arak pesunelesh roughan bernoue¨. I looked in the window and saw the girl asleep. The moisture between her breasts is oil for the Brno rifle. It is understood that this moisture is as valuable and hard to get as is oil for guns. The second line can be combined with different first lines, such as, for example, in Nr. 266. For gol and Brno see Glossary. 266. Serre haqat ta¯ pei haqat kerishi doroye, Arak pesunelesh roughan bernoue¨. Around your neckline are two rows of coins. The moisture between her breasts is oil for the Brno rifle. Again, a valuable woman is linked to the valuable, legendary rifle. Coins were sewn onto clothes as ornaments and strung as necklaces. For Brno see Glossary.

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267. Ye bernou rangorangi ve kule kurr bi. Ye tiash men ˆca¯rdari yekish tei gol bi. A fine Brno rifle was on the young man’s shoulder. One of his eyes was on the sight and one on the girl. The chic young man could not keep his eyes on his aim because of the distraction. For kurr, gol and Brno see Glossary. 268. Do tiat, dorbin doqa¯b, paspa¯t perune, Do mamat, pishtou haftir ja¯hel koshune. Your two eyes, binoculars, your nimble feet, Your two breasts, a seven-shooter pistol, [these] kill a young man. Girls are as valuable and as deadly for young men as are guns. 269. Pa¯ naha¯m ser pishe pa¯ ta¯ gol vekhoue¨. Das kerdom be men haqash ta¯ jofte bernoue¨. I set one foot in front of the other, the girl was asleep. I put my hand into her shirt, there was a pair of Brno rifles. The comment of a high school girl on this verse was that for a woman sleeping unguarded anywhere and anytime was dangerous. A few nights earlier some ‘dirty scoundrel’ had dared to appear at her father’s house below her window, whispering ‘ugly things’ to her. She woke her brother to shoo him away. For gol and Brno see Glossary. 270. Krepi gol mahmadi rupush mamat bi. Khot masalsal, dadat bernou bi. A fine fabric with roses covers your breasts. You are an automatic rifle, your sister is a Brno rifle. The comparison of the sisters to two coveted weapons is meant as a complaint (both are dangerous for the male speaker) as well as a compliment (both girls are quite something). For Brno see Glossary. The following three verses describe a dramatic rendezvous. 271. Dush ve Shira¯z umeyom ba¯rut ve ba¯rom. Beinabeinom maneshin ta¯ shou iya¯yom. Last night I came back from Shiraz with a load of gunpowder. Don’t sit across from me, I’ll come at night.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN The eager man (the gunpowder gives him away) advises the woman to keep their relationship secret: do not even look at me as long as there are people around, he tells her.

272. Dush uma¯m men penshdari ta¯ gol ve khoue¨. Bus kerdom louelsha, bakhtom bedoue¨. Last night I came to [her] window and saw the girl asleep. I kissed her lips and my luck left me. It is night and the lover is so overwhelmed by the woman’s charms that he loses all reason and wants to sleep with her. For gol and bakht see Glossary. 273. Dush uma¯m men ta¯riki, ri gol vata¯ bi. Qeya¯mat men gardanom, gol ba¯ze mo bi. Last night I came in the dark, the girl’s face was visible. May Judgment Day be on my neck, the girl was better than I. The woman resisted him and thus prevented a sin and likely a severe social embarrassment. The story emphasises gender roles in sexual behaviour, i.e., men want to sleep with women, and women have to be on guard. They ought not to excite men (other than their husband) and, if harassed or propositioned by men, ought to resist them. Thus a topsy-turvy moral situation arises, as many Iranian women say: women are considered morally, intellectually and physically weaker than men by nature yet have to control themselves and restrain men who are strong, yet by nature easily excitable and out-of-control. For gol and Day of Judgment see Glossary. 274. Sirmei ve tiat makash, kerdi qabulesh. Khom umam vou dendei gol, va¯bi suva¯resh. Don’t put mascara in your eyes, you [already] made them beautiful. I will come after the woman and mount her. A woman said about this verse that this is how men are. She took the verse as an advice to women not to use cosmetics because they invite men’s attention and – inevitably – awake their lust, which makes them dangerous. 275. Da¯ veri, shalma bede, qademe buvandom, Ye goli vou ra irave, ra¯hsha buvandom. Mother, give me my shawl to wrap around my waist. A girl is walking along that road; I want to block her way. A man orders his mother to wait on him. By custom and law, a Muslim male over the age of nine may expect that his request to any woman in the

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house is honoured. In the androcentric hierarchy, men as a category stand above women. Furthermore, his mother likely will want to assist him because she is interested in seeing him with a wife and children and herself with a servant. See gol in the Glossary. 276. Dig pasin men gardane vash kerdom varkord. Ma¯lesha yagma¯ kerdom pesunesh das bord. Last evening on the pass I waylaid her. I robbed her belongings and my hand took her breast. The story may be a flirtatious encounter or a man’s boast of a rape. Ma¯l in this case means possession. 277. Dig pasin men gardane ra¯h gola basom. Osma¯ni, sad dun foshang men kefe dasom. Last evening on the pass I waylaid the girl. An Osma ¯ni rifle [and] one hundred shots were in the palm of my hand. The woman here is more than likened to a rifle: she is (in) the man’s power. For Osma¯ni and gol see Glossary. 278. Pesunele zerjumet narenje Zeitun. ˇ e khube kepash koni ba¯ zarbe dendun. C The breasts under your shirt are [like] oranges from Zeitun. How good it is to squash them with one’s teeth. The second line indicates how enjoyable rough love-making may be for a man. Zeitun is a small town in southernmost Boir Ahmad, the winter quarter of several tribes.

CHAPTER 3 ¯ D, SPOKEN FOR AND MARRIED NUZA ZAN O MARD

A traditional parental duty in Iran was to facilitate children’s marriages. Until the 1970s nearly all marriages in Boir Ahmad were arranged. The shortage of women there caused most girls to be spoken for, if not married and transferred to the husband’s house, before puberty. Romantic love and passion were no issues in the contracting of marriages. Rather, family interests, status, political factors and economic considerations were all important. Betrothal and marriage rituals were prolonged and complex, including economic transactions. All these circumstances in the marriage schema find expression in the lyrics. After choosing a girl for their son, the parents made an offer of marriage, and the parents of the girl weighed the offer, including payments to be expected from the suitor’s family, and accepted, stalled, or declined it. The young man had little say in these negotiations, and the girl had almost no say. Of the many possible reasons for a father’s objection to a suitor, the most likely were – and are – circumstances of relative wealth and status, and family obligations. Thus, a father may wish to give his daughter to his brother’s son rather than to an unrelated young man he knows little about and to whom he does not owe consideration, or to favour an engineer with a job over a jobless young man. Usually the young girl accepted her parents’ choice quietly, but some girls used their right to refuse the match; this frequently led to problems with her relatives and with the family of the suitor. After acceptance and successful contract negotiations formal gift giving started, mostly in the form of clothes and jewellery from the suitor to the girl’s family. The groom also had to make his services available to his future in-laws. The betrothal could take years and culminated in the wedding feast. Over the past three generations these customs have changed: marriage age for women has risen, young women have more input in the matter of spouse selection, and young people depend less on their parents’ wishes and plans. Sometimes marriage negotiations lead nowhere, and the songs

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about such failures suggest the disappointed and shamed suitor’s choices: he can leave, he and his family may protest such as by singing a critical song, or be quiet about it to avoid the social costs of a row. These themes, too, are sung about. Marriage was not seen as a matter of love but of social and sexual necessity. Feelings of romantic love may well have followed a betrothal but rarely led to one in the past. Indeed, in the schema of ‘love’ a young man easily could wax enthusiastic about his fiance´e without knowing her well at all; many songs belong to this genre. As customary and Islamic morality forbid adultery, and polygyny and divorce were frowned upon and rare in Boir Ahmad, spouses had to stick it out with more or less grace for better or worse. Many spouses who hardly knew each other before marriage became close and devoted over the years. Many others found themselves ill-matched and dissatisfied, and some songs allude to their difficulties.

Betrothed nuzad 279.

Vou khoda¯ ye va¯ye da¯rom, ye mara¯di ve dellom: Vude junom zan besune, khosh mara¯de ha¯sellom. I have one request from God, one plea is in my heart: [That] my dear [son] gets a wife; he himself is ready to plead it. A mother is speaking. Arranging good and timely spouses for their children was a heavy duty of parents, in the past especially so for sons, when eligible women were scarce and the brideprice was high. Nowadays, people say, there are girls aplenty but the costs are higher yet, and jobless young men cannot afford to get married. Older people complain about a loosening of sexual mores and an abundance of pornographic movies that keep young, unmarried men busy and warp their expectations of a wife. For del see Glossary.

280.

Duvare i zamuna ve deish vazure. Khosh ira bi ekhtia¯r nuzad ijure. A girl nowadays does not obey her mother. On her own, without permission, she finds a fiance´. This verse expressed people’s misgivings over the first such incident on record: a young woman insisted on marrying a certain young man, in 1965. It has become a popular verse in Boir Ahmad, reflecting changing family relations of today, when young local women often not only dismiss their parents’suggestions and choices for a husband but make suggestions of their own that parents may find foolish.

¯ D, ZAN O MARD SPOKEN FOR AND MARRIED NUZA 281.

87

Kelleye sar khordom konen mes ha¯le gine. Sarderou sim idera¯, ruzi yekine. [Even] if they pounded my head and neck like gine fodder, Important men will come for me, one every day. A young woman is speaking defiantly, describing a familiar traditional situation: she does not want to marry the man her parents chose, not even if her people try to force her by beating her into submission, as happened frequently in the past. ‘I can do better than him, just you wait’, she says. I recorded this song at a wedding. For the singer, an elderly woman, sarderou meant a man’s rival for a girl or else an important man. Gine, identified by Ghafari (n.d.: 85) as a vetch-plant with tough fibres, has to be soaked and pounded to make digestible fodder.

282.

Vou khodei ba¯lei serri, to yek serresh kon. Har hunei ve i kurr bade, dar ve derresh kon. By God above your head, finish [the argument] one way or another. Show the door to anybody who has a grudge against this young man. A young woman is sick and tired of criticism of her fiance´ (or suitor or the man she wants to marry) and demands from her parents to put an end to whatever is holding up the marriage negotiations.

283.

ˆ e khoshe suva¯r va¯bi suva¯r ye buri, C Sob ye ma¯l, pasin do ma¯l numza¯d bejuri. How pleasant it is to ride a brown horse, [To be] in one camp in the morning and at dusk in another to look for a wife. Young men, usually accompanied by a relative, make the rounds of families who have daughters whom his people suggest or approve of as potential wives. The horse-days are gone; now the young men ride cars, but the custom of Brautschau is alive still. In 2004, a young professional man from the city was visiting several houses of distant relatives in Sisakht with his uncle, for the flimsily disguised purpose of scouting for a wife. When I asked him what he was looking for in a wife, he said, ‘A nice smile, a good body, and a good cook.’ It was no joke for him. For ma ¯ l see Glossary.

284.

Hei azizom, hei junom hei noi noi, Dellom ikha¯ beiyek berrim ye qadr ra¯hi. Hi, my darling, hi, my dear, I want us to walk together a little way.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN A man is speaking. To ‘walk together’ means to be able to be seen together in public, such as a husband and wife. A high school student in Sisakht said that ‘the boys’ were singing this in their heads every time they saw a girl in the street. For jun and del see Glossary.

285.

ˇ e khoshe ve ra¯h berri ya¯rta¯ ba¯t bu. C Das koni dour gardanesh, dashti naha¯d bu. How pleasant it is to walk when your beloved is with you. You put your arm around his/her neck, an easy road is ahead. This scene is unthinkable in the Sisakht I know. To this day, husband and wife do not show affection or intimacy in public for reasons of what people see as Islamic modesty. People I discussed it with said the song must be very old or wishful thinking, but that in the cities such scenes happen ‘all the time’.

286.

ˇ e khoshe ra¯h berri numzata ba¯t bu. C ˇ Ce khoshe sohbat koni pa¯t mene pa¯sh bu. How pleasant it is to walk when your betrothed is with you. How pleasant it is to talk when your foot is [playing] with hers. As long as nobody is watching, flirting can be done with eyes and with feet, a young wife said. Courtship habits have relaxed considerably over the past generation not only in cities but also in the countryside.

287.

Ma¯shin run, ya¯vash berun, da va¯m teiyumi. Mo da¯rom ye ka¯ghazi si numzadom junom. Drive the car, drive carefully, with me is something dear. I have a letter for my dear betrothed. The mention of a car and of a letter is meant to convey progress and wealth of the speaker, a man. Literate and with a car he ranks high on the ‘progress’ scale.

288.

ˇ a¯rta khoshkei tambaku, ˇca¯rta foshang por. C Gol basesh parre dasma¯l, zash men qata¯re kor. Four handsful dried tabak, four full cartridges. The woman knotted it into the corner of her scarf, and put it under the young man’s cartridge-belt. The man is happy: he has a smoke, a gun and an attentive fiance´e or wife.

¯ D, ZAN O MARD SPOKEN FOR AND MARRIED NUZA 289.

89

Kudari ha¯shie¨ da¯r por ja¯be mune. Numzadom notq ikone mei radiune. My bag is filled with fabric with a fancy border. My fiance´e sings like the radio. Life is good. The male singer is well-off and brings his girl good presents. The fancy fabric for women’s skirts and the radio, both expensive goods, appeared at about the same time, around 1960.

290.

Pa¯lelet bispanj sa¯yi, yeki dota¯ye. Har kurri tonna esa, bande khoda¯ye. Your braids have 25 turns, one after the other. Any young man who marries you is God’s favourite. A beautiful wife is a gift from God; God’s laws support marriage. For a man, the verb for ‘to marry’, zan gereftan, is the same as to take, get, and buy. A man ‘acquires’ a woman, while when a woman gets married she ‘makes a husband’ (shi kardan), which is to say, ‘a man out of a boy’, as an elderly woman said.

291.

Dig pasin mashk zire ˇcellet, gukta didom. Ar bout igo ˇca¯rsad tomen, mo bishtar idom. Last evening, water bag under your arm, I saw your hip. If your father says four hundred Toman, I will give more [for you]. Bent forward and with the goatskin water bag pushing up her shirt, a woman in traditional garb cannot prevent the hip from showing a bit, enough for young men to gaze upon with fascination. There are many stories of men who chose a wife on such brief, chance sightings of face or leg or hip. At the time when I recorded this song, 400 Toman was the monthly salary of a teacher. Contemporary variations of the brideprice are much higher. Sisakht has piped water since the 1980s and modern dress covers hips reliably, but the old ways of fetching water are well known still. For brideprice see Glossary. A variant describes a beauty spot without the water story:

292.

Qad ba¯rik, ser guk safid, ser gukta didom. Ar ige ˇca¯rsad tomen, mo bishtar idom. Slim back, white hip, I saw the top of your hip. If he says, four hundred Toman, I’ll give/pay more [for you].

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN ‘He’ is the girl’s father. Lyrics like these leave no doubt that the traditional brideprice was an economic transaction.

293.

Agar si rishmi, rishme tra¯shom. Agar si mishi, sata men qa¯shom. If [the issue] is my beard, I will shave it. If it is sheep, a hundred are in my pen. A suitor whose intended and her people are wavering or are playing hardto-get, assures everybody that he is well-off and will do whatever makes him agreeable to them. Sheep are more expensive than goats, and therefore he does not even mention the economically more important goats.

294.

Ar serret dard ikone belesh men runom. Ya¯ sit la¯loi ikonom ya¯ sit bekhunom. If your head aches put it in my lap. I’ll sing you a lullaby or I’ll read/sing to you. Either spouse can say with this song that he or she will take good care of the other.

295.

Na¯zanin ya¯r ma begi nabu ve talva¯s. Khom ve khedmat irasom harvei khoda¯ kha¯s. Don’t let my beloved be troubled. I will be of service to her whenever God wills. A husband’s declared willingness to ‘do everything’ for his wife is a routine promise in courtship, including the assurance of treating her well and of being her liaison to the outside world so that she will have no troubles. The motif is part of the ‘husband-to-be-schema’ and is easier said than believed, women say.

296.

Do shela¯l be palelte yekish khalas kon. Ar ikhei mo ve noukari, baghalta va¯z kon. Two strands of hair, let one go. If you want me as your servant, open your arms. The two strands of hair stand for a girl’s two suitors. ‘Make up your mind,’ the singer says. ‘Servant’ is used for a husband who will do anything for his wife.

297.

Serre ra¯hat ishinom ta¯ bia¯yi, Vat qorbunet konom, harcˆe ikha¯hi.

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I linger on your road until you come. I’ll be your devoted servant for whatever you want. The promise of servitude and of fulfilling any wish belongs to the traditional wooing schema of enticing a bride into her husband’s house. Especially the groom and his mother assure the sceptical bride over and over of their willingness to make life easy for her. For qorbun see Glossary. 298.

Peipati ve gel mane, khom pineduzom. Melki do riva¯ri si gol beduzom. Don’t be barefoot in the dirt, I am a shoemaker. I will sew good cotton-shoes for the girl. The male speaker switches from addressing the barefoot girl to talking about her, saying that although he is only a poor, lowly cobbler, he can take care of his wife. This message can be generalised: even a poor man (or one who is not as well-off as his beloved’s people wish) can take care of his wife as long as she – and her people – do not have unrealistically high aspirations. For shoes see Glossary.

299.

Ve khoda¯ halqei duar douresh pilaki. Dasa pesunesh manin vei amunati. By God, around the girl’s neckline are sequins. Don’t touch her breasts, she is spoken for. It is not quite clear who the speaker is, but the message is clear: beware! No matter how attractive the girl is for you, she is taken, look elsewhere, go away. The necklace is a gift from her fiance´ and a hands-off sign for other men.

300.

Didemet qad ba¯riki ˇcel ga¯i ke. Vash goftom bus vam bede, delbidel ike. I saw how you, beauty, were holding out on me. I told her to give me a kiss; she played the yes –no game. ˇ el ga¯i, literally 40 cows, refers to the This is a mini-story of vexation. C value of a girl as measured by the brideprice. To ask a brideprice of 40 cows means asking such a big fortune that the girl is out of reach for the suitor. To demand a very high brideprice is to say ‘no’ politely to an offer of marriage. In the first line the suitor rebukes the girl and her family, and in the second he specifies her teasing behaviour. For brideprice see Glossary.

92 301.

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Sigara tash nakon, nisom didi. Vadeye qiumata pas si ˇce vam idi. Don’t light a cigarette for me, I don’t smoke. Why do you promise [to marry me] after the Day of Judgment? A spurned or insecure suitor complains: do not be polite to me where it does not matter; you insulted and disappointed me gravely by refusing to marry me. This is an indication of how young women can tease a suitor or even a fiance´ and keep him on his toes. For Day of Judgment see Glossary.

302.

Tie¨le ka¯li da¯ri, borgel homa¯ri. Tonna da¯n ve Shah Qa¯som, del kina da¯ri? You have beautiful eyes, smooth eyebrows. They gave you to [the shrine of] Shah Qasom; whose heart do you hold? A sad man bemoans the fact that the beautiful girl’s family pledged her to Shah Qasom in exchange for some favour from the saint. Now her marital future is in the hands of Qasom’s descendants. For the shrine of Shah Qasom see Glossary.

303.

Ya¯ veris, pa¯pa¯ bekon, ya¯ bego nia¯yom. Qabze pa¯qit vam bede, ta¯ i ra¯hna napa¯yom. Either get up, put foot before foot, or else say, I won’t come. Tell me clearly [so that] I won’t go this road. Do you want me to be your suitor or not? The speaker is perplexed and getting impatient with the young woman’s fickle behaviour.

304.

Qorbune dei gol berram, dour gol begardom. Balkena¯m dei gol kone ela¯je dardom. I am a sacrifice to the girl’s mother [because] I am after the girl. Maybe the girl’s mother will see my pain and help me. A young man tries to enlist his beloved’s mother to persuade the girl to agree to marry him or else to persuade her father to allow the match. This story happens often. A wise suitor will do whatever he can to get the girl’s mother on his side. For qorbun and gol see Glossary.

305.

Sha¯le kurr, tumbun duar, hardosh ye ta¯qa. Ar bekha¯hi gol vam nadei va pa¯ ˇcema¯qa.

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The young man’s sash, the girl’s skirt both [took a] bale of fabric. If you don’t want to give me the girl, behold my cudgel. The young man says that he and his people are as good as the girl and her people, and that he will be her family’s enemy if he is not allowed to marry her. 306.

Khot reiza, deit ham reiza, bout nareza¯ye. Ye qasam sisad balla si bout bia¯ye. You agree, your mother also agrees, your father disagrees. A curse [of] three hundred troubles on your father. At issue is the girl’s and her parents’ agreement to the match. No reason for the father’s dissent is given but status differences, the suitor’s poverty, his (or an elder brother’s) wish to use the young woman for alliance building, are the most likely. In spouse selection, family politics were more important in the past when women were scarce.

307.

Gerdele zan ve asamun tie¨na zorna. Hune boush tash begire, kamar ma borna¯. The little woman is heavenly, [with] beautiful eyes. May her father’s house burn down, he broke my back. A rejected suitor curses his beloved’s unyielding father, or else a husband complains about his wife’s father’s unspecified insults or demands. It is not easy to be a good son-in-law, people said.

308.

Ashtafi men ˇcerkelet, pil pa¯ye gushet. Didebei khasga¯r bia¯, bout naforushet. Gold coins on your headscarf, coins on your ears. Hopefully, if a suitor comes your father will not sell you. A man may say this regarding a girl he wants but cannot marry, and a girl may talk to herself, hoping that her father will not give her to the next best suitor. A woman in the audience saw a story: a girl is complaining that her father would not let her marry the man of her choice, and now she hopes that her father will not marry her against her wish. ‘To sell’ here is the literal translation. It shows that people see the brideprice transaction as an economic one, the same as any other buying and selling.

309.

Vou bolandi gardanet va¯kon pesunet. Khom ikha¯m seilet konom, nakes nasunet.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN By your long neck, uncover your breasts. I want to look at you, [hoping] nobody else will marry you. The word for ‘marry’ is the same as for ‘acquire’. It reflects the economic and proprietory aspect of marriage as seen from a man’s side.

310.

Bernou man ˇcarb ikonom ta¯ nakhare mang. ˇ akna¯mesh khasga¯r gol, va¯bi mene sang. C I am oiling my Brno rifle so it won’t rust. I fired it on the girl’s suitor [but] it hit a rock. The young man feels powerless in a competition with another suitor. For Brno and gol see Glossary.

311.

Kam bio, kam kam berra, kam seil kepar kon. Nuzata da¯me ve shi, kam khela sar kon. Don’t come, go away slowly, don’t look at the branch hut. We married off your betrothed, put only a little dirt on your head. Some marriage negotiations fail, causing disappointment. The girl’s people are empathetic with the young man who lost out. The girl, however, is simply ‘given to a husband’ in the literal meaning of the phrase; her feelings are no issue. To put dirt or ashes on one’s head was a sign of deep sorrow or discontent. A variant adds a name in the second line: Nurensa will not marry you, do not look at her again. One of the most self-assured women in Sisakht ended the verse with ‘kam mena sar kon’, meaning, she said, ‘don’t order me around’.

312.

Basi mo fera¯r konom, igon keluye. Nuzadom rakht kerdeme, igon duruye. I have to run away, they say I am crazy. We brought my betrothed clothes, and they say it is a lie. An important first step in the formal process of securing a wife was for the suitor’s family to bring clothes for the girl (a very young girl, in many cases). Acceptance of the clothes meant tentative acceptance of the proposal. Sometimes marriage negotiations led nowhere nevertheless, and the song suggests the disappointed and shamed suitor’s choices: he can leave (see next song) or else sing about the snub implied in the girl’s people denying that they had ever accepted clothes from him. Over the past two generations the obligatory gift of clothes changed into gifts at

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several occasions, made less ostentatiously but carefully registered still. See brideprice and crazy in the Glossary. 313.

Ar tonna va mo nada¯n, ˇca¯rei nada¯rom. Men Irun fara¯r konom, vo ma¯l biza¯rom. If they won’t give you to me I have no choice. I’ll flee from Iran and will avoid my camp/village. People tell several stories of such incidents. One young man by his own account stayed far away in Tehran for several years after his cousin had turned him down.

314.

Shah Qa¯som, Bi Khatinun, pir khaseme junom. Ta¯ to shi nakoni mo zan nisunom. Shah Qasom and Bibi Khatenun, the saint is the enemy of my life. Until you get married I won’t take a wife. A bitter and sad man shows his steadfast devotion by swearing that although unable to marry his beloved he would not let go of her until she was married. Declaring the saints to be enemies means that the saints had not helped him get the girl. In a variant the man swears on the Qur’an and on his life that he would not marry ahead of his beloved. For jun, pir and the two saints see the Glossary.

315.

Da¯ bede jurabellom ve pa¯m ve rika¯be. Jerr a¯bi dour nuzadom, na jei juva¯be. Mother, put my socks on my foot in the stirrup. A fight broke out around my betrothed, there is no time for talk. A man is ready to defend his fiance´e at the slightest hint of a problem. At a discussion of this verse the general opinion was that most likely the fight was in the girl’s family about brideprice issues or about the suitor’s conduct. For brideprice see Glossary.

316.

Dig pasin hunei shela¯l like boland bi. Harf ve ya¯ram izani ke ba¯m nakhande. Last evening wailing arose in the great house. You are telling my beloved [something bad about me] so that she won’t laugh/flirt with me. Gossip is an ongoing danger for interfamily relations. Yet a young man and woman traditionally had few occasions to assess

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN each other’s character directly and so had to rely on the intelligence of others.

317.

Sha¯lema parre konom, buyom ve nei pir. Qadema kerde dokal, nuzadom ra dir. I’ll tear my sash [and] hang it around the saint’s neck. My back is broken [because] my betrothed went far away. It is not clear if the distressed man is berating the saint at a shrine for not having helped him or just venting his pain with a grand gesture. For pir see the Glossary.

318.

Shou va pa¯ ruz ve suva¯r, berrein ve Shira¯z. Nuzadom lou kagha¯zi, sir bash konom na¯z. At night on foot, by day on a horse, let’s go to Shiraz. My betrothed with the beautiful lips, I make love to her to the full. A man drafted into the army takes leave of his fiance´e.

The next ten verses are about child brides and old men taking young wives. Qur’anic law allows girls to be married at nine years of age. Any shortage of women puts downward pressure on the marriage age of girls and upward pressure on the marriage age of men. 319.

Douduar haf sa¯leye nakande pestun, ˇ e khoshe ba¯zi koni se mei zamestun. C A girl of seven years, no breasts grown [yet], How pleasant it is to ‘play’ [with her] the three months of winter. This clearly describes a man’s feelings. The motif of the attractiveness of girl-children as sex partners for men is expressed in songs like this. ‘Play’ here stands for fondling and sex (see ba¯zi in the Glossary). In the winter, workdays for men were short and nights long, as an old man joked. In the past when women were scarce, parents were under pressure to ‘sell’ their daughters at an early age, and buy child-brides for their own sons before another family did. (‘Sell’ and ‘buy’ are local people’s terms.) I heard the song first as a work song from a woman hulling rice in a mortar.

320.

Numzadom haf sa¯leye nakerde pestun. Go, khoda¯ ba¯lei serrom, da junma besun. My betrothed is seven years old and has no breasts [yet]. He (or she) said, God above my head, take my life.

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This ambiguous verse elicited three interpretations from two local women. One elderly woman said that a man is speaking, happy to get a bride, or else the girl or her mother lament the cruel fate of being forced into a child-bride marriage. A younger woman said that a man is disappointed about a bride too young to ‘do anything with’, forcing him to wait for several years before she was a useful wife. For jun see Glossary. 321.

Numzadom bacˇezane, na ale ha¯le. Ye do ruz neidemesh, tei khom se sa¯le. My betrothed is a child-woman, doesn’t know anything. [Yet] the one, two days I didn’t see her are like three years for me. The girl-child is inexperienced in sexual matters and her people make the husband wait a few years for the consummation of the marriage. Nevertheless, he is infatuated with her.

322.

Pasunet pansh shash sa¯li men pish qata¯rom. Nuzadom mishe kohi khom ghucˇ tava¯lom. Your breasts of five, six years [are] near my cartridge belt. My betrothed is a mountain sheep, I am a penned-up ram. The end of the first line made little sense to the people I asked: maybe they describe an embrace, or else they just facilitate the rhyme. The image of a little girl betrothed to an impatient man is clear, though. Two verses in the girl-bride category are unique, letting a mother admonish her young daughter, the girl speak up, and her future motherin-law answer:

323.

Da¯i tonegom, rud tonegom, huneda¯ri khub kon. Kha¯nom aris igirive, kucˆikom, shi nikonom. My child, I tell you, dear, I tell you, keep house well. The lady bride cries, I am little, I won’t marry. The pain and despair of little girls forced by tradition (supported by religion) to leave their homes, live with strangers as their servants, and gratify their husband’s sexual wishes, is hardly ever talked about in public. It was taken as a fact of life, one of God’s inscrutable hardships for women. But women do evaluate and remember, as this song shows. A mother has the duty to teach her daughters good housekeeping skills. Here she tells the girl to work hard so as not to shame her.

98 324.

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Qasam kharde da¯ye duma¯, huneda¯ri sit ikonom. Ra ve hamum shire duma¯, kakajunish pas serresh. The groom’s mother swore, I will keep house for you. The groom went to the bathhouse, followed by his dear brother. The groom’s mother cuts short the lament and the young man gets groomed for the final stage of the wedding. The promise of good treatment of the bride in her in-laws’ house is aimed at the most common traditional complaints of brides, i.e., that they are overworked servants for their mother-in-law, ‘serving her by day and him at night’, as a young woman said as a reason for refusing an offer of marriage. Routine assurances that the girl would not have to work in the husband’s house are taken as a polite lie by everybody.

325.

Vou khoda¯ ba¯run bezan, zamin bekhise. Piremerd bacˇe sa¯va tei gol verise. May God make it rain to soften the soil. [You] childish old man get up from the side of the young woman. The verse criticises lusty old men. After a rain any man ought to be busy in the fields. In this case, the social awkwardness of an old man with a young wife adds to the awkwardness of the implied agricultural urgency that the old man cannot meet because of age or because he is busy with his bride. For gol see Glossary.

326.

Piremerd rish kuzali dendune kanda, Niteri busesh koni bia besha banda. [You] toothless old man with the shabby beard Can’t kiss her, give her to me. People made fun of old men with a young wife with such poems and bemoaned the bad matrimonial situation of poor young men who could not afford a wife.

327.

Ve khoda¯, khoda¯, khoda¯, berrei ba¯la¯tar. Kei didi das piremerd ser na¯fe doda¯r. O God, God, God, look closely. When have you seen the hand of an old man on a [young] girl’s navel? It is understood that the young bride is a virgin. The hand on the navel is a euphemism for sexual play, petting. Again a younger man without a wife vents his anger at an older man who can afford a wife.

¯ D, ZAN O MARD SPOKEN FOR AND MARRIED NUZA 328.

99

Ashtafi kopa, kopa, pil khorda, khorda, Mo ˇcetour shi konom ve i nime morda? Gold coin next to gold coin [on my cap], plenty of money, How am I to marry such a half dead [old] man? A young girl/woman is complaining about an elderly, rich suitor. As long as there was a shortage of women, a considerable difference in age at marriage was quite common. In addition, rich older men had the economic strength to marry several young women, and although polygyny was rare among ordinary tribal people, it was of concern. Early in the twentieth century the chief of Sisakht married at least five ‘young and beautiful’ women, people remember. Girls had little or no say in such arrangements.

The next dozen verses speak about poor men’s outlook on marriage. 329.

Mo umeim mo umeim mo ve ra¯h tang umeim. Zan ima¯na ve kas nadin, ve jalabriz umeim. I have come, I have come, I have come a difficult road. Don’t give my wife/bride to anybody, I have come with riches. A young man is returning from the difficult trip to buy/barter goods necessary to satisfy the family of his intended or fiance´e – a trip that in all likelihood indebted him deeply – and now is afraid that the girl’s family might have lost patience with him as a suitor. Jalab is a young male lamb; jalabriz refers to the time in spring when urban traders used to come to the pastoralists’ camps to buy lambs. Here, jalabriz may refer to a well-groomed, adorned horse or to something of value like a piece of gold jewellery.

330.

Ma¯ umeimun, ma¯ umeimun, hamemun talmit suva¯r. Zan ima¯na kas naditun, ba¯ruziye ma¯ serre va¯r. We have come, we have come, all riding bareback. Don’t give my wife to anybody else, our bridewealth is ready. A man may need so much time to come up with the brideprice and/or goods necessary for establishing a household that the bride’s family gets impatient with him.

331.

Ma¯ umeimun, ma¯ umeimun, ma¯ ve ra¯h tang umeim. Zan ima¯na kas nadintun, ma¯ si jang umeim. We have come, we have come, we have come on a difficult road. Don’t give my wife to anybody, we have come [prepared] to fight.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN A suitor threatens to fight for his betrothed in case her people will not honour the marriage arrangement.

332.

Dush ve Shira¯z umeim, mahli fakirom. Se qa¯li, yeki ye ga¯, nalit nemirom. Last evening I came back from Shiraz, I am very poor. [I bought] three rugs, [worth] a cow each, don’t let me die. The suitor could not get everything the bride’s family had wanted and pleads to accept him nevertheless. Shiraz, the next big city for people in Sisakht, some 160 kilometres away, meant an arduous and long journey until a paved road was built in the 1970s.

333.

Dush ve Shira¯z umeim, mahli fakirom. Kaka¯yal jamabeit, nalin nemirom. Last evening I came back from Shiraz, I am very poor. Brothers, gather around [and help me], don’t let me die. This variant of the previous verse engages the man’s brothers to help him out, as indeed they ought to, according to the traditional code of family obligations. They should help with expenses and by speaking for him.

334.

Hoi ha¯luyal, hoi ta¯ta¯yal, ma ka¯faritun. Ye harfi vei lou malus sim bezanitun. Hello, mother-brother, hello, father-brother, are you heathens? Put in a good word for me [with the girl] with the beautiful lips. Relatives are pressed into speaking well of a suitor in the girl’s family if she or her relatives have doubts about his character or economic and social standing.

335.

Qava¯mi ve kul ˇcapom, dahtir ve ra¯som. Mo ke sarba¯z doulatom zan si ˇce kha¯som. A Qavami-rifle is on my left shoulder, a ten-shooter on my right. As a soldier of the government, what would I want a wife for? Soldiers were proverbially underpaid and unable to provide for a family. ‘Qavami’ here stands for the army. The politically and economically important Qavami family of Tehran and Shiraz was supporting the Shah at that time in his war efforts.

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Mo salsal samt ˇcapom, bernou ve ra¯som. Nounesom sarba¯zie, duara kha¯som. My automatic rifle is on my left side, the Brno rifle on my right. I didn’t know I’d be a soldier when I asked for the girl. Conscripts were paid so badly that it was impossible for them to get married to a young woman from a good family. For Brno see Glossary.

337.

Shou sala¯m ruz ham sala¯m hune duarda¯r. Duar ige shi nikonom kurr saha¯rda¯r. Greetings at night and also by day to a house with many daughters. The girl says I won’t marry a guy who is a soldier. In the past marriageable girls were scarce, and young men made themselves agreeable to families with several daughters in the hope of getting one. A soldier, however, had nearly no chance of finding acceptance as a suitor.

338.

Shou vadine gellei ga¯, ruz vadine mandal. Duar go, shi nikonom kurr daset varda¯r. At night I look after cows, by day after kids. The girl said, I won’t marry [you], boy, let me be. A shepherd is too poor to be of interest to the girl he wants. In the old days a shepherd was either a hired servant or the son of a herder too poor to hire a shepherd. Routinely, the master of a shepherd eventually would provide him with a cheap wife, one from a poor family or with flaws in body or character, as part of his wages.

339.

Gukelet meia mabar, borgta makhond. Mo kurri a¯hangari delmun natouvan. Don’t swing your hips, don’t raise your brows. I am [only] a blacksmith’s son, my heart can’t stand it. The young man laments his poverty and low status that prevent him from marrying the alluring girl who flirts with him. Blacksmiths were a low endogamous social class. For del see Glossary.

340.

Tofangal pak dahtire, ma¯le mo ye tire. Mardom (or: kha¯n, kadkhoda) zanam niden, igon fakire. The rifles are tenshooters, mine has one shot. The people (or: the chiefs) won’t give me a wife; they say, I am poor. Tribal chiefs often interfered in marriage arrangements of the people.

102 341.

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Dahtir kule ˇcapom, bernou ve rasom. Nounesom edba¯rie¨ duara kha¯som. A tenshooter is on my left shoulder, a Brno on my right. I didn’t know this was [too] shabby when I wanted the girl. Although the suitor is well-off and a good fighter the girl or her people reject him. He is miffed. For Brno see Glossary.

342.

Kamarom dard ikone, das na¯m ve zuni. Nadeiyen, delsuz da¯rom na (or: si) ya¯rejuni. My back hurts, I put my hand on the knee. They did not give [you to me, and] I have a heartache and no lover (or: my heart aches for the beloved). The disappointed young man is sitting somewhere with his hands in his lap, too pained to work. See del in the Glossary.

343.

Aftoue¨ gardan boland, qeilun zardom. Kucˆeka lou makhmali vargasht ve mardom. Sunshine on the high pass, my shiny waterpipe. The little one with the velvet lips returned to the people. The girl or her family has broken an engagement or turned a suitor down, and now she returned to the marriage-pool (‘the people’), ready to be courted by somebody else. The disappointed, angry young man took to the wilderness to calm down.

The following three verses are rare examples of women talking about their desire to get married. In the past parents had the obligation to arrange marriages for their children or to arrange occasions for their children to meet eligible potential spouses. In circumstances such as a girl’s incapacitated parents, great poverty, infirmity or social blemishes, a girl might not get acceptable suitors and will spend her life as a spinster either in her father’s house or with a brother, ‘in everybody’s way’, as one of them said. With the recent waning of parental authority and rising marriage age, attitudes toward single women are changing, but the dependency on male relatives continues to be the norm in Iran, as relatively few women are in the workforce. 344.

Shirberenj sit konom ve shire tishtar. Har kessi duar ikha¯ pa¯ bele pishtar. I’ll make milk-rice for you with milk from a young goat. Anybody who wants a wife put your foot forward.

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This rare woman’s voice is taking a mild inititative in finding a spouse. The woman offers a favorite food to attract a suitor, or at least she is singing about such a plan. Tishtar is a first-time mother-goat. The two lines are linked by the image of a young female ready to be impregnated, and by the food equals sex equation. 345.

Ye ma¯ri zerjumeme, nilom beshinom. Ya¯ bı¨eiı¨n, bedinma shi, ya¯ bekoshinom. There is a snake under my skirts, won’t let me sit down. Either come and give me away in marriage or kill me. A young woman is speaking: I am restless, troubled and unhappy because I have no husband. ‘To sit’ means to rest, but in this case also means to take a position of authority in the house, in contrast to children and servants, who cannot sit still because they have to be at their elders’ beck and call.

346.

Duar go moqei shi kardane, niterom beshinom. Ya¯ aqd sim benevisin ya¯ bekoshinom. The girl said, it is time for me to marry, I can’t sit down. Either come and make a marriage contract for me or kill me. Both versions rest on the assumption that girls and women have sexual urges that need to be satisfied, that a spinster has so little to look forward to that she might as well be dead, and that it is the parents’ duty to find spouses for sons and daughters in good time.

Dance and Sing beraks, bekhun 347.

Vou khoda¯ yek va¯ye da¯rom, davate ruyom vaka¯r. Khom beguyom khom beraksom, ta¯ bemune ya¯dega¯r. I desire one thing from God: to make my dear’s wedding happen. [There] I will sing, I will dance, so that it will be a [good] memory. A woman is speaking. For ‘my dear’ a name or relationship such as uncle, brother may be inserted. A mother sang this at her son’s wedding.

348.

Bide souze demme qala sa¯ye bos ve mouresh. Na¯ze ba¯lei shire duma¯, sob ireim si zanesh. The green willow tree in front of the fort threw its shade on the meadow. In the morning we’ll leave to bring the lion-groom’s wife for his comfort.

104

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN The groom’s relatives see the acquisition of a new bride from the standpoint of one of their own men – he needs a wife to elevate his status to that of a ‘man’ (mard) and to secure his domestic and sexual comfort.

349.

Ra ve shika¯l shire duma¯, haf ser a¯vord, haf zabun. Khalatesh da¯ sha¯h ve Tehrun, har golish dar ye moqum. The lion-groom went hunting, brought back seven heads, seven tongues, Gave them as a gift to the Shah in Tehran, each piece by itself. This bragging song asserts that the bridegroom is an important man, a skilled hunter and able to give even the Shah a valuable gift.

350.

Ba¯khcˆe vakon dadajuni gol beriz kellei serresh. Veijo ta¯ tei sha¯h Tehrun, pa¯ va pa¯ gol nargese. Take the bundle, dear sister, throw flowers on his head. From here to the Shah in Tehran narcissus flowers [cover the path] at every step. A groom is readied for his bride and everybody is happy, most of all his sister. Mention of the Shah – this was before the Revolution of 1979 – elevates his status.

351.

Solfe sorkhe shire duma¯, shou ˆcera¯qe meilese. Duare sha¯h i vela¯yat, bivi arus sar kerdeshe. The groom’s bright locks [shine like] the lamp in a meeting. The lady bride stands above the daughter of the Shah of this country. Even before the Revolution, a singer was apparently uncomfortable with this comparison, and abandoning rhyme and reason ended the second line with ‘the Shah’s daughter asked about the bride’ because the bride was so famous.

352.

I qale, ri ve qelba, cel setin, cel penjera. Menesh neshas kha¯nom aris va¯ telesm o zelzela. In this [big] fort facing Mecca, with 40 pillars and 40 windows, Sits the lady bride with an iron amulet and a golden necklace. The two lines link religion with wealth and status: the noble house and an expensive necklace of a special kind popular among the tribal elite, mark the bride as wealthy and high-class; the mention of the qebla, the

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direction of Mecca that Muslims face when praying, and the mention of the iron amulet said to ward off malevolent jinn, link it to piety and tradition. At several stages of the lifecycle, including the bridal stage, women were said to be especially vulnerable to malevolent influences. Here, piety and obedience to God, as well as gold, iron, and wealth/status are summoned for protection. A qale is the fortified compound of a tribal chief, a fort. 353.

Gol veri kousheta pa¯ kon, meja¯le ratane. Qoum khishun ba¯ kha¯bar bu, moqei rokhsat da¯dane. Get up, girl, put on your shoes, it is time to go. May the [groom’s] relatives get the message; it is time to take honourable leave. This wedding song comments on the bride’s transfer to her husband and his family. For the women with whom I talked about it, this was not the important message, though. For them, the crucial verb was rokhsat da¯dan, to dismiss, to take leave. Depending on circumstances it may mean that the transfer of the bride was a satisfactory event, that honour was bestowed and received, that with the leave-taking the groom’s family is being gifted with a valuable bride; or else that the groom’s family is humbled because of problems in the marriage negotiations or because of the groom’s social inferiority. The leave-taking/receiving is a time of quiet social reckoning.

354.

Kha¯nom aris igirive; gol bedin ve shouharesh, Benevisin Torkesarma¯z, ta¯ bia¯ ha¯luyellesh. Lady bride is crying; give the girl to her husband. Write to Torkesarmaz to ask her mother-brothers to come. This rhyme has the bride anxious to get married and tired of waiting for her relatives to come to the wedding. Reference to writing gives an intended modern touch to the request. For gol see Glossary.

355.

Zire koftom zire bekhtom, kha¯ke zira vam nesha¯s, Marakhas kon ba¯ba¯ aris, ruza ba¯lei koh neshas. I pounded cumin (?) I sifted cumin, cumin dust covers me. Let her go, bride’s father, the sun [already] set behind the mountain. This is sung while the bride is taken to her husband’s place during daytime. The text suggests that the bride is eager to join her waiting

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN groom, while her father and mother hesitate to part with her. I was unable to establish a link between cumin and wedding customs.

356.

Bio berreimun bio beshimun ba¯ghe ima¯ rishei kamar. Sad suva¯re shire duma¯, hame sarda¯ri vevar. Let’s go [and] sit in our garden at the foot of the steep rock. A hundred horsemen [will come] with the lion-bridegroom, all dressed in the finery of army commanders. With a show of pomp, the groom and his people will honour the bride and impress her people.

357.

Vou khoda¯ vo vei khoda¯, ˆcandi veisom serre pa¯, Daspa¯ sorkhom dase mardom; ma¯h neshas parviz ve ja¯. O God, O God, how long do I wait on my feet [With] my henna-covered hand and feet amidst the people? The moon has retired, the morning star is in its place. A bride is being delivered to her husband’s place in the evening and is waiting near the groom’s house for the groom to fetch her. The song may be sung at any time by anybody but fits best the impatient groom’s relatives who, with the bride’s purported eagerness, emphasise that surely the bride cannot wait to join their household. (At this, one of the young women present snorted dismissively.)

358.

Bivi Golgol, bivi Golgol, to ˆcette, noftet ˆcerre. Serre ˆcarke kha¯nom aris, sad toman dune dorre. Lady Golgol, Lady Golgol, why are you out of sorts? On the lady bride’s headscarf is a pearl [worth] a hundred Toman. The bride’s mother’s name is inserted for the name in the first line. The bride’s mother may be unhappy about losing her daughter, about the daughter’s in-laws or about the daughter’s uncertain future. The text is to assure her that her daughter will be well provided for. It is understood that the expensive pearl (worth about a quarter of the monthly salary of a teacher at the time) is a gift from the groom’s family.

359.

Qaba¯ zari, qaba¯ zari, ser dasesh kerma¯nie¨. Kerdesh ve var, shire duma¯, khalate ilkha¯nie¨. A mantle of silk, a mantle of silk, a sleeve of kermani-cloth. The lion-bridegroom put it on; it was a reward from the khan. The bridegroom is praised as an important man.

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The next two verses together tell a story about marriage economics and oneupmanship. 360.

Dem hunei kakei duar na¯renji deruma¯de. Ba¯rusie¨ shire duma¯ ve sa¯yash daruma¯de. Next to the house of the bride’s brother an orange tree has grown. In its shade is the lion-groom’s bridewealth. This is a song of praise and boasting: the groom displays a big load of bridewealth-goods. Today, too, wedding guests are invited and expected to appraise the gifts and goods for the young couple, on display in the house. See bridewealth in the Glossary.

361.

Za ve pahna¯ kakei aris, bashloqe ba¯jish kame. Das ve jib kerd kakei duma¯, harce kha¯hi tei khome. The bride’s brother was huffed, [the] bridewealth and gifts were small. The groom’s brother put his hand in his pocket, whatever is missing is on me. For the kin-terms names can be inserted. A generous and dutiful man helps his brother, the groom, if the bride’s people raise their demands at the last minute or belittle the goods the groom displays. This happened occasionally at a wedding. A wedding easily becomes a venue for competition (over goods, manners, generosity) between the brothers of the bride and groom, standing in for the respective families.

362.

Hei ve mehtar, ba¯d ve sa¯z kon, ta¯ begom hei marhaba¯. Sarre sa¯zet noqre girom va kamarbandet tala¯. Hello, musicians, blow into the oboe so that I can say, welcome. The mouthpiece of your oboe is clad in silver [and] your belt is of gold. Sung for the musicians playing at weddings, it praises the oboe player’s endurance and his skills. For about 25 years, soon after the Revolution of 1979, music and dances at weddings were outlawed. After 2005 these laws were relaxed and traditional weddings were possible again with music from an oboe and drums or from recordings. They are staged now in private courtyards, not in public spaces accessible to everybody as in the past.

363.

Hei vera¯ka¯s, hei vera¯ka¯s, gol berizim va ba¯lei toulaba¯z. Sad toman da¯deme desma¯l az barei dase reka¯s.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Hello, dancers, hello, dancers, let us throw flowers on the stick-dancers. We paid hundred Toman for the scarf in the dancer’s hand. At weddings women dance in a circle, rhythmically waving colourful scarves. Sometimes a few men join such round dances with exaggerated movements. Otherwise men engage in mock attacks to a special kind of music, with spectators around two fighters who score when they hit the opponent’s leg with a long stick used as a weapon and for defence. These dances were outlawed after the 1979 Revolution, but since about 2005 some houses honour this tradition again in the privacy of their own courtyards. The expensive scarf tells the guests that the house of the groom has spared no expense for the wedding.

364.

Gol ke ˇcidom dase basom porre ta¯la¯re qala. Hametun begin muba¯rek zan o merd o amala. I picked flowers, made bouquets, filled the big room in the fort. Wish us luck, all of you – woman, man and servant.

365.

Za ve pahna¯ shire duma¯, perre jibesh mikhake. Das kerdom mikhak dera¯rom, angoshtarin pitake. The lion-bridegroom turned away, his pocket full of cloves. I put my hand in to take out cloves [but] my ring caught. This was sung at weddings. However, za ve pahna¯ may mean the groom has left or even died. Cloves were used as perfume especially at weddings.

366.

Mulla Khosrou, Mulla Khosrou, june mo qorbune to. Dasma¯le hafrang, shou hena¯bandune to. Mullah Khosrow, Mullah Khosrow, my life is your sacrifice. The colourful kerchief! Tonight is your henna-painting. In the afternoon of his wedding day a well-dressed groom had his palms hennaed for beauty, health and luck. Mullah (see Glossary) is a title of honour for literate people.

367.

Halja basom, halja basom, haljeye sivose rang. Menesh neshas shire duma¯, ba¯zigar shir o polang. We prepared the bridal chamber, we prepared the bridal chamber, a chamber with 33 colours. In it sits the lion-groom, playing lion and tiger.

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‘Thirty-three colours’ means that the room is well-appointed and beautiful. The word ‘player’ (ba¯zigar) implies that groom and bride have a good time with each other. Lines like these always bring giggles but the image of lion and tiger also suggests aggression. Women said that many husbands fight and rape their brides. 368.

Teshe ki bi, teshe ki bi, ta¯ sehar milulena¯. Teshe halje shire duma¯, sha¯khzar misuzena¯. Whose fire is it, whose fire is it, that flickered until dawn? [It was] the fire in the bridal chamber of the lion-groom who burned a piece of gold. To burn a piece of gold means to have a reckless, great time.

369.

Panshta¯ penjei das Bivi Nazok, panshta¯ sha¯hi pa¯yeshe. Icˇenun range na¯, delle teifash vash khoshe. [His] five fingers are Bibi Nazok; five kings are on his foot. The way [they are] hennaed makes his people happy for him. The chic young man is getting married. ‘Bibi Nazok’ stands for a slim, high-ranking beauty. His relatives are happy for him to have acquired a wife at a time when women were rare and getting married was the most important step into responsible, full male adulthood. Unmarried men of all but old age are called ‘boy’. (In 2015 nobody in Sisakht could remember a never-married adult man in the past.)

370.

Hardo dase Mulla Shahrokh base bi range hena¯. Dadash vou ma¯le ba¯la ikone shukr khoda¯. Both of Mullah Shahrokh’s hands are hennaed. His sister in the upper camp gives thanks to God. The groom is being dressed for the last part of his wedding. Of all relatives, a man’s sisters were said to be the happiest people in the family when their brothers found wives because they liked them best. This sister is married, living elsewhere.

371.

Bivi Goli ˇcarq zade, ˇcarqe ri mahmal zade. Mene halje shire duma¯, ma¯h ve nu ˇca¯rda zade. Lady Goli [had her] bangs cut, the bangs on her velvet face. In the wedding chamber is the lion-bridegroom; there is a new half moon.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Bangs and sidelocks were traditional signs of married women. Goli had hers cut on the wedding day, while her groom is waiting. The half moon points to the future.

372.

Duar malus (or: nalbekie¨lle) gerideri, kurr na¯zi, na¯zi. Donya¯ doruzena ikonen ba¯zi. A pretty girl (or: tea-tray) back and front, a love-crazy young man Play as if the world had only two days left. The singer added, for my benefit, ‘In the wedding chamber’. The pleasantly decorated traditional tea trays used to be imported from cities. They were pretty like girls. For ba¯zi see Glossary.

373.

ˇ e khoshe sa¯ye se ˇci, raz o bid o gerdu. C ˇ e khoshe ba¯zi koni men hajleye nou. C How pleasant is the shade of three things: vine, willow and walnut tree. How pleasant it is to play in the new bridal chamber. ‘Play’ is a euphemism for petting, flirting and sex. In a 2006 version of the song it is substituted with ‘pleasant talk’ (sohbat), avoiding the obvious sexual connotation. The three trees define a prosperous, pleasant settlement. A new bridal chamber is clean, perfumed and decorated, and thus a quintessentially lovely place. For ba¯zi see Glossary.

374.

Zire haljat migodashtom, buye haljat ˇce khashe. Dasele shire duma¯ mene zolfe zineshe. I walked by outside your bridal chamber. How pleasant is the scent of your bridal chamber. The hands of the lion-bridegroom are in the braids of his wife. The lion is a popular image of power. The singer, however, a pious woman who found the traditional expression of lion-groom embarrassingly sex-laden (‘not good,’ she said), confounded the terms for lion and milk (both are shir) and explained shire duma¯ as: ‘the bridegroom was as white and beautiful as milk’.

375.

Khoruse zarde pa¯ parperri, zire hajle micˆerid. Bonge aris makonintun, shire duma¯ kharamide. The fluff-feathered brown rooster is pecking outside the bridal chamber. Don’t call the bride, the lion-groom just fell asleep.

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The rooster helps the rhyme and the theme. It is understood that making the bride answer the call or move in the bed would wake the exhausted groom. The groom’s mother is singing.

Husband and Wife mard o zan (Locally, the phrase is ‘wife-and-husband’) 376.

Ar ikhei mirat bekhat gukelta beshka, Sob ga men rakhtella ou gol bepeshka. If you want your husband to want you, swing your hips, [And] early in the morning sprinkle rosewater in the bedding. This admonition to a bride is a favourite song at weddings.

377.

Dasma¯le la¯ki ve serret, ˇcegen tombunet. Ar serret dard ikone, mirat qorbunet. A red scarf on your head, your skirt is of expensive fabric. If your head aches, your husband is your servant. This is a well-taken-care-of wife.

378.

Ra¯h dirom, melki mikhaki lah kerde pa¯ma. Qorbune emshou berram, gol bose ja¯ma. The road is long and the thorn in the shoes chafed my feet. I am a sacrifice tonight, the wife made my bed ready. With a wife at home a man is assured to have the comforts he needs. For qorbun and gol see Glossary.

379.

Duar veri, junom veri, bonge ghoruse. Korraku ser safare, bandire buse. Get up, girl, get up, my dear, the rooster is crowing. [Your] man is about to start a journey [and is] waiting for a kiss. The man’s mother is talking. She is concerned with her son’s welfare and teaches her daughter-in-law how to administer to him attentively. We see a young wife and her friendly mother-in-law living peacefully under one roof. This is the only verse that speaks to the heavily burdened relationships among the women in a house. The general opinion was (and is) that as long as the women in a house do their job, i.e., make the master of the house comfortable, all is well. This is also the message in this verse.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

380.

Ya¯r mo veijo monde dellom, haf ma¯h na teite. Ya¯ ve karkhune qandom, ya¯ ve Kuweite. Dear, I miss you here, seven months I am far from you. I am either [working] in the sugar factory or in Kuwait. In the 1960s local men found employment in the Gulf States, especially in Kuwait, and in the 1970s employment opened in several sugar factories in and around the tribal region. The overpopulated village did not have enough land and jobs for its young men, and many local men became migrant workers, leaving their wives and children behind. The sugar factory mentioned here was in Yasuj, the administrative centre of the province.

381.

Dig pasin men gardane zenget ye ta¯jari. Qad ba¯rik, ahu ka¯far bacˇe meia¯re. Last evening on the pass a trader met you. The woman, the heathen antelope, doesn’t have children. The first line has nothing to do with the second, it is not even a good rhyme. The curse on a childless woman, however, is clear and heartfelt, especially by a childless man’s female relatives. (A man said that a barren woman was ‘the antelope’s butt’.) Fertility and nursing were taken to be entirely women’s issues. Only in the last generation has the acknowledgement of male infertility and its treatments lightened the guilt-burden on women in unintended childless marriages. In Sisakht, however, several childless couples in the past had good marriages and coped with their ‘fate’ without rancor. Given the prevalent sentiment, though, women were afraid of infertility as much as of ‘too many’ children. (Meanwhile infertility treatment has become a major medical enterprise in Iran.)

Six verses in the collection comment on women’s problems with marriage and husband. 382.

Sa¯ati ser dasete, bandesh tala¯ye. Gola ku khub golie¨, bakhtesh sia¯ye. A watch is on your hand with a band of gold. The woman is a good woman; her fate [luck] is bad. A relative or a neighbour feels sorry for the good woman with a rich but bad husband. The wife is not complaining, though. A woman’s treatment after marriage was (and still is) regarded as her fate – treated well by her

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husband and his people, she was said to be lucky; treated badly, she was unlucky but could not change it. Since about 2000, wife-inititated divorce has been rising steadily everywhere in Iran, including in this area, thus making a bad marriage much less of a binding fate. For bakht and gol see Glossary. 383.

Serre kal seil mizanom, darya¯ kyelune. Zane khub mirash edba¯r, zolme gerune. From the top of the mountain I look [around], the sea is blue. A good wife, a bad husband, severe oppression. A rice-hulling song of women is taking a critical stance: the world may look good from afar, but at home a bad husband makes life miserable for his good wife. (For hulling rice see Chapter VII.)

384.

Das doure pesunom nakon, ikone dardom. Das bekon dour gardanom, douret igardom. Let go of my breast, it hurts. Put your hands around my neck, [and] I will follow you. A rare comment on sexual ‘play’ by a woman speaks to complaints by young, inexperienced men that their wives do not let them know how a husband is to please them and to women’s complaints about rough husbands.

385.

Ba¯ nekbat dia¯r ia¯, torbe va poshtesh. Na khoda¯ vagerotesh na banda koshtesh. By the filth [his bad character] is obvious; a back-bag is on his back. God has not taken him, and the people have not killed him. A woman vents her anger about her husband. He is a good-for-nothing, yet she has to put up with him. The back-bag indicates that he likes to be out and about rather than take care of things at home.

386.

To kola va sar mane, mago mo merdom. Tei khoda¯ peshimunom shi be to kerdom. Don’t put a hat on your head, don’t say, I am a man. By God, I regret having married you. Until recently, divorce was no option at all for local women in bad marriages. They could only complain or make their husbands so angry that the husbands would divorce them, keeping the children. This, too,

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN however, was nearly unheard of in Sisakht, (As part of a dialogue, see Nr. 595, 596.)

387.

Shah Qa¯som, Bi Khatinun, ˇca¯rei nada¯rom. Majburom mashk vagerom ou sit bia¯rom. [By] Shah Qasom [and] Bibi Khatenun, I have no choice. I have to take the water-bag and bring you water. Shah Qasom (see Glossary) and Bibi Khatenun are well-known shrines of descendents of the Prophet Muhammad in Boir Ahmad. A woman invokes the saints in protest for having to work for her disagreeable husband or after a fight with him. Until a generation ago, local women transported water from wells or streams in large bags made of goat hide. It was hard work.

388.

Safare garmesiret dir a¯bi, Dellom az zendegunit sir a¯bi. Your travel to (or from) the winter quarter is late. My heart has enough of your way of life. Transhumant pastoralism required long journeys twice a year between the winter quarters in the south and the summer pastures in the mountains in the north. In this case it entails the additional hardship of separation for a couple: one moved to the summer pastures with the animals while the other remained in the winter quarter area to see to fields there. The singer thought the complainer was a woman, but added that pastoralism was hard on everybody. The song is a judgment on the traditional lifestyle in Boir Ahmad and a way of saying that the speaker is sick of it.

CHAPTER 4 RELATIONSHIPS

There are few songs about life in general, about joys and pains of old age, of joie de vivre, of loneliness. Most verses are comments on relationships, and, of those, most are of men’s longing for female companionship. The songs are not genderbalanced, although in all genres women sing more than men and routinely assume the male voice. They do so not only in songs praising a man’s passion for a young beauty but also in songs that marginalise, criticise, mock or harm a woman. Thus women singers ridicule widows and identify with a man who complains about his mother-in-law or laments that wives are no good. Without the slightest hesitation women sing to a bride her mother-in-law’s assurances of good will that everybody knows are empty. Rarely do we hear a woman’s bona fide opinion of her relationships. This can be seen as a consequence of the difficult position women have in Boir Ahmad (as in androcentric societies generally) where their allegiance, split as it is between a woman’s own father’s family and the husband’s, make her potentially uneasy in both houses; where young women have to agree to and satisfy a husband out of social and economic necessity; where mothers are in danger of losing their children in case of divorce, easily obtained by men, or where they have to share resources – meagre resources in the case of ordinary local women – with many others in the household. A traditional house potentially included the husband’s parents, unmarried sisters, his brothers and their families, and, in middle- and old age, at least one son’s wife. And always there was the threat, albeit a low one, of a potential co-wife. While most women I spoke to realised their precarious social position, they were also realists: there is nothing but disquiet to be earned when one makes noises. A woman’s own well-being, power and influence depend on the men in the house, and this also shapes her relationships with the other women in residence. Structurally speaking, the only neutral, unburdened relationship in the family is between mother and daughter. The one between sister and brother is close too, as several songs imply, although in practice many women complain about brothers’ heavy-handed ‘rule’ over

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their sisters. However, despite the limitations set by the androcentric society, women are outspoken, insightful and critical. One has to listen carefully though to hear them talk about their windy world.

He Said, She Said go, go Before the Revolution of 1979 we heard some dialogic singing, especially at weddings, but the genre had been in decline already and the Islamic government’s severe restrictions on singing and on interactions between men and women in public made it disappear. Several verses in this collection seem once to have belonged to dialogic exchanges. The well-known themes in Western dialogic poetry, such as a man’s advances rebuked in strong language by the woman he addresses or a woman’s laments about a lover are evident here, too, as are imagery and metaphors. Although the voices in these songs are clearly defined as male or female, all verses may be sung by either men or women. Women are more likely than men to sing both parts. A man speaks: 389.

Bela¯l bela¯lom, bela¯l bela¯lom, Gar qoulom idi ta¯ ba¯t bia¯yom. I am wailing, I am wailing, Until you promise to let me be (come) with you.

The woman answers: 390.

Bela¯l bela¯lom, na mennom teina¯. Mena busam da¯di ser ba¯lei meina¯. I am wailing, wailing, not I alone. You kissed me on top of my veil. A kiss on the head is a polite kiss of an older relative, not the kiss of a lover. The woman complains about the man’s reluctance to declare himself: a kiss on top of the head says not more than sweet words say about ‘coming’ with her, she tells him. Neither is enough for her.

Man: 391.

Gol ha¯leta ha¯lom mane, ha¯l nada¯rom. Gorge koh jei mo nabu, qar kerde ya¯rom. Girl, don’t ask about my health, I am miserable.

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May no wolf in the mountains be in my place, my beloved is mad at me. Wolves are taken to be notoriously cold, wet, hungry and miserable, but the scolded or rejected lover is more miserable yet. For gol, qar and wolf see Glossary. Woman: 392.

Ma¯h za¯de, ma¯htab za¯de men einaka¯ri. Ha¯lto ve ha¯lom mane, ˇceqle siga¯ri. The moon is shining, moonlight falls on the mirrorwork (or: glass door). Don’t talk to me, young man with the cigarette. Moonlight here stands for a lonely night, and the cigarette was a sign of urban chic and sophistication at the time we heard this exchange.1 The reason for the woman’s dismissive gesture is not given. The dialogue may signify frustrated longing in both partners or else the woman’s misgivings or coy dismissal of the man’s advances.

Man: 393.

Ye ˇca¯le kougi dideme sine benesun, Dokhtaru beshken o bia ˇca¯l kouga besun. I saw the nest of a partridge on the almond hill. Girl, move and come take the partridge nest.

Woman: 394.

Tokhme sag, kule harum va khot o ˇca¯l kouget. Mo si ˇce khoma buyom zir ha¯le douget. Seed of a dog, dirty bastard, you and your partridge nest! Why should I put up with your dirty penis? The suitor is poetic while the woman does not mince words. ‘Seed of a dog’ is a deft, common insult because the dog is not only a despised animal but hara¯m, religiously unlawful. For koug and hala¯l see Glossary.

Man: 395.

Dig pasin ser gardane vash kerdom vakhord. Gellesha das zam, hunesha das bord. Last evening I waylaid her on the pass. I stole her herd and raided her house.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Using imagery from the schema of the past local raiding culture, a man boasts that he surprised the girl/lover and kissed and petted her. In a variant the man is even more explicit, saying, ‘I raided her lips and stole her breasts (louelsha qa¯rat kerdom, mamesha das bord’). See also Nr. 276.

Woman: 396.

Qorbune khodat berram, kurr ta¯ta¯ juni. Dellom se kerdi vou zendeguni. I am ready to sacrifice myself for you, dear father-brother’s son. You darkened my heart with your behaviour. A girl’s appropriate reaction to a man’s explicit admiration is outrage and scolding. The fact that the man is her cousin and thus a potential spouse turns his sexually motivated violence into a kind of courtship. She rebukes him, though. For qorbun and del see Glossary.

Man: 397.

Palelet va¯s a¯bide ma¯bein doshunet. Tie¨lma kamsu kerde dota¯ pesunet. Your braids loosened between your shoulders. Your two breasts dimmed my eyes.

Woman: 398.

Va zabun igom ka¯ka, vou del igom ya¯r. Ya¯ biou bus vam bede, ya¯ dasom varda¯r. With the tongue I say ‘cousin’, with the heart I say ‘lover.’ Either come kiss me or let go of my hand. Do not use your position as a close relative to sing sweet songs to me without following through with the courtship. Kaka means (elder) brother as well as son of father’s brother, a potential marriage partner. For kaka and del see Glossary.

The next two sets of dialogues are flirtatious exchanges about who is to start with the love making. For del and gol see Glossary. Man: 399.

To goli mo ham golom hardomun gole nou. To goli Mohamadi, mo goli sharambu. You are a flower, I too am a flower, we both are fresh flowers. You are a rose, I am a fragrant flower.

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The sharambu flower was described as emitting a robust fragrance at night that transfers to skin like perfume. Woman: 400.

Khom golom, mamam gole, sinam gole bu. Ar bekhei busom nakoni da¨gh ve dellet bu. I am a rose, my breast is a rose, my chest smells of roses. If you won’t kiss me, may anger and disquiet fill your heart. The curse is worse than my translation – da¨gh also includes rage and misery. For del see the Glossary.

Man: 401.

Khot guli, mamat goli, sinat gole ya¯s. Duar veri bus vam bede dellom tona kha¯s. You are a rose, your breast is a rose, your chest is a flower. Get up, girl, kiss me, my heart wants you.

Woman: 402.

Khom guli, mamam goli, sinat goli bu, Ar bekha¯hi bus vam nadi ve gardanet bu. I am a rose, my breast is a rose, your chest smells of roses. If you won’t give me a kiss, may it be [a burden] around your neck. Again, the woman threatens the reluctant lover with a curse.

The obvious sexual innuendo in the next exchange was intended. Both parts of the dialogue were sung by a woman. Man: 403.

Khot guli, mamat gole, bu gole zolfet. Ye kelile noqrei, buyemesh ve qolfet. You are a rose, your breast is a rose, your braids smell of roses. [I will] put a silver key into your lock.

Woman: 404.

Gar kelile to noqreye, qolfe mo tala¯ye. Gar bout Shah Qa¯some, boum khom khoda¯ye. If your key is silver, my lock is gold. If your father is Shah Qasom, my father is God.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN If you can brag, I can brag more, and do not ever think you are better than I and my people, the woman says. Her rebuttal is an assertion of social status. For Shah Qasom see Glossary.

Man: 405.

Gol veri sha¯l mo bedi qadom buvandom, Qad ba¯rik ia¯re, ra¯hsha buvandom. Woman get up, give me my shawl for wrapping around me. The beautiful girl/woman is coming, I will block her way.

Woman: 406.

Amuza (or: ka¯ka¯) sha¯le vat niyom, dasma¯lom vat idom. Ar bekha¯hi si ba¯t berrom (or: khom bia¯yom) khom ma¯ˇcet idom. Father-brother’s son I won’t give you the shawl, I’ll give you my scarf. If you want me to come along I myself will kiss you. Two more versions of this text differ only slightly. The story is a drama between a man’s love interest (the girl he wants to intercept) and his (perhaps future) wife, his cousin, an arranged marriage. The cousin is the most appropriate spouse but he makes it clear that his attention is elsewhere. In the recent past, several inter-family disturbances erupted when engagements did not work out, such as, for example, when a young man decided to marry a girl he met in the city rather than the cousin he had been engaged to for years. In 2006, a pious local woman I discussed the verse with said that it also might mean that the man demands his shawl from his cousin/fiance´e so that he could court her in style. This is a case of trying, unsuccessfully so, to combine local practices with official morality that locates male/female interactions in a different discourse. In any case the courtship described in this verse is obviously fraught with tension, with the woman assuming a pleading voice.

Man: 407.

Ar bekha¯m ve khod vadar ve kes begom ya¯r, Mene nein zir rakhte khou teit bezanom ma¯r. If [ever] I wanted to call anybody except you, ‘beloved,’ May a snake bite me in the bed next to you in the reed hut.

Woman: 408.

Ar bekha¯m gheir az khota ya¯ri begirom, Serre shum tou begirom, demme sob bemirom.

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If [ever] I wanted to take a lover other than you, May I get a fever in the evening [and] die at dawn. A snake bite is as deadly as a sudden high fever. People feared both. Man: 409.

Ar dasom baste bu pa¯m bepekhou bu, Ye meja¯li sit biam ke ma¯l vekhou bu. [Even] if my hands were tied and my legs were bound, I’d come to you at a time when the camp is asleep. Lovers have a hard time finding private space and time for each other.

Woman: 410.

Nakoni kelugeri shou ma¯h bia¯yi. Na khota koshtan bedi na da rit seyi. Don’t be so crazy as to come on a moonlit night. Neither let yourself be killed nor shamed. The schema of illicit sexual relations entails real danger. If the two lovers were seen, bad things would happen, such as shaming gossip, the wrath of the woman’s brothers or, in the past, the anger of a chief that would endanger the lovers’ lives. This is not an idle threat. Qobad Nikeqbal, the famous chief of Sisakht (see Glossary) burnt to death two young people who were found to have had illicit sexual relations. The story is remembered to this day. Sexual mores have loosened considerably in the present generation, but in small communities gossip still works as a powerful social control.

Man: 411.

Kha¯shkenam mo bidimi ˇcu sirmeidunet, Benamsh men jibe baghalit, mendeke pesunet. I wish I was the mascara-stick You put into your inside pocket, next to your breast.

Woman: 412.

Kha¯shkenam mo bidimi dua¯le tofanget. Ruz ve kulet bidimi, shou zir sha¯l tanget. I wish I was the strap of your rifle. By day I would be on your shoulder, at night under your tight shawl.

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Woman: 413.

Serre koye boland, durbin ˆcep o ra¯s. Meiyune har javun dellom tennei kha¯s. On the high mountain, binoculars left and right [on the shoulder]. Of all the young men my heart wanted you. A woman regrets having fallen for a strong chic and rich young man who somehow disappointed her as a husband or a suitor. For del see Glossary.

414.

Meiyune har javun sha¯dom nekerdi. Dopenjei ka¯ghazi ya¯dom nekerdi. Of all the young men you did not make me happy. You did not [even] remember me with a little note. A dopenjei ka¯ghaz is literally a two-finger long piece of paper, a scrap. Apparently the man left (for work, for study, for war) and the singer feels rejected.

415.

Ar ka¯ghaz nabi, pardeye del. Ar qalam nabi, ˆcube felfel. If there is no paper [use a] the skin of the heart. If there is no pen [use a] a stick of pepper. Do not use dumb excuses for neglecting me.

Wife’s Mother khassi The fact that there are many more verses describing a man’s feelings about his mother-in-law than a woman’s feelings about her mother-in-law may be a function of the fact that most songs represent men’s issues, not women’s issues. It also suggests a further gender imbalance: men speak up, women keep quiet, although to this day many young wives live in a home where the husband’s mother makes life unpleasant for her daughter-in-law. ‘Wife’s mother’ may be a source of vexation and anger for her sons-in-law but just as likely may be a source of comfort and relaxed social relations, as the songs indicate. See Nr. 544 for what a mother-in-law by and large thinks of a son-in-law.

RELATIONSHIPS 416.

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Ta¯ berrei hune gol ye shou memuni. Dei gola ra¯zi koni gola besuni. Go to the girl’s house as a guest one evening. Get the girl’s mother to agree [to the match] and [then] take the girl. The advice to a young man suggests that once a girl’s mother is on the side of a suitor, she will be his best advocate in the family and, should persuasion be necessary, will even be able to talk a hesitant daughter into agreeing to marry him. The term for ‘to marry’ implies an acquisition, an economic transaction on the man’s part. For gol see Glossary.

417.

Duar ve deita bego mo mehrabunom. Zelzele dour gardanet tash bos ve junom. Girl, tell your mother that I am trustworthy. The gold necklace around your neck has thrown fire into my life-soul. A young man bemoans the fact that the girl he wants is also courted by a man of means and substance (hence the gold necklace). He assumes that her mother prefers the other man, and now urges his beloved to put in a good word for him with her mother. Zelzele was a particular kind of gold necklace popular among the elites of Boir Ahmad, implying status and wealth. For jun see Glossary.

418.

Dei kelu duar a¯qel, rasme zamuna. ˇ e bekha¯d ˇce deish nakha¯d iberemesh ve huna. C The mother is crazy, the daughter is reasonable, this is the way of the times. Whether her mother wants it or not, I will take her home. The defiant speaker has a hard time convincing his beloved’s mother of his worth. Mothers of marriageable daughters may be especially critical of suitors because they want to get the ‘best’ (richest, most reliable, socially most prominent) possible husbands for their daughters. Without parental guidance, young women are said to be easily taken in by any chic young man with a ‘big mouth and empty pockets’, as a mother said.

419.

Ye qeta¯re moqami, bernou bolandi. Ye khassi khosh sobati, nouzat qashangi. A strong horse, a long Brno rifle, A well-spoken mother-in-law, a beautiful fiance´e. Life is good for this potent man. For Brno see Glossary.

124 420.

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN ˇ e khoshe khassi yeki, duma¯ dota bu. C Ser shum sohbat koni ta¯ sobet ia¯bu. How pleasant [it is when] a mother-in-law has two sons-in-law. After dinner you will talk until morning. A wife’s mother is socially accessible to her daughters’ husbands. Sons-in-law are bound by custom to be of service to the wife’s house. They have access to the house without much ado, may talk freely with the elder woman, and may choose to do so at least for the purpose of keeping in her good graces.

421. Dei duar aval khube, dinda¯ ve nofte. Mei ba¯de mazerat dellom gerote. At first the girl’s mother was good, later she became unfriendly. Like an ill wind it hurt my heart. This is a frequent complaint of young men considered to be desirable suitors: at first a girl’s mother makes herself as agreeable as possible so as to secure him, and after the couple is married she finds fault with him and becomes disagreeable. The discontent may become so severe that a husband may try to forbid his wife to visit her mother. People said that jinn, evil spirits, cause the mazerat-wind that makes one sad. For del see the Glossary. 422.

Dig pasin ser gardane aftou vellom ke. Harfeli dei vo duar por keselom (or: por serrom) ke. Last evening the sunshine left me on the pass. What the girl and [her] mother said filled me with sadness (or: filled my head). A man complains that his wife and her mother badmouthed him so much that he left in the evening, depressed. It is implied that the husband will not take it quietly. ‘No more peace’, an elderly woman predicted.

423.

Dig pasin pas hunetun gush gerotom. Harfeli deit vam zade mo tash gerotom. Last evening I listened in the back of your house. What your mother said about me inflamed me. The young man complains to his wife about her mother. This puts his wife in an awkward position and may start a family quarrel.

424.

Ar berrei ve tei khoda¯, tie¨lma vou teite. Hame i taksiral pa¯kine deite. [Even] if you were to die, my eyes would be on you. All these problems are your mother’s fault.

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A man assures his estranged wife of his devotion and blames her mother for the problems in his house. To look at and behold somebody means to take an active interest in this person. 425.

Sa¯ati ser dasete, sa¯khte Kuweite. Harfele to ke izani taksire deite. A watch is on your hand, made in Kuwait. Your bad talk is your mother’s fault. A strained relationship between a mother-in-law and her son-in-law easily leads to a strain on the couple’s marriage. The first line indicates that the young husband is taking care of his wife well. Nevertheless her mother is dissatisfied, most likely with the treatment of her daughter in her husband’s house, said a listener. A man is often placed in the unenviable position between his wife, backed by her mother, and his own mother and sisters.

426.

Khot duni, khoda¯ dune, tiam va teite. Duaru gellei makon, taksire deite. You know, God knows, my eyes are on you. Girl, don’t make a row, it is your mother’s fault. By saying, ‘My eyes are on you’, the husband emphasises that he likes his wife and that he is taking good care of her. She ought to keep this in mind and not listen to her mother, he tells her.

427.

Zane khub ma¯darzan khub vadei khoda¯ye. I qadr mo igardom girom nia¯ye. A good wife, a good mother-in-law are God’s promise. However far I wander I can’t find them. A man judges his wife and her family harshly. The wisdom-joke reveals an interfamily problem generalised into a gender issue. Furthermore, ‘God’s promise’ points to the inevitability of marriage, to everybody’s right to a spouse that people take as part of the God-made natural order. The descriptive term, ‘wife’s mother’ is a Farsi term of address and reference that is becoming popular in Boir Ahmad since about 2005.

Widow bive Until about a generation ago most young widows remained in their husbands’ families, usually as a wife of one of the dead man’s brothers. In accordance with the patrilineal social structure that assigns children to their father’s

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group, a widow’s husband’s family had the obligation to take care of her and the children. If she did not want to stay she could move back to her own father’s house, free to marry again, but then she would lose her children. In either case, though, a widow was well chaperoned. Nevertheless, widows had the reputation of being adept at lovemaking and therefore man-hungry. A proverb-joke goes: ‘On a widow’s pillow a young man ages fast (ru ba¯leshte bive kurr zi pir a¯bi).; Without exception the songs refer to this reputation and picture a widow as living alone. This objectionable reputation indicates the liminal and precarious social position of widows. Nobody felt at ease with widows, especially with young ones. (Older widows with grown children stayed with a son and his wife and do not figure in songs.) Social conditions for women have changed considerably in Iran over the past generation. Widows are no longer automatically considered the property of their husband’s group or automatically lose their children to their dead father’s people should they leave or remarry. But their position remains precarious, especially if they have no job and are economically dependent on relatives. Thus the verses are popular still. (See also Nr. 542.) Each of the following four verses tell a short story about a widow’s purported eagerness for getting a man, especially a young one, and the skills they employ to that end. The widow is the agent and thus responsible for what happens to the young men. 428.

Bivezan ye gei da da¯sht, da¯desh ve mikhak. Golgombunesh kerde zash ser nafash. The widow had one more cow, she traded it for cloves. She made a clove-ball and put it on her navel [inside her skirt]. Cloves smell good, and the widow knows that the fragrance is an aphrodisiac that attracts men. For this she abandons all decorum and good sense.

429.

Bivezan ye gei da da¯sht, da¯desh ve gandom, Gerde roughanesh kerde si kurre mardom. The widow had one more cow, she bartered it for wheat. She made fried bread with it for a young man. Kurre mardom literally means ‘boy of the people’, a young man from an unrelated family in contrast to a young kinsman. The widow was after any man, kin or stranger, here luring him with food.

430.

Bivezan men passa tu ˇcei dam ikerd. Rengereng eska¯nelesh ja¯hel jam ikerd. The widow was brewing tea behind her house.

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The tinkling of her tea glasses brought the young men. For young men the tinkling was an invitation to easy flirting. 431.

Bivezan yeki dota da¯de ve gandom. Nun shirinesh kur kerde kurre mardom. The widow bartered this and that for wheat. Her sweet bread made the young man blind. The young man – any young man – is besotted and can no longer see clearly once a widow sets her eyes on him.

432.

Serre kal seil izanom, ou ru sheluye. Ma¯ce duar kerreye, in bive duye. I look down from the hill, the river’s water is muddy. A kiss from a virgin is butter, from a widow it is buttermilk. A man (or a woman) proclaims a general truth: butter is valuable and tasty, buttermilk is cheap and sour. The grey muddy water in the river underscores the association – a widow’s kiss is not sweet.

433.

Bivezan gulom mazan to pil nada¯ri. Darva¯zei romesei, to dam nada¯ri. Widow, don’t deceive me, you have no money. Your doorway is broken, you don’t have a door. Here a man addresses the widow directly, telling her off. For a young man looking for a wife, a widow is of value only if she is rich. If she is not, he is better off with a virgin, he says, and most local people agreed.

434.

Setare sob damide, parviz tulu kerd. Harfella duar ra¯s, bive duru kerd. The morning star has come, the sun is rising. The virgin speaks the truth, the widow lied. The truth comes out in bed. Widows will promise and pretend anything to get a man. This is a ‘daybreak’ verse with a painful twist.

Lullaby la ¯loi La¯loi are baby-songs such as lullabies and others. They have two or more short lines that rhyme and start with ‘lllla¯loi’, whereby the ‘l’ is repeated rapidly several times.

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Mothers used to strap their babies onto the cradle, which was a shallow box on runners, and sing them to sleep while rocking it. They also used to sing short rhythmic verses while playing with babies, such as bouncing them to the rhythm of the chants. The songs were for the baby and the mother and, although anybody nearby heard them, they did not address a wider audience. Singing for a baby was a private affair and an occasion for a woman to express her own thoughts in song. Unlike most other songs, these baby-songs speak of family issues from the women’s point of view. The first poem is a chant for a game mothers play with the baby. 435.

Takhteye nou, takhteye rudom, bessed o guye. Bessed o guna beshmarin ve dase rudom bespa¯rim. The new cradle, my dear’s cradle [with] coral and beads. Let’s count the coral beads into the hand of my dear. Mothers hung beads, amulets and little trinkets on the handle of the cradle for the baby’s protection against dangerous forces like the Evil Eye, jinn and such, and as toys. A baby-game was to tickle the baby’s palm while chanting this rhyme. Beads of various materials strung into necklaces were women’s most private and important possession, ornament and powerful protection alike.

436.

La¯loi, la¯loi, la¯loigeri Da¯i, to bacˇei fermunba¯ri. Sleepy-one, Dear, you are an obedient child. Children, especially daughters, used to be adults’ little helper-servants from an early age. Mother praises the baby for surely later carrying out her requests and orders. Da¯i, mother, here is used teknonymously (see Glossary).

437.

La¯loi [. . . ] hishka nakha¯set. Ye nazarbandi konom si kule ra¯set. Nobody wants [likes] you. I will make an amulet against the Evil Eye for your right shoulder. As praise and admiration are said to facilitate the Evil Eye (see Glossary) to strike, the mother, preventatively, declares that nobody admires the baby. The amulet consists of a small paper with a Qur’an verse, sewn into a piece of fabric and fastened to the baby’s shirt as further protection against the Evil Eye.

RELATIONSHIPS 438.

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La¯loi [. . . ] gole ka¯shni, Ta sa¯la¯ye dellom ba¯shi. Dandelion blossom, Stay in my heart forever. Any mother knows that children leave eventually, more or less abandoning her. Daughters will move away after marriage, and sons will leave her emotionally when they get attached to their wives, even if they stay in the same house. Dandelion is used here to facilitate the rhyme. For del see Glossary.

439.

La¯loi [. . . ] hamiba¯zi, Derrom kerdi, derra basi. Va tiri zei serre dasom, Serre ˇceshme ve khou raftom. Dota suva¯r ve torkestun Menna borden si lorestun [You] playmate [or housemate] threw me out and shut the door. You hit my hand with a bread-roller. I fell asleep at the spring. Two horsemen came from Turkestan, [And] took me to Luristan. For hamiba¯zi a name can be used (I heard it once referring to a co-wife) or a relationship, such as ‘your father’. The woman describes the home as an unsafe place – she had to flee violence but in the end came to the land of the Lurs, that is, she returned ‘home’ to her father or, as a young mother said, she moved ‘far away’. Women in difficult situations at home often expressed the discontent with the fleeing image of ‘far, far away!’ While the singer bounces the baby to the beat of the chant, the baby hears about the mother’s pains and feelings from the first day of life.

The next three verses are examples of animal themes in lullabies. Wild, dangerous animals appear in the context of tars, fear, by taking, eating or in other ways harming the baby, with mother as gate-keeper. In the past more frequently than at present, people considered fear an important, positive and effective means of controlling children. 440.

La¯loi [. . . ] polang az koh, ˇce mina¯la, Na gou monde na gousa¯la, Pa gheir a rude yek sa¯la. The tiger in the mountain, how it wails, No cow is left, no calf [to eat, nothing] but the one-year-old dear.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN It is up to the mother to defend the baby by pressing the baby against her chest. Through such songs children learn early on to be dependent on the mother in a dangerous world.

441.

La¯loi [. . . ] gorguni, Gorge pire ye denduni, Rude mena nakhari, khot duni. You wolf, Old wolf with only one tooth, You won’t eat my dear [baby], you know. Mother is safety.

442.

La¯loi [. . . ] rudom la¯loi nikone, Ba¯run iya¯ taret kone, Aftou dinda khoshket kone, Ha¯lut iya¯ ma¯cet kone, Gorg tiketiket kone. Khers uma bekharet. Neyou neyou, nakharesh khou bordesh. My dear won’t sleep, Rain comes and makes you wet, Afterwards sunshine dries you, The wolf will tear you apart, The bear came to eat you. Don’t come, don’t come, don’t eat [the baby]. [The baby] fell asleep. The impatient mother (‘overworked and tired,’ said her mother-in-law) wants the baby to sleep and sings it a threat and an encouragement.

443.

La¯loi [. . . ] kurrom, kurrom, Dune durrom, Bardi zade ve men jerrom. Rahtom ve qar, neuma terrom. My son, my son, My pearl. He threw a rock into my back. I left, insulted, and [he] did not come after me. This is a familiar drama, an unsentimental complaint to a baby about the baby’s father, sketched in a few words. The father or somebody in his

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family angered or hurt the baby’s mother so much that she left for her own father’s house, leaving the children behind because by law and custom they belong to their father. In such cases the greatly inconvenienced husband usually will go after her soon to persuade her to come back, but there always is the chance that he will not do this, and then the woman has lost her children and the children lost their mother. This social and emotional catastrophe was – and continues to be – of great concern to everybody. Babies learn about it in the cradle. 444.

La¯loi [. . . ] ya¯ri, To ha¯lu kajkola da¯ri, To ta¯ta¯ sha¯hmela¯ da¯ri. Bezane natars bouye tenne, Qade balacˇa a¯me tenne. Kharmane gol da¯ye tenne. You have a chic mother-brother, You have a literate, important father-brother. Fearless fighter is your father, Crooked-back is your father-sister, Cornflower (?) is your mother. The stereotypical value of the closest relatives in the parental generation is spelled out: father and his brother are fearless and important, father’s sister is a bit ‘ugly’, that is, stern and harsh, while mother and her brother with the roguishly placed cap (kajkola) are chic, nice and beautiful. This corresponds to the schema of the patrilineal family structure that assigns a father and his paternal relatives responsibility for and authority over his children and facilitates relaxed, emotionally close relationships with the mother and her relatives.

445.

Duarom hoi duarom, Shisha nakerd, monde serrom. Ha¯lu duar ta¯je serrom, Bou duar jume verrom, Mirei duar guze kherrom. My daughter, oh, my daughter, She did not get married, stayed with me. [My] daughter’s mother-brother is the crown of my head, [My] daughter’s father is the shirt on my body, [My] daughter’s husband is my donkey’s fart. A woman describes her relationships: an unmarried daughter at home is a confidante and a help, a brother is highly appreciated, a husband is

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN necessary, and a son-in-law is an irritation. In a variant (Nr. 544) the speaker’s brother is the one she swears by, that is, the most valuable person in her social orbit.

446.

La¯loi [. . . ] da¯i, firuza, Memun ye ruz, do ruza. Child, turquoise-bead, A guest of one day, two days. In the form of a lullaby, a woman complains about a guest who overstayed the welcome. However, an elderly neighbour who had lost two children in infancy, saw in the text a mother’s anxiety over the survival of her baby. Firuza here may mean a turquoise-coloured bead, traditionally hung on a baby’s cradle against the Evil Eye; or else it may mean ‘jubilant, joyful’ in the sense of a happy mother. Its main function here is for the rhyme. Da¯i, mother, is used teknonymously (see Glossary).

447.

La¯loi [. . . ] sa¯lie¨ buse. Dendune rudom ˇce maluse, Mei tie¨ bashkhoruse. All year kiss[es]. My dear’s teeth are so pretty, Like the eye of a young rooster.

448.

La¯loi [. . . ] gole tenges, Baba¯t rafte meyune meiles. Tenges blossom, Your father went to the assembly [at the khan’s house]. Your father is an important man.

449.

La¯loi [. . . ] gole gerdu, Baba¯t rafte menne ordu. Walnut blossom, Your father went to the camp assembly. Your father is important and well-regarded by his peers.

450.

La¯loi [. . . ] gole zire, Baba¯t rafte zan begire. Bacˇe iya¯rom, nemigire. Cumin blossom,

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Your father left to get a wife. I am pregnant, he won’t get one. In a few words, a family drama is sketched about a woman’s fear of a cowife, here warded off or postponed because she is pregnant. Her obvious fertility deprives the husband of a convincing reason for taking a second wife. Although in Sisakht polygyny was rare even if a wife was childless, women expressed their fear of a co-wife. Zire, cumin, here serves the rhyme. 451.

La¯loi [. . . ] serre ˇceshma ve khou bidi, Dota javuni ham didi, Yekish Asgar, yekish Akbar, Yekish dumade peighambar. You were asleep at the spring, [And] also saw two young men, One was Asgar, one was Akbar, One was the Prophet’s son-in-law. You were lucky, seeing important religious figures in your dream.

452.

La¯loi [. . . ] kepar, kepar, nada¯re dar, Buhun, buhun, na poshte bum. Bout sa¯khte tu, dar ham da¯re, Si bacˇe mo ru i takhte Hei bekhouse. Branch hut, branch hut has no door, Tent, tent has no mud roof. Your father made a house with a door So that my boy on the cradle Will sleep. Black tents and small branch huts were used in the summer pastures around Sisakht, while mudbrick houses were used in the village proper. The modern economy no longer supports transhumant farming in the area but the memory of the past lifestyle is vivid still. The young mother who chanted this had just moved into a newly built room in her husband’s compound. While a bacˇe literally is a ‘child’, in the vernacular it is a male child. The traditional cradle is so shallow that a baby does not lie in it but is strapped onto it. For buhun see Glossary.

453.

La¯loi [. . . ] ma¯h bezane, Gorge gellei sha¯h bezane.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN May the moon shine, [And] the wolf hit the shah’s herd. This is a herding story: my herd will be safe from the wolf if the wolf goes after the khan’s or shah’s herds when there is enough moonlight that the khan’s guard will see it and shoot it – the khan has riflemen, while I am defenceless.

454.

Da¯yi, sha¯d umei, sha¯dita didom, Men bacˇeyal ba¯zita didom. [Baby] dear, welcome, I have seen your happiness. I have seen you play among the children. Sha¯d means wellness, joy, happiness and is used in a phrase of welcome. The mother is glad to see her baby grow up. This was not taken for granted but an issue, given the high infant mortality rate until the 1970s. Da¯yi, (da¯i, da¯di, baby language for mother) is used teknonymously (see Glossary). The rhyme provides the rhythm for baby bouncing.

455.

Ta¯ zan naseiye kurreme, Ta¯ nusa¯diye homzademe, Ta¯ zan esei gharibeme. As long as he has not taken a wife he is my son. When he has a fiance´e he is my neighbour. When he has taken a wife he is a stranger. A mother describes the changes in her relationship with her son as he is growing up. The son’s bride/wife is her competitor for affection as well as livelihood in her old age. Even in cases where the daughter-in-law takes care of the husband’s old parents, the old woman will resent that she has to play second fiddle to the younger woman, and that her son will back up his wife in disputes with her.

456.

Duarom baze kurri, Nidemesh kha¯ne Luri, Iberesh pase tolli, Ikoshesh va kard kolli. Idemesh ve Turkesun, Iargarde ve Luresun. My daughter is better than a son, We won’t give her to a Lur khan, He’d take her behind the hill And kill her with a blunt knife.

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We’ll give her to [somebody in] Turkestan, [but] she will return to Luristan. A mother knows that a daughter’s life is fraught with problems. The verse also shows what women summarily thought of their leaders. A group of songs called leili are sung by a lead singer and a chorus. The lead singer sings one line, the chorus then repeats it, accompanied with hand clapping; then the lead singer sings the second line, repeats the whole verse or a line or sings a new one, and this goes on until the singers are tired of it. I heard women sing them also as work songs, alone or in a dialogic exchange with another woman, while hulling rice, for example. Different places have different rhymes. The importance of these songs is the rhythm; the text is minimal, often consisting only of a couple of rhyming words. For example: 457.

Da¯¨ı leili leili vo da¯¨ı leili maskou. Da¯¨ı leili leili vo da¯¨ı leili bernou. Dear, dear, dear, and dear, dear – pretty. Dear, dear, dear, and dear, dear – Brno. In this rhyme, from Karre, a village near Sisakht, ‘pretty’ is paired with ‘Brno’ rifle, both echoing the love-songs. The other words are sounds of endearment. For Brno see Glossary.

In the following I cull the short phrases and words from additional eight such songs. Women sing them with hand clapping also while the groom is in the bath before the wedding. 458.

a. Pretty – all year I’ll kiss her b. Labour – God willing it is a boy c. My beloved, my sister d. Dear woman – dear beloved woman e. Blossom – Golshirin is your beloved dear blossom f. Labour – beautiful lips g. Dear woman – your son is lovely h. Dear Shahnaz – Shahnaz, dear, your son is caressing you.

Others ba ¯kie¨shun 459.

Shahr nou, baza¯re nou, gol hamerange. Sha¯d umei kakajuni, meigo sarhange. New town, new market, flowers of every colour. Welcome, dear brother, you look like a colonel.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN A variant changes a few words but keeps the message that a successful brother returned home from an extended stay elsewhere. Likely, a woman is speaking.

460.

Shahr nou, baza¯re nou, barzegere nou. Sha¯d umei kakajunim ve qata¯re bernou. New town, new market, new farmer. Welcome, our dear brother with the Brno rifle strap. Life is good. This can be sung in honour of a particular man. Any rank, male kin term or male name can be substituted for ‘brother’. For Brno see Glossary.

461.

Mirza¯ Ahmad, Mirza¯ Amin, hardotun bara¯darin. Serre takht tei sha¯h ve Tehrun yek va yek zia¯dtarin. Mirza Ahmad [and] Mirza Amin you are brothers. On the throne next to the Shah you both are worthier [than the Shah]. Two brothers are lauded in this ‘lurified’ Persian song. Any title or name can be inserted in the beginning. Mirza is a title of honour, connoting either the son of a daughter or a descendant of the Prophet, or a khan’s secretary and right-hand man.

462.

Gule kharzale bebin, ˇce shirin shekofte. Khedmat az gul kerde bi, range gul gerefte. Look at the kharzale tree blossom, how sweetly it budded. The servant was taken by the blossom, took the blossom’s colour. The singer, a high-ranking woman from Sisakht married to a khan in the south, explained that a servant tries to emulate his master but will never be the master. The kharzale tree has colourful but odourless blossoms and grows in the south.

463.

Shufercˇi langa¯r berun, deima bevinom. Shirsha hala¯l kone, didi bemirom. Driver, drive slowly, I want to see my mother. She shall make her milk lawful – possibly I’ll die. The man or woman who sings this assumes the voice of the young man who is drafted into the army. Hala¯l kardan, to make lawful, is an expression of approval. If the mother nursed the good son willingly and without hesitation, her milk will be like a blessing for him. (She may withhold this blessing to spite her husband’s family, for example, if she is

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severely dissatisfied with her husband or his people; her son, after all, belongs to them.) See hala¯l in the Glossary. 464.

Bio ba¯do, bio ba¯do, borro ba¯d. Rafiqe raftanet kas nikone ya¯d. Wind come, wind come, wind go. The companion of your way does not remember anybody. The singer complains about a deceptive friend who is as unreliable as the wind.

465.

Rafiqom rafte vo ha¯le morde da¯re. Ke kha¯ke mordena hei ibare ba¯d. My companion left, he is just about dead. The wind carries away the dust of the dead. May the wind blow away the miserable friend who disappointed me. The verse does not rhyme, and most likely the singer mixed the lines from two verses, but the meaning is clear: a curse on an unreliable companion.

466.

Garmesiri ma bego, ˆce sit bia¯rom? Barf ve ba¯re khar bekon, ˇcavil ve kena¯ro. Winter quarter tell me, what shall I bring for you? Put a load of snow on a donkey, and cˇavil knotted in the shirt. The winter quarter in the lowlands in southern Boir Ahmad did not hold the same emotional attraction for people as did the summer quarters in the high Zagros mountains that people praised for ‘cˇavil and snow’, for the cool wind, cold waters and fragrant meadows. This and similar verses express nostalgia for the pastoral past and a lost identity.

The next three verses are about identity and nostalgia for hunting, and the wisdom that sons follow their elders just as revenge does. 467.

Boz va pa¯zan igo biou berreim baladun. Sha¯kheta shemshei igeren, risheta namakdun. The billy goat said to the ibex, let’s go to the hay place. [The ibex said,] your antlers will become decoration, your beard a salt bag. If we go to a good pasture, hunters will shoot us. Not the ‘beard’ but part of the goat’s hide was made into a bag for storing salt.

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468.

Boz va pa¯zan igo takhsire khomune: Shoure vo gugerd pa¯mize khomune. The billy goat said to the ibex, it is our doing: Our pee [will be used to make] gunpowder and sulphur.

469.

Pa¯zan igo, khoda¯, daset negere tir. Igo, ar dasom negere tir, korrom ve ja¯me. The ibex said, [may] God not let your hand take an arrow. [The hunter] said, if my hand does not take an arrow, my son will take my place.

470.

Khoda¯, mo tenna bezanom. Igo, ar manna bezani, korrom ve ja¯me. [The hunter] said, by God, I will shoot you. [Ram] said, if you shoot me, my son will take my place.

CHAPTER 5 MOURNING GARYE, GARYE (CRYING, CRYING)

Mourning rituals have proliferated in the Islamic Republic. Mourners organise them for dead relatives and governmental agencies organise commemorations of religious and other dignitaries. ‘One hears more mourning songs than lullabies nowadays’, said a young man, complaining about what he and others see as a death-orientation in the Islamic Republic. The songs at private mourning sessions, sung mostly by women, tell short stories, laud the dead person and vent the singer’s grief. People say that the songs are just as much about the sad mourners as they are about the dead who is mourned, and that with every song of praise the singer praises and honours the dead person’s relatives, too. By far most settings and stories in the lyrics are this-worldly oriented and everyday-practical. The eulogies address death from different angles, such as the circumstances of dying or a dying person’s life; they praise, address, even advise the dead or assume the dead’s voice; they describe a widow’s grief and the mourners’ devotion. The lyrics take up themes and emotions from songs in other categories, such as from love songs. Thus, the same text may appear in different categories and may be sung on different occasions. Luri songs dealing with death are rich in metaphors such as getting lost, flying away, birds, walking/turning away, broken jewellery and tools, folding up tents, a dead fire, thirst, wind, snow and certain fragrant plants. They also contain denials of death because declaring a dead person as merely absent leaves the hope, however false, of a return. This rests in the schema of good taste and politeness, as the communication of bad news of any kind is said to be fraught with the danger of making the recipient of the news ill. The lyrics do not offer the mourners consolation such as the vision of a reunion with relatives in the afterlife or by painting death as a travel to a wonderful post-life existence.

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The tribal areas did not have a firm, ever-present source of national Shi’a indoctrination before the Revolution in 1979. The people were Shi’a Muslims with access to the Qur’an and to traditional religious rituals but also to a multifaceted heritage of ideas and philosophies from earlier traditions that shaped their thoughts and feelings about life and death.1 In the lyrics these usually appear as an assumption, a premise or an implication especially in the mourning-schema. In the following I will briefly discuss eight beliefs and behaviours implied and expressed in songs mourning the dead. 1. Several songs express the widespread idea that death is a going-away or a flying-away of the life-soul ( jun, see Glossary). Usually no destination is mentioned or implied in the going-away; it is simply a disappearance, without the expectation of meeting again. This strong image of leaving for good may be a vestige of the Old Iranian Land of the Dead, the far place, the strange country of no return. (See Nr. 603 below and Vahman 1995: 19f., 30, about this idea in old Bakhtiari mourning poetry.) I also know the sentiment from talks about death in contemporary Boir Ahmad. 2. Being dead means being put into a dark, tight grave, an uncomfortable place the dead as well as the mourners are afraid of. Apparently the dead person is still in a vague state of consciousness, capable of feeling comfort and discomfort. There is a belief in Sisakht that the dead participate as mourners in their own funerals, and only fully realise their death when stubbing a toe on a stone in the road without feeling pain. Offerings of food by mourners on graveyards on Thursday afternoons are said to be ‘good’ for the dead, as is the occasional light left burning on a new grave. Petitioners at the tombs of efficacious descendants of the Prophet Muhammad expect help from the ‘saints’ centuries after their death. (These customs are popular and known to be ‘ancient’ throughout Iran.) 3. People say that the popular, feared Angel of Death will snatch the dying person’s life or life-soul to take somewhere to be judged. The Angel-part is vivid and the judgment-part is vague, near absent in the songs. 4. Being dead means being lonely, with nobody to talk to. Until travel became easy and radio, telephone and internet facilitated communication over great distances, personal contact was all-important. Being cut off from daily news meant bitter, boring isolation. When, 20 years ago, a child died in Sisakht, one of his playmates was inconsolable not so much for having lost a friend but for the dead boy being all alone in his grave, he said. Snow, being cold, hard to walk in, confining, dangerous and silencing the landscape, in the lyrics is a fitting metaphor for death-as-loneliness. 5. Innocence, i.e., a blameless life in this world is most important for facing one’s own death calmly. Foremost on the scale of righteousness is the discarding of one’s duties as a herder, a parent, a member of the community, a rich person or a poor one. The esteem others have for a person is a gauge of this righteous

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innocence. High esteem somehow bodes well for the afterlife. An innocent person has nothing to fear and does not need intercession to have sins pardoned. Going by the songs, oneself – the dead – is always innocent. The word for sin (gona¯) does not appear in the songs at all; rather, the songs allude to behaviours that in Islam are labelled sins against people, such as arrogance, disrespect, aggression, unkindness. These are the ‘bad’ offences that ought to – or will be – punished. 6. Of features in the Islamic afterlife, paradise (behesht), houris and hell get named, but rarely so. Paradise is (or is likened to) a carefree life and the elated state of being of a young man with his lover. Paradisical houris are the most attractive reward for men. (A local elderly woman once said, only half-jokingly, that for women paradise had no entertainment – what would women want with the houris?) Hell is not described in the songs but only appears in curses. It is clear that others ought to go to hell, not the speaker. Paradise and hell are poetic places. 7. Some people, especially women, said they expected – or feared – that the ‘other world’ (u dunya¯) might turn out to be a continuation of this world, that a rich person here would be rich there, a beautiful woman here would be a beauty there, a pauper here would be a pauper there, and that therefore one could not expect justice, not in this world and not in the next. In the songs ‘justice’ is not projected to the afterlife either. 8. The after-world – if it exists, people add – is unknown. People argue that nobody has come back from there yet to tell about it first hand, so to speak, and that whatever we know about it is hearsay and thus unreliable information. This scepticism can be heard all over Iran, not only among the realists in this tribal hinterland. It is the basis for the different ideas about death and what comes after it that we hear in the lyrics and poems: nobody knows for sure, nobody but God the benevolent almighty. From Chapter I, Nr. 1 To ve sangar beneshin, sangar nahuva¯re. Boir Ahmad bisafate, sozetei dera¯re. Sit in the rock-blind, the rock-blind is not strong. The bad Boir Ahmadi will take out your spleen. Invoking the atmosphere of danger in the frequent intertribal skirmishes in Boir Ahmad until the second half of the twentieth century, the song becomes a mourning song describing the precarious defences against attacks that killed many young men in the past. For sangar see Glossary. 471.

To ve sangar beneshin, dava¯ beiye ruye. ˆ aqlei kola safid si dava¯ keluye. C Sit in the rock-blind, there is a fight at the river. The [chic] young man with the white cap is crazy for a fight.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN A young man with a white felt-cap is a chic young man. For young men the tribal fights in the past were like a passion and the lads were even more ‘crazy’ about them than about women, people say. A variant starts with, ‘The bang-bang of shots (taketake guleye)’. For sangar see Glossary.

472.

To korre Beiramadi, ˆce neshune da¯ri? Sha¯let terma va qadet, sakhme gulule da¯ri. You [are a] son of Boir Ahmad, how do you show it? Your shawl around your hip is of fine fabric [and] you have a bullet wound. A fine young Boir Ahmad man is a chic, brave, wounded fighter – no sarcasm and no irony are implied. A variant starts the second line with, ‘A ten-shooter rifle is on your shoulder (dahtiri ve kulete)’. Although the internecine fighting stopped in Boir Ahmad decades ago these attributes of manhood still ring an emotional bell. For korr see Glossary.

473.

Keida kha¯na talabid, bordesh ve kena¯ra. Ve zabun la¯f izane, ve borgesh esha¯ra. The chief invited the khan, took him aside. With his mouth he lies, with his brow he signals [to an assassin to kill the khan]. The scene is part of a political deception story. In the traditional stormy political climate lies and treachery were to be expected even among associates. This short story and similar verses about political rivalry, deceit and death fit any important man who met a violent death. For keid (chief) see kadkhoda in the Glossary.

474.

Ghouje jangi dar hava¯ bi, ka¯be da¯l vo zounshe. Na¯ze ba¯lei kakajuni, hafsar kha¯n meimunshe. The noise of war was in the air, the bones of a crow were in his mouth. For the dear brother’s comfort seven khans are his guests. The man – a name can be substituted for ‘brother’ – is brave and highly regarded. The verse can be heard at weddings but the reference to fighting and to a crow, a harbinger of calamity, made a listener insist that it was a mourning song. The high-ranking guests fit a wedding as well as a funeral.

475.

ˆ aqlei kola safid ra ve mella, dargasht. C Ja¯r vadinesh nazanin balkenam khosh bargasht. The [chic] young man with the white cap disappeared over the pass. Don’t call him – maybe he’ll come back by himself.

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The chic lad is gone forever but we will not face it yet. To disappear over the pass means he left the tribal area. The verse has an implicit political message, too: in the times of the khans several local men ‘disappeared over the pass’ to escape local violence and other hardships. For ˇcaqlei see Glossary. 476.

Ye javune nazoki bosen ve keja¯va, Buye zolfesh idame mes ˇcavile ba¯da. They put a slim young man on the bier. His locks gave a smell like ˇcavil in the wind. The wind and the plant mark place (the mountains) and mourning: ˇcavil (see Glossary) is a plant offering on graves. Ba¯dah is another fragrant plant typical of the Dena region (Ghafari 2013: 11). The last line thus may also read, ‘His locks gave the smell of ˇcavil and ba¯dah’. The ‘locks’ likely refer to the nineteenth-century popular men’s hairdo of nearly shoulderlength hair. The image of a beautiful young dead man surrounded by the smells of the mountains is iconic.

477.

Koh Dena¯na beshkenom kha¯kesha bevizom. Meshk ambaresh konom zolfe ya¯r berizom. I’ll dig on the Dena-mountain [and] pound the rocks [into powder]. I put it into my beloved’s locks like musk and perfume. This love-song with its appreciation of the Dena mountain and of the beloved’s looks meets a death-motif when the corpse is washed and perfumed before burial. Before soap was readily available, people used a soapy mineral to wash hair. Reportedly, until the 1920s, some men wore hair almost shoulder-length.

478.

ˇ avil pa¯ye Dena¯ shish ma¯h zire barfe. C Naraside samaresh, khoshk a¯bi darakhtesh. The cˇavil at the foot of the Dena is under the snow for six months. It did not bear seed; its stem dried up. Here is a firm metaphorical link between death and the place where one finds ˇcavil and snow. In the metaphor, the dead becomes the fragrant plant.

479.

Barf va kuh narate bi, barfe nu gerote. Ban o ˇcavil yakh baste bi, sard a¯bi loute. The snow had not yet left the mountain when new snow came. Almonds and cˇavil froze, [and] your lip got cold.

144

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN The first line is a fragment of another mourning song that likewise uses snow to connote death. A local teacher substituted the second line for the mangled nonsensical original, emphasising the death motif.

480.

Mir sheka¯l ra ve shika¯l, shou a¯bi, neiuma. Ya¯ ta¯zisha polang gero, ya¯ shou vash deruma¯. The master hunter went hunting, evening fell, he did not come back. Either a tiger got his dog or else night surprised him. The two lines cover a complete short story. Mourners feel death as losing the dead person but also as the person getting lost. The two death scenes in the second line (killed dog and night) leave no doubt that it is a deathstory. An elderly woman explained that this denial of death leaves the mourners with the hope of seeing the missed person again in this world. By about 1950 nearly all wild animals indigenous to the Zagros were hunted to extinction, including big cats and bears but the strong sentiment survived.

481.

Kemare sa¯de gero, pa¯zan meile ou kerd. Junemo kohin sa¯ya¯d teilesha jiya¯ kerd. The mountain got shaded, the ibex wanted water. By my life, the skilled hunter took the best part [for himself]. This story is sung for a man who was a good hunter. It is understood that he shot the ibex when it was drinking water in the evening and took the antlers or some other trophy, leaving the heavy dead animal to be fetched later. For one of my philosophically-minded helpers the second line of the verse had another, deeper meaning, too. She identified with the ibex, saying that when the hunter took the antlers and then died, he took a part of the mourning singer’s life-soul with him, leaving the singer weak and depressed. This implies a vaguely remembered notion that a hunter and his game may have a share in each other’s life. (See Loeffler 1983 for a discussion of pre-Islamic beliefs of relationships between Lur hunters and their game.) For jun see Glossary.

482.

Tofangeta dideme, konda¯gesh ve khine. Ya¯ khin khine khote, ya¯ khine kohine. I saw your rifle, the wooden butt bloody. Either the blood was your blood or the blood of a game-animal. The text alludes to the motif of the denial of death and may be sung for a good hunter or a brave fighter. It also faintly relates to the shared lifesubstance discussed in Nr. 481.

MOURNING GARYE, GARYE (CRYING, CRYING) 483.

145

Tofange na¯le gyepu na¯lash za va tange. I javune zade bi ye jofte polangi. The gun with the loud noise, its noise rang in the canyon. This youth had hit a pair of tigers. The dead young man was a skilled and brave marksman. By about 1950 tigers and other wild animals were hunted to extinction in the Zagros.

484.

Vou sa¯ya¯d, kohine sa¯ya¯d, bele gul vera¯ye. Tireta tishtar mabu, pa¯zan diveda¯re. Oh, hunter, experienced hunter, hold your shot. Don’t shoot the young ram, [wait for] a big, fat one. The dead man is given advice as if he were alive. For an elderly listener the verse also meant that it was a great pity when young people or young animals died.

485.

Passe pa¯t alma¯nie¨, borget sherepna¯l. Das kerdi bernou va sar, zadi ve kohza¯r. Your ankle is [as dangerous/beautiful as] a ‘German’ rifle, your eyebrows are [dangerous like] shrapnel. You slung your Brno rifle over your head and headed for the mountains. A woman praises her beloved, a son, brother or husband, or any man who died, describing him as brave and attractive (as shown by the gun-related attributes) and having a good rifle, and as leaving by himself on a dangerous hunt. For Alma¯ni and Brno rifles see Glossary.

486.

Na sa¯ya¯d qa¯beli, na rou kohna da¯ri. Tushe vager mardomi, nange va ma¯l iya¯ri. You are not a good hunter, you fear the mountains. Take food along for the people, you shame the camp. The verse spells out what is expected of a valuable tribesman. A weak one is good only for doing chores for others, yet being a servant is shameful. The singer here meant that if the man had been a servant rather than a marksman he would not have died, and that for the relatives, at least the women, a live weakling was better than a dead hero. The verse is critical of the hero-ideology. For ma¯l see Glossary.

487.

Vou qala deruma¯di, ˆca¯kat serre kulet. Ya¯ va ma¯le kha¯n umadi, ya¯ serr jukhunet.

146

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN You just came out of the fort, your jacket on your shoulder. You either came from the khan’s assembly or from your threshing place. The modern jacket draped over shoulders shows nonchalant chic and self-assurance. The threshing place stands for fields and wheat, and participating in the khan’s meeting indicates influence. All attributes point to the well-respected, dead peasant/farmer this is sung for. For ma¯l see Glossary.

488.

Ra ve Shira¯z shire duma¯, ba¯ kema¯l o ba¯ jema¯l. Daseye reihun vou dasesh, ihoushena¯sh ba¯de shoma¯l. The lion-bridegroom went to Shiraz, proud and beautiful. He had a bunch of basil in his hand, the north wind shook it. Lion is an emblem of might and nobility. I heard the verse as a wedding song but it is also a mourning song, with a name or kin term substituted for lion-groom. Departure, a cold wind and a fragrant plant may all connote death.

489.

Qaba¯ safid, qaba¯ safid, ha¯shiash qolfe kelil. Kerdesh ve var shire duma¯, ma¯beine barf o ˇcavil. A white mantle, a white mantle with a lock-and-key-patterned valance. The lion-bridegroom put it on amidst snow and cˇavil. ˇ avil, a fragrant plant, The singer sung it as a happy song at a wedding. C together with snow may signify the beauty of the mountains, but snow is also a sign of hardship and danger, and ˇcavil was put on graves.

490.

Na seı¨di koshteme na ta¯gi borideme. Ma teride serre ra, balke mo bidom? I did not kill a Seyed, did not cut down a tamarisk tree. Was I maybe a highway robber? People say that killing a Seyed (see Glossary) or cutting down a tamarisk or certain other trees causes calamities, and back this up with anecdotes. In this famous verse the dead man is proclaiming his innocence in matters of religion (the Prophet’s descendant), in matters of old, potent beliefs (the tamarisk) and in matters of law and vengeance (the robber).

491.

Jeld o nuzin Ke Shiramad; bande ka¯rdesh bi do ja¯. Berrim zargar bia¯rim ta¯ bezane toqmeye tala¯.

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The saddle blanket is on Ke Shirahmad[’s colt]. His knife’s sheath broke. Let’s go fetch a goldsmith to make a button of gold. The dead man (identified as such by the broken sheath and a riderless horse) was great and deserves the best. A sign of wealth and nobility as well as of death, a horse without a rider was pictured on several tombstones on men’s graves in the area. For horse see Glossary. 492.

Asbe sina zin konitun, bercˇe, bercˇe sineshe. Jum tala¯na pa¯k beshuri, Jaha¯n Kha¯n teshneshe. Saddle the horse, its chest is shining. Wash the golden bowl clean, Jahan Khan is thirsty. The well-groomed horse (about to carry the protagonist away), gold and the title ‘khan’ mark the dead as an important man. The explicit reference to thirst indicates that he was taken care off punctiliously and also indicates the liminal position of the dead, no longer alive but still in need of sustenance. Any male name can be used.

493.

Das ve gardanet nakerdom; gardan khordom. I safar ke dir ia¯yi sha¯yad mo mordom. I did not hug you; I regret it. As you will return late from this travel I may have died. For the sad, lonely singer, the separation from the lover is final with a reversal of the death assignment: by the time you might return, I will be gone. A dead is lost forever to the living, and the living are lost forever to the dead.

494.

ˇ arkhe ma ba¯d eshkena¯ koshteme zamuna. C Nizane mesle aval tire mei neshuna. The wheel of time broke and killed me. The bullet won’t hit the aim like before. An old man is mourned. The reference to the wheel of time, experienced as a relentless rolling-along, indicates that the long life has taken its natural course and the old have to expect decline and death. This poetic metaphor was used long before the wheel became part of the local material culture, in the 1960s.

495.

Sa¯dat zar bekharom, Demena ve Dena¯rom. Oushe sharbat bezanom si shafa¯ye ouye bima¯rom. I’ll weigh Sadat, Dema and my Dena with gold. I’ll make sorbet from its water to heal my illness.

148

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN The dead is talking as if alive still, saying that his beloved country will restore him to health. The prominent mountain ranges of Dema and Dena define the Boir Ahmad landscape and mark identity for the local people. The county of which Sisakht is the centre is called Dena County. Sadat is an old, well-known small town in central Boir Ahmad with a shrine more famous for its age than its efficacy.

496.

Duare shakhsi gyepi dar ma¯le khomu bi. Berrin delda¯rish konin, nalin negirive. A woman of high rank from outside was in our place. Go, comfort her, don’t let her cry. This can fit any woman who married into the community from the outside. It speaks to her vulnerable status as a stranger as much as to her death. Being kind to strangers and comforting the sad is taken to be the duty of any ‘true’ human. The supportive gestures also carry religious merit but the accruement of religious merit is is not the motivation for the kindness. For ma¯l see Glossary.

497.

Zolfe ya¯rom kopake dase yek nada¯re. Ye ˇcavile pa¯ye Dena¯, shounam vash naha¯de. My beloved’s braids are long like nobody else’s. Dew fell on the cˇavil at the foot of the Dena mountain. This may be sung as a mourning song or a love-song. Dew falling on fragrant ˇcavil-grass is a death image, and long braids were a mark of beauty in women, dead or alive.

498.

Ma¯le zir hune naha¯, varcˇidi ma¯le ba¯la¯. Ye ˆcerri ve parrat dera¯, pasha¯t natamuma. In the lower camp a house was ready for you, [but] you packed up for the upper camp. Give your spindle a turn, your bridewealth is not complete. A girl soon to be married died before she had her hope chest ready, which among other items consisted of several locally woven and knotted bags of wool yarn spun on the drop-spindle. Packing up and leaving connote the girl’s death. The two locations may be the winter camp (in the lowland) and the summer camp in the mountains, here forever divided. For ma¯l see Glossary.

499.

Gola ku a¯mele bi, tahta ve kakash ikha¯s. Nebid ˇcuye ˇcena¯r, ˇcuye sandel ikha¯s.

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The [young] woman was pregnant, she wanted a cradle from her brother. There was no plantain wood, he wanted [to use] sandalwood. The dead young woman’s brother was ready to do anything for her. This falls into the schema of intra-family relations that marks brothers and sisters as especially close. Other variants of this popular mourning song have kharzale wood and gyoush and gyegu for brother, both terms used in the south of the province and elsewhere among Luri-speakers. 500.

Zinetei ma¯dun mazan, ma¯dun korre da¯re. Zinetei nuzin bezan, nuzin our ba¯de. Don’t saddle the mare, the mare has a foal. Saddle the colt, the colt [that is like a] wind-cloud. Death should not claim a mother. In the past when child mortality was high, children often ‘left fast like the wind’ as an old woman commented on this verse. A mother who loses a child can have another child and will continue to take care of her family. A dead mother cannot have another child and leaves everybody in her family destitute. The song fits a dead mother as well as a dead child. For the horse motif see Glossary.

501.

Kougeku do tile bi, ra jes ve gure bard. Hani touvestun neiumade, joftesha ola khard. The partridge had two chicks, ran on top of a rock. The summer had not yet come [when] a vulture ate the chicks. Death here is (like) a vulture. The dead children were snatched from the mother as if a vulture had grabbed them and carried them away. In the frequent epidemics such as measles or whooping cough, siblings often were ‘snatched away’ suddenly. For ‘summer’ the appropriate time of the year is inserted.

502.

Vou khoda¯ kerdom talab, bia¯yom ve hunat, Nemada zir pa¯t pan kerdom, qeilun ve dasat. I promised God, if I came to your house I’d spread the felt-rug under your feet, and [put] the water pipe into your hand. The mourner addresses the dead: I would do anything for you if only you were alive. The two lines did not rhyme as they were sung originally, and the audience decided that this was a ‘better’ version. Men and women

150

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN smoked the water pipe. (The custom is rare now.) Felted mats were much cheaper than knotted rugs and were used as an everyday, casual place for rest in the women’s kitchen/work space of most houses and tents.

503.

Vou khoda¯ kerdom talab, ta bia¯yom ve hunat Va konom ˆcefte haqata, sar belom ve sinat. I promised God, if I came to your house I’d open the buttons on your shirt, [and] put my head on your chest. This gesture of longing, endearment and submission is for men and women. I heard a woman sing it for her dead brother.

504.

Zane ku anberena¯, bourese dua¯lesh, Bessede, guye tala¯ rate ve ˇcena¯resh. This excellent woman, her leather necklace broke, Coral [and] golden beads fell into her lap. Coral and gold (both expensive) mark high status – the dead woman is being honoured. A broken necklace indicates death. In the past, various beads with purported healing and other powers were strung on a band of thin leather.

505.

Ye zani neshase bi, hamcˆi va ma¯h bi. Poshte borgesh base bi ye shedei sia¯yi. A woman was sitting, altogether [beautiful] like the moon. Above her brow was a black headband. Before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, women, especially young ones, wore a colourful headband over a light headscarf covering a little cap. Only old or mourning women wore black. (Since then, black has become the fashionable colour for women’s attire.) The woman in the verse wore a black headband in premonition of her death. Such premonitions were rare but ‘always right’, said the singer.

506.

To va kha¯be saha veri, vakhte das nema¯ze. Ja¯nema¯zet barge gole, va khot ibara¯ze. Get up from early morning sleep, it is time for the prayer-ablution. Your prayer rug is like (or: covered with) flower petals, just for you. The dead has fulfilled prayer obligations punctually. Ib(a)ra¯ze expresses the idea that some things go together, belong together and are comfortable. Here it means that the dead was a pious person, familiar and at ease with the prayer rug.

MOURNING GARYE, GARYE (CRYING, CRYING) 507.

151

Gol veri, vakhte dugh zanune, vakhte ham nama¯ze. Setare gellei kanun, ja¯nema¯t va khot ibra¯ze. Get up, woman, it is time for buttering, also time for prayer. The herd of stars is fading, your prayer rug is just for you. This bumpy version of the previous song fits the verse explicitly to a woman: buttering in the early morning is a quintessential woman’s chore. (See Nr. 517.) A sad elderly man sung this verse for his gravely ill wife as a consolation and a nudge for her to get up and do her work. In an attempt to put the mind of a sick person toward being well, helpers routinely encourage him or her to leave the bed.

508.

ˇ e khoshe bemire duare bara¯rda¯r, C Zire tabutesh berra, mordash nashe ve kha¯r. How good it is if a girl has brothers To carry her bier, so that their dead won’t be without honour. A girl without brothers is to be pitied for many reasons, one being that brothers would take care of her properly should she die. A bystander at a funeral murmured her doubts about the lyrics, though, asking if the dead young woman would not rather be alive. The switch from ‘her’ (the sister) to ‘their’ (the brothers) is no problem for local grammar sensibilities.

509.

Kha¯nom keid ra¯sa¯bi, dera¯rd zin o loghum ve khorjin. Dasesha kueizin bandire jua¯be, bos va serre nuzin. The chief’s wife got up, took a new bridle and reins from her big bag. With her hand on the horse’s crest and waiting for [her husband’s] answer (or: to answer her husband), she put it on the two-year-old horse. The lady took leave from her husband but was polite and circumspect to the end of her life. The khorjin is a large homespun and locally woven storage bag, adapted to a migratory life. For horse and kadkhoda/keid see Glossary.

510.

Bivi ambar ve na¯, ras a¯bi bei khorjin. Dera¯verd zin va loghum, bes ve na¯ye nuzin. The lady with [a necklace of] cloves around her neck got up, [and went] to her big bag. She took out bridle and reins, [and] threw them around the neck of the two-year-old horse. The rich, high-ranking lady is leaving for good. A necklace of cloves was a popular women’s adornment, valued for its good smell. People often

152

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN commented on the smell of death, and how to hide it. For the riderless horse see Glossary.

511.

Duaru derengena¯ khak rikht ve kena¯resh. Nounom si bakhte khoshe ya¯ si bara¯resh. The girl with the bell-like wailing threw dirt on her shoulder. I don’t know, is it for her own [bad] luck or for her brother. Throwing dirt over one’s head and shoulders used to be a woman’s gesture of extreme grief or demonstrative discontent. ‘Dirt on my head!’ is still an exclamation of vexation and displeasure. People often said that they did not know what they were mourning more, their own loss of the dead or the dead’s loss of life. Sisters were expected to be the chief mourners for their brothers. For bakht see Glossary.

512.

Teshe mehmuneye mulla Farid va¯bide kha¯mush. Hamcˆe dige sertashi dellom sit izune jush. The hospitable fire of Mullah Farid expired. Just like the rice-pot on the fire, my heart boils for you. This declaration of empathy with the close relatives of the dead man fits a good host, whose name can be inserted in the first line. For Mullah and del see Glossary.

513.

Bezanin ta¯ bezanim keperre dra¯za¯sh. Sohbate khosh ikone ha¯lu beye kharza¯sh. Let us build him a large branch hut. [So that] the mother-brother and his sister’s child may have a pleasant talk. The song for a dead maternal uncle rests on the experience and expectation that a man and his sister’s sons and daughters are especially close and cordial. It invokes happy memories rather than sadness. A kepar is a small makeshift hut made of branches and twigs. It was a typical dwelling in the summer pastures of Sisakht until the 1970s. For ha ¯ lu see Glossary.

514.

Bia¯rin kalame man homra¯he dua¯tom. Kagha¯zi benevizom be kaka¯yom ta¯ khom dar ha¯ya¯tom. Bring me my pen together with my inkwell. I’ll write a letter to my brother that I am alive. The speaker is the dead person. Such lies as this letter are common. They are called white lies because they spare somebody a shock by communicating bad news gradually.

MOURNING GARYE, GARYE (CRYING, CRYING) 515.

153

Tie¨le ve ra¯h, del enteza¯r, duar gyegut uma. Moshtelok meinei serrom harke zitar uma. Eyes on the road, heart [full of] expectation, girl, your brother is coming. [I promise] a gift of my headscarf to whoever comes first [with the good news]. The song suggests that the death of the woman’s brother is to be denied, that the brother is expected any minute. The word for ‘gift’ is specifically used for the reward one gets when delivering good news. Such white lies are part of polite speech, meant to let a painful truth emerge by and by so as to prevent shock. For del see the Glossary.

516.

Golgol ve del pors ikone, del, ˆcet ikhari gham? Del ide juva¯besh, kuni ya¯ri homdam? Golgol asks the heart, heart, why are you sad? The heart answers, where is your beloved you can talk to? Sung for a widow, it starts with the widow’s name. It is one of the few songs describing cordial spousal relations. The husband here is the woman’s close and trusted friend.

517.

Serre tol seil izanom, gellei gol vadune. Tashtakesh mile tala¯ va sargeresh katune. I look down from the hilltop, the woman’s herd is being milked. Her milk pot is gold and her sieve-cloth is cotton. The excellent dead woman was a hard worker and her husband’s pride. A variant substitutes the milk pot with ‘a swing-rod of ˇcavil-wood’ (malaresh ˇcuye ˇcavil) and changes the sieve-cloth (sargir) to the band (sarband) that holds the tripod together. Both items were of leather or wool – the cotton here suggests class and modernity. The tripod was used to hang a skin-bag filled with yoghurt on a rod swinging between two of its legs. The woman pushed and pulled the rod to and fro until the butter fell out. The tripod was made of solid wood, not of ˇcavil, a tall grass. However, the poetic licence serves to link the woman’s tool with death. ˇ avil is put on graves for its pleasant aroma. See Glossary.) (C

518.

Buhune gol nakenin, ˇcelbandesh tamume. Tangetiresh bekonin, oure dar asamune. Don’t fold the woman’s tent, its 40 ropes are complete. Tighten them, clouds are in the sky.

154

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN This is one of the most famous and popular mourning songs. The motifs of leaving and of clouds and wind, the migratory life of the past, and the futility of looking after ropes as a denial of death, evoke strong emotions whenever it is sung. For buhun see Glossary.

519.

Dasma¯le la¯kita gardom, lu ve lu ba¯d iberesh. Range golna¯rita gardom, serre shum khou iberesh. I am a slave to your red headscarf, [but] the wind takes it by and by. I am a slave to your blossom-coloured face, [but] after dinner it falls asleep. A man vents frustration with his beloved or else sadness over her death. Wind and sleep are metaphors for death.

520.

Tonna khoda¯ va Shah Qa¯som va Bi Hakime, Zane dalg mahmali rafte si hima. By God and Shah Qasom and Bibi Hakime, The woman with the velvet jacket went for firewood. The verse informs a visitor – with an oath! – that the woman of the house has gone for the day. It may be true, but here is a white lie, as the absent woman is dead. Shah Qasom and Bibi Hakime (see the Glossary) are shrines in Boir Ahmad. Unlike in other places in the Zagros area, in Sisakht procuring firewood was a man’s job.

521.

Rate bidom hunei gol ta gol nise va huna. Rate bi ˇceshme Dena¯, beshure ketuna. I went to the girl’s house but she was not at home. She had gone to the Dena-spring to wash her cotton scarf. A mother sang this about her dead adult daughter. The motifs of closeness of mother and daughter, an empty house and of leaving the camp all speak to death and sorrow without using either word.

522.

Shada va serret khashe, kulet va qalamka¯r. Tash bekon, belesh ve bakhcˇe si sarhate ma¯le ba¯la¯. The black band [or: scarf] on your head is nice, on your shoulder is a colourful fabric. Fold it, and put it in the bundle for the summer camp in the mountains. Packing up and leaving mark the song as a mourning song. For the migration, one’s belongings were stuffed in bundles or in saddlebags to be transported by donkeys and mules. The singer’s husband, a high-ranking tribal chief, explained the verse as a khan’s admonition to his wife to dress

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well on the migration because she would be seen by everybody en route. His wife told him that he could believe what he wanted but that this was a mourning song. For ma¯l see Glossary. 523.

Ma¯lela bosen ve pa¯ Dena¯, buhunesh ve ja¯ye. Ar mo khom jamesh konom, yekish vakie¨? They chose a campsite at the foot of the Dena, [and] pitched her tent. If I myself take it down, where is yours? For the singer the shorthand text told the story of an evening on a migration – the group had arrived in the mountains and pitched the tents when one of the men died. Now his wife is left to do the work alone. For ma¯l see Glossary.

524.

Shou shoue¨, ruz ham shoue¨, hafta ham shoue¨. Bou duar ser ˇcarcˇuye, deish ham bei ouye. Night is night, day is also night, the whole week is night. The girl’s father is on the bier, her mother is at the water. The father died while the mother was out either fetching water or washing clothes at the water channel, or else is so overcome with grief that she is unavailable. The line emphasises the daughter’s loneliness.

525.

Shou se barf ham gero hune badbakhti. Kemarom kerdi dokal duar Sisakhti. In the black night it snowed on the unfortunate house. Sisakhti girl, you have broken my back. The black night and snow suggest that the man’s wife, a woman from Sisakht, is dead, leaving her husband broken with grief. For bakht see Glossary.

526.

Ba¯d o barf o ˇcavil o dinesht deruma, Hameshun kerdene seryek bordene delba¯rema. Wind and snow and cˇavil and wild rue appeared. They put it all together and took it to my beloved. Wind, snow and fragrant ˇcavil grass (see Glossary) mark the cool summer pastures. The verse expresses longing for the mountains and for a beloved as well as sorrow over the death of a beloved person. The wild rue ( peganum harmala, used against the Evil Eye) grows only in the winter pastures in the south of Boir Ahmad, but here for good measure is added to the image of the beloved landscape.

156 527.

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Da¯ ve duar gofte bi, bio berrim serre pir, Ba¯ham ikherim qasam veyek nashevim dir. The mother had said to the daughter, let’s go to the Saint’s shrine, [And] swear never to be far from each other. Mothers and daughters are proverbially close, yet will live apart upon the daughter’s marriage and subsequent customary move to her husband’s father’s residence or, lately, to a residence away from both sets of parents. The song fits any woman who mourns her mother or her daughter. For pir see Glossary.

528.

Mendekei da¯ ve duar diva¯r navera¯rin. Mendekei da¯ ve duar neintsid vera¯rin. Don’t build a wall between a mother and daughter. Put [only] a reed-screen between a mother and daughter. A mother should always be able to be close to her daughters. The verse implies inter-family drama. Gossip and intrigues by a daughter’s in-laws may build walls of estrangement. Neintsid, neincˆid is a screen of reed mats in southern Boir Ahmad, where ‘cˆ’ is pronounced ‘ts’.

529.

Duare si deish ri kerde vere ma¯l. Na suva¯r vash irase na ba¯hende doba¯l. To visit her mother, the daughter set out for the camp. No horseman can reach her, no bird with two wings. This popular verse affirms that mothers and daughters love to visit each other and that death may be such a quick disappearance that nobody can keep up with the dying person. A bird flying away is a much-used image of death. For a different meaning of the second line see a work-song from Mamasani (Nr. 562), expressing a rice-worker’s relief of being done for the day and on the way back home. For ma¯l see Glossary.

530.

ˇ e khoshe ve ra¯h berrei duar ba¯ da¯ish. C ˇ Cun tala¯ bercˇe izane, korr va poshte da¯ish. How comfortable it is for a daughter to walk with her mother. [And] because gold shines brightly, for a son to be on his mother’s back. This song for a dead child expresses the closeness between mother and daughter as well as the common-sense assumption of a difference in value between a daughter and a son. I recorded the song in 1981. Since then, such attitudes have changed considerably toward more gender equality but the ones expressed here were also quite familiar to old and young local people in 2015.

CHAPTER 6 RELIGION DIN

Vou khoda¯, khoda¯, khoda¯, ma na khoda¯yi? O God, God, God, aren’t you God? Islamic theology is sparse in the songs and concentrates on God. God is invoked casually in supplications, in exclamations of distress and in a few oaths and curses. Mostly, God appears as the ultimate source of help to manage the challenges of the day, or as the ultimate authority one may complain to when things go wrong. Life after death, heaven and hell, sin and punishment, are not elaborated (see Chapter 5) and the Day of Judgment appears in some songs as a faraway end-time. Activities around the tombs of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad are sung about more often, and there are several references to votive promises in exchange for help from these so-called saints. Pilgrimages to shrines (ima¯mza¯deh, pir, see Glossary) in Boir Ahmad are popular as places for supplication and for making good on vow-promises. Various Shi’a rituals are popular, too, but do not appear in folksongs; they have their own chants. The powerful explanatory philosophical concept of bakht (see Glossary) appears several times in verses as a force or form of luck or chance, for better or worse. Where beliefs behind the Islam people say they had always practised and the Islam as preached and practised now in the Islamic Republic differ, the respective theologies largely coexist and people express and act upon one or the other in different circumstances. So-called traditional religious beliefs as they appear in the lyrics are more oriented toward the concerns of a rough, hard life in the here and now than are the religious activities propagated by Islamic government agents.1 These, people say, are oriented toward happenings in the distant past of early Islam on the one side and on life after death on the other, leaving people to be ‘sad all the time’, mourning the dead and anxious about their own death. The absence of some popular features in the songs such as a belief in fairies ( peri) and jinn, the Evil Eye, or powers resting in certain plants or

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minerals is noteworthy, considering that they figured prominently in the everyday-rituals especially of women, but is easily explained: it is considered dangerous to talk about such powers. In the introductory paragraph in Chapter 5 I briefly discuss several beliefs about death and the afterlife that are also of relevance for an understanding of religion generally. The following songs are examples of the casual expression of religious concepts in the various categories of song lyrics. The verses are not religious in the sense of being used in religious rituals such as the commemoration activities during the mourning month of Muharram, for example. Religious singing of this kind exists outside this collection and is in Farsi and Arabic, not in Luri. 531.

Vou khoda¯ ba¯run bezan, mishom beza¯ye. Berreshe narz ikonom va¯yam vera¯ye. May God let it rain, my sheep is about to lamb. I make a votive promise of the lamb to make all go well. Lambing time is high-risk time. Without rain to bring fresh grass, kids and lambs will die. Only God can make it rain. The votive-dedication obligates the speaker to give the promised lamb to the poor or to the keeper of the shrine of a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (an ima¯mza¯deh, see Glossary) that the lamb is pledged to, when it does rain. The relationship between God’s will and the saint’s power is vague. When challenged, people will say that either God gave the saint the power to make it rain or else that the saint has the power to be an intercessor, to ask God to let rain fall.

532.

Vou khoda¯ kha¯s kerdeme, ye kha¯si ve nou, Sha¯le se, qata¯r dopit, ye dune bernou. I have wished from God, and now wish again, A black sash, a double cartridge belt and a Brno rifle. This is a man’s statement of identity: with God’s help he is ready for a life of valour and glory. For Brno see Glossary.

533.

Vou khoda¯ ikha¯semi se ˇci hela¯li, Asbe khub, tofange khub, ye tie¨ ka¯li. I wish three lawful things from God, A good horse, a good rifle, a beautiful wife. God is the generous provider. In this popular verse, the singer evokes the schema of the traditional hero-romance of young men, with weapons, horse and woman as signs of the hero. In another variant of the ‘I wish from God’ – type of lyrics, the man asks for an Arabic mantle (cˇeka) and a tasseled

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cord (zena¯ra), signifiying wealth and high status. With these items a young, traditional tribesman defined himself. For hala¯l see Glossary. 534.

Vou khoda¯ talab kerdom se ˇci hela¯li, Ra¯yati (or: ra¯hati) men panjari, ye tie¨ ka¯li. I asked three lawful things as a loan from God, Farming (or: a good life), [a house with] windows, and a beautiful wife. The singer praises a settled farming life, preferably with leisure in a wellappointed house, and hopes that God will help him attain it. The contrast to the hard life as a nomadic pastoralist is understood. For hala¯l see Glossary.

535.

Qorbune khoda¯ berram, ya¯r mehrabunom. Khoshkenam khosh ma’ferat shirin zabunat. I am God’s sacrifice, [my] beloved is kind to me. I wish her to be wise and to talk sweetly. The rhyme is a bit off but the message is quite clear and realistic. A man says that beauty in a woman is a good thing, but kindness and a pleasant disposition are what really count in the end, and may God help me to get such a wife. This is what the singer, a woman, said the song meant. For qorbun see Glossary.

536.

Bernou kur, bernou boland, bernou miuna, Vou khoda¯ ra¯hbuvare dele hardoma. A short Brno rifle, a long Brno, a middle Brno. May God understand/connect both our hearts. God, gun and love are united in one verse. For Brno and del see Glossary.

537.

Vou khoda¯ ba¯lei serri, dase zamuna. Didebei zahlat nabu derre va huna. By God above your head, in the hand of time, You wish you were not afraid to go out of the house. The singer criticises a man indirectly by mocking and scolding him emphatically – calling on God and the flow of time – for his (bad) reputation as an ogler of women. A singer may also sing about his own predicament here in a self-deprecatory mode. In addition, a young woman said, with indignation, that every pretty girl can relate to the second line because for sure ‘every man’ will appraise a young woman and thus make her uncomfortable.

160 538.

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Ve khodei ba¯lei serri, dase zamune. Del bekha¯ zahle nabu vou gol demme hune. By God above your head, in the hand of time. [I] wish I was not afraid of the woman in the house. The woman who used the verse as a rice-hulling work song said it is about a man who laments his lack of courage to talk to a girl/woman he likes and who blames God for his shyness. See del in the Glossary.

539.

Das kerdom si pasunet haqata derdom. Tei khoda¯ peshimunom buset nakerdom. I stretched my hand for your breast [and] tore the collar. By God I regret not having kissed you. In an oath God is brought quite casually into the sex-laden scene.

540.

I ka¯ral ser eqba¯le, na serre mishe. Ar khoda¯ homa¯yat da¯, ra¯h khome pishe. [Judge] people’s value by their honourable conduct, not by the number of sheep. If God helped [me], I myself would be up front. A dissatisfied, ‘good’ man is bitter. He is as good or talented or hard working as anybody, nay, even more so, but without God’s personal interference in how things are shaping up naturally, so to speak, the speaker will not make progress in an economic and social sense. He thinks that God supports an injustice by allowing wealth to define the social position of people and then not helping the singer to become wealthy. The verse fits several scenarios, such as, for example, a man’s unsuccessful wooing of a young woman on grounds of his poverty. This is a frequent motif in songs and stories.

541.

Ma¯le mun ˇcish ka¯fare, ˇcish ha¯rumza¯da. Ar khoda¯ ˇcisi nakone, ya¯ amumza¯da. In my place some are heathen, some are scoundrels. If God won’t do anything [to help me], the saint won’t either. Or: If God won’t do anything, I’ll call on the saint. In either interpretation of the second line the speaker despairs of the animosity around him and feels abandoned by God and even by the saint who here is probably his own ancestor. If he decides to try the saint, he will make a vow and a pilgrimage to his or her tomb. See also Nr. 547. For ma¯l and ima¯mza¯deh see Glossary.

RELIGION DIN 542.

161

Shou begom ruz ham begom ta¯ sobe mo bu. Vou khoda¯ sim bekon gol bive va¯bu. I will say it at night until morning, and by day too. May God make the woman a widow for me. God is called upon to kill a man to allow the speaker a chance to woo the widow, who, by implication, is young and beautiful. The singer presented this as a joke, and suggested that compared to married and unmarried women who are guarded by their menfolk, widows are approachable. Yet, the idea itself is not a joke. In everyday crises people often invoke God when wishing somebody ill, turning God into a big brother ready to fight for the supplicant.

543.

Dideme dota malus men serre kicˇa. Ela¯hi kur bekone kurr tie¨ picˇa. I saw two beauties in the street. May God blind the young man with the crooked eyes. In this vivid scene the speaker, an outsider to the happening, curses any man who looks at his fiance´e. Girls are rarely out in the street alone – even lingering in a doorway is risky. ‘All guys have crooked eyes’, a high school girl commented on the verse. As such ‘impure’ gaze is sinful, God here is a wrathful judge rather than one’s personal ally.

544.

Hoi junom hoi duarom Shi nakerd monde serrom. Bou duar ta¯je serrom Ha¯lu duar qasam ikharom Mirei duar guse kharrom. My dear, my daughter Didn’t get married, stayed with me. [My] daughter’s father is the crown on my head, [My] daughter’s mother-brother is the one I swear by, [My] daughter’s husband is the fart of my donkey. In this variant of Nr. 445, a woman describes her brother as her dearest and most important relative by using him to swear by when emphasising a point such as the veracity of a statement. It means that if she lied her brother would die. (It is understood that God would kill him to punish her for swearing a false oath.) No sister would want to risk this. The woman’s husband is the king of the house, and the son-in-law is a nobody for her, most likely because she thinks he is not doing enough for her or else because he is not treating his wife well.

162 545.

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Serre kuh boland farya¯d kerdom. Amir al Momenina ya¯d kerdom. On top of the high mountain I wailed [And] remembered Amir al-Momenin. To ‘remember’ this popular saint (Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s son-inlaw) means to invoke him, out of grief or discontent. People say that of all the saints Ali is closest to their hearts. Either a man or a woman may be talking. For Amir al-Momenin (Ali) see Glossary.

546.

Amir al Momenin, ya¯ shahe mardun, Delle nasha¯demo, sha¯di begardun. Amir al-Momenin, o greatest of men, My heart is not happy, turn it happy. Ali (Amir al-Momenin) has the power to change people’s sad, dangerous or painful conditions. He is often invoked in moments of danger and distress. For Ali and del see Glossary.

547.

Ma¯ jadom Sei Mamade, ejva¯ri pa¯me. Ar jadom hicˇ sim nake, nigom agha¯me. I am a descendant of Seyed Mahmad. The military is on my heels. If my ancestor does not do anything for me, I won’t say [any longer] that he is my leader. The young man threatens his ancestor with abandonment if he will not help him dodge the draft, in a fine example of do ut des thinking: I give you respect so that you may give me what I need. Descendants of the Prophet Muhammad are said to have the power – some more than others – to change their petitioners’ lives. For Seyed Mahmad see Glossary.

548.

Duaral gela¯gela¯ iran si hima. Sei Mamad hicˇ sim nakerd, igom Hakima. The girls, one group after another, went for firewood. Seyed Mahmad didn’t help me any, [now] I talk to Bibi Hakime. The first line suggests that the singer, a man, is after a certain young woman. In the second line it is clear that he had asked a saint in vain for help in getting her. However, if one saint does not come through with help, one can always implore or make a deal with another at his or her shrine. Bibi Hakime in the far south of the tribal area is the biggest shrine in Boir Ahmad. For both saints see Glossary.

RELIGION DIN 549.

163

Har do del yeki bekha¯, ma to bakhili. Sei Mamad kuret kone pish pa¯ nabini. He wants everything, are you mad? May Seyed Mahmad blind you so that you won’t see in front of your feet. This curse looks like half of a dialogue, like a woman berating an importunate man. Whatever the man might have said or done to get such a reply is lost. Now the verse is said/sung for a person who does not get along with people, who is miserly, dissatisfied and envious. For Seyed Mahmad see Glossary.

550.

Tonna da¯n ve Sei Mamad, tonna Pir Azizi. Tash gerote rishe dellam, ou vash berizid. They gave you to Seyed Mahmad, to Pir Azizi. The root of my heart caught fire, throw water on it. The girl the man wants is pledged to one or another saint, meaning that a descendant of this saint, usually the caretaker of the shrine, may marry her or give her to one of his relatives without having to pay the brideprice. The girl has no say in such arrangements. The sad man who cannot have her describes his burning love-pain. For del, pir and Seyed Mahmad see Glossary.

551.

Bernou kol Shah Qa¯seme, vasat khoda¯ye. Mendekei pesunelet ra¯h Kerbela¯ye. My Brno rifle is my Shah Qasom, near to God. Between your breasts is the road to Kerbela. In this love-song religious icons are linked to a man’s power and a woman’s attractions, and thus brought decidedly into mundane concerns of the day. A man’s weapon is (like) the power of Shah Qasom, a purported descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who is buried in a popular local shrine. Shi’a Muslims say that a pilgrimage to Kerbela in Iraq or being buried there assures paradise. The man who sings the song finds the road to paradise on his beloved’s body. For Brno, Kerbela and Shah Qasom see Glossary.

552.

¯ samun bei bolandi, gushesh neveshte, A Harke ya¯resh dokhtare, ja¯sh men beheshte. In a corner of high heaven is written, Whoever has a beloved who is a virgin, his place is in paradise. With a virgin a man already is in paradise and does not have to wait for the houris, the eternal virgins. This and the previous verse indicate a

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN robust this-worldly orientation: paradise here on earth is tangible; paradise in the afterlife is not. This is how a young man interpreted the two verses. According to men and women, a virgin means sole, unsullied propriety for a man but also that her vagina guarantees more pleasure for the man than does that of an older one, stretched through childbirth.

553.

Pa¯lelet sorkh ikone ser balge shunet. Ezrail sharm ikone besune junet. Your braids colour your shoulder brown. Ezrael is embarrassed when he has to take your life. Ezrael is the Angel of Death, whose job it is to bring each dead person (or the soul) to the other world, people say. Greatly feared, he is said to appear at a dying person’s head just before death, visible to the person. In this love song he is used to highlight the woman’s great beauty. Not even he could stay professionally aloof at the sight of her. This predicament lies in the schema of beauty, in the belief that looking at a beautiful woman will make a man lust after her, which is sinful. If an encounter cannot be avoided, such as by Ezrael, embarrassed gazeaversion is the only acceptable reaction to a woman’s allure. For jun see Glossary.

554.

Angoshtar ser daselet negin neveshta. Seil kerdom mene negin didom beheshta. The ring on your hand has a stone with an inscription. I looked at the stone and saw paradise. Negin may be any jewellery with stones but here refers to a ring-stone incised with Qur’anic words. In this rare case, infatuation is linked positively to a religious symbol.

555.

Ye guli khoda¯ vam da¯, khom vash nasa¯khtom. Seil kerdom men tie¨lesh, imunma¯ ba¯khtom. God gave me a wife/lover, I didn’t get along with her. I looked into her eyes [and] lost my faith. A man regrets having alienated his beloved. One listener took it further, saying that the speaker regrets that the girl he likes did not marry him. The term for ‘losing’ is one used for losing a game or a bet; looking at or being infatuated with a beautiful woman is a risky gamble. Thus, as a

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metaphor for falling in love, ‘losing one’s faith’ pitches a man’s religious faith against infatuation. 556.

Dideme gellei duari mene ma¯zar, Nigirom ruzena, nikhunom nema¯za. I saw the girl’s herd (or: a bunch of girls) in the meadow. I don’t keep the fast and don’t pray. The hinted-at story is that the speaker, a man, is losing his cool and his identity as a devout Muslim when looking either at his beloved or at girls in general. The sharp opposition of passion and important obligatory religious rituals such as fasting and daily prayer is the same in both cases.

557.

Dideme dota malus men zir darva¯za. Imunma¯ ve dasom bord, nacˇi nema¯za. I saw two beauties in the doorway. They stole my faith and, more so, the prayer. The tiny story has four messages: Girls/women are seldom seen alone; girls ‘steal’ men’s moral compass; men easily lose their heads at the sight of young women; infatuation is antithetical to piety and formal religious obligations.

558.

Runeta baghal konom, louta be dandun, Imunma ve dasom bord, uname musalmun. I’ll take your thigh in my arm, your lips in my teeth. She stole my faith, I am a Muslim no longer. The man admits that he loses all restraint when he is with his beloved. Infatuation is antithetical to piety and even to religion altogether, at least for a man. By implication, this marks women as dangerous to a man’s moral condition and identity as an obedient Muslim.

559.

Tie¨let ˇceshmehafi, shash pure da¯re. Har muselmunina sad shafa nada¯re. Your eyes are [like] dragon eyes, they have six eyelids. No Muslim has the hundred blessings [necessary] for healing. A man complains that his beloved has made him lovesick beyond healing, and that therefore his status as a Muslim is in danger. Shafah is healing by grace such as by a saint.

166 560.

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Seidele sargeshtelu, zanala mala¯ka. Jamegerdeshun konin, dinshun ve ra¯ka. The Seyeds with the thingies on their heads and the angel-wives, Round them up and throw them out (literally: on a difficult path). Anti-clerical sentiments are rare in the songs. In this political comment people vent frustration with the clerical regime by jokingly cursing purported descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, who are honoured by the title ‘Seyed’ (see Glossary).

CHAPTER 7 ¯R AT WORK BADBAKHTI, SAHMAT, KA (MISFORTUNE, TROUBLE, WORK)1

Work songs may refer to the work at hand more or less loosely, or else may string together verses the lead-singer remembers. They may have nothing to do with the work, though. In the present collection, Nrs. 319, 355, 383, 413, 414, 415, 457ff., 538 were accompanying rice hulling. Hulling was a woman’s job, done by pounding several handfuls of rice at a time in a wooden mortar with long, wooden pestles to remove the outer, tough skin on each rice kernel. A woman could do this by herself or else alternating each downward thrust with another woman, to the beat of the chant. It was hard work, and the women inserted ‘hoy’ sounds (exhale-sounds like hoima, hoya, heyby, hemey, hali, ha¯yi) in place of lyrics in order to make breathing easier and to keep the beat. By the 1980s the traditional, long, free-association rhythmic work songs had all but disappeared in Sisakht because the work they accompanied had disappeared: there was no more hulling rice or milking goats, for example. Yet, many work chants express the mindset of women whose poetry is otherwise woefully underrepresented. They include women’s comments on cultural features that are of importance to them such as on the heroic violence they disparage but men praise. These songs are poorly documented, and I added here those I found in the published sources. (All are quoted with permission of the authors and/or the press where they were published first.) Yaqoub Ghafari (2012: 42) recorded a song by two women hulling rice. I omitted most of the fill-sounds such as hoya. The translation is mine. 561.

Berenj koftom – hoya Berenj ba¯shi, Sheshom (?) fara¯shi, Fara¯sha koshtom Khunesha ke moshtom

I pounded rice – hoya To make [hulled, edible] rice I hit (?) the servant I killed the servant I razed his house

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Ratom mene howsh Bezema bedushom ˇ epun kaka¯ sag C Zah mene gushom Kha¯som beyoftom Rahtom sare bard Didom qaba¯ zard Rahtom sare howz Didom qaba¯ souz Hemey, hali, ha¯yi [. . . ]

I went into the courtyard To milk my goat The shepherd, the son of a dog Hit me on my ear I nearly fell I went on a rock I saw a yellow [military] uniform I went on the water reservoir I saw a green [gendarme] uniform Hemey, hali [. . . ]

The chant can go on as long as the rice needs pounding or as long as the women can think of more lines and have the breath to chant. The lines follow each other in free association rather than in thematically connected two-liners. These associations turn around violence and power (the military) interspersed with quintessential everyday chores of women (pounding rice and milking goats). Sheshom is unclear. Ghafari did not translate it into Farsi but left it blank, and my own helpers only agreed that it was something unpleasant such as rape, ‘because manservants can not be trusted’. Soldiers and gendarmes have a long, checkered history among Lurs and are remembered with apprehension. The woman in the song feels surrounded by danger. In 1974 and 1975 –6 Susan Wright did ethnographic research among the Mamasani, a Luri-speaking tribal group to the south of Boir Ahmad, and recorded several songs by local people. Among them are work songs, recorded while the singers were actually working. The lyrics of two of them are below, one recorded at the occasion of a rice-transplanting and the other while a woman was milking her cow. The lyrics are in the local dialect. Professor Wright and her assistants, Mr Siamarz, Mr Farkhi and Mr Pedram Razmejooee, from Mamasani, transliterated the text from her tape recordings. I edited the lyrics for consistency, and edited their translations for compatibility with my goal of minimising English idioms. I thank Professor Wright and the three members of the Razmejooee family for their generous support and cooperation. In the following I concentrate on the lyrics, omitting rhythmic fillers and repetitions. Most verses are from the general repertoire of poetry such as love songs, wedding songs, songs of mourning or verses that poke fun at people or events.

Rice Transplanting Song In Susan Wright’s collection this is song number 1 at http://www.oralliterature. org/collections/swright001.html.

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There are four segments, each in a different rhythm. Only a few verses refer to the work itself. Susan Wright (S.W.) explains: The singing consists of a few verses on a variety of themes, interspersed with short, repetitive phrases meant to pace the workers and keep them from slowing down and from early exhaustion. The workers together repeat each line the lead singer, a man here, sings. The emphasis of the singing is on rhythm and tempo, not on the text. Planting out the young rice plants in the flooded paddy fields is extremely hard, labour-intensive work. Even young children are recruited to help. The workers form a line across a terraced paddy field, planting the rice, row by row. They are standing in thick mud and cold water, and the girls’ and women’s skirts are wet up to the knees. One person takes the lead, intoning the song, which is repeated by the owner of the field (a man in the present case), and the workers (here, girls). They sing to keep their energy up and to synchronise their movements. The most important aspect of the song is the rhythm, which paces the planting. The four segments followed one another without a moment’s pause. To entertain the children, the lyrics often contained jokes about neighbours or about the owner of the rice paddy. The fourth segment is an example of this type. Segment 1: Hay vallah! Hooray! (Literally, ‘Hello, by God’.) This line is repeated many times in between the lines of the text. 562.

Vay kalaki ma¯ kerdeme ri kerdom ve ma¯l. Na suva¯r vam irase na ba¯hende ba¯l. I have finished my rice transplanting [and now] I am turning [back] to the village. Neither horseman nor bird can keep up with me. S.W.: The image of leaving as fast as a bird expresses the rice-worker’s relief of being done for the day after many hours of hard work. E.F.: The second line can also mean something else entirely, depending on circumstances. In Sisakht it described death and was part of a mourning song for a dead mother. See Nr. 529.

563.

Bel ta beraim men kome ru, sabze becˇinim, Va nomon sabze ˇcidan yeka bevinim. Let’s go to the bend in the river to pick greens, And in the name of picking greens, meet each other. ‘Greens’ are edible wild vegetables such as dandelions, wild spinach, mint and onion plants that mostly groups of girls and women collected in the surrounding pastures and woods. Knowing when and where to find them was part of women’s local knowledge. Fresh and/or dried, such vegetables

170

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN were important in the local diet, and gathering them sometimes provided an innocuous occasion for casual meetings between young men and women.

564.

Na itarom bevinemet na dirat va¯ba¯m. Majburom seylet konom ta sirat va¯ba¯m. I can’t either meet you or be far from you, I just have to satisfy myself by looking at you. The term sir, sated, satisfied, describes the opposite of hungry. See Nr. 134.

565.

Gol befarma¯ ba¯la¯. My dear, please come up. This polite phrase, inviting a girl/woman into the house, here serves as a link to the next verse. Golaku men ba¯la¯ khune zir pa¯sh dukune. Do tiash neshun da¯de emsho ba¯rune. My sweetheart lives in the house above the shop, Her two eyes have shown that it will rain tonight. S.W.: The singer explains that because his beloved cannot come and see him, she is so upset that she will surely cry like it is raining.

Segment 2: Ghorbak qoranide The frog croaks 566.

Ghorbak qoranide, Sa¯yeh zuranide. The frog croaks, The shadows turn round. S.W.: The first line was repeated six times but the singers omitted the second line. The song celebrates the end of the workday. The frog only croaks in the cool of the morning or the evening. Both the frog croaking and the shadows turning are signs that the sun is going down and the singers are delighted that the exhausting rice planting is finished for the day.

Segment 3: Hey ga¯ kol O (hello, hey) short-tailed cow (The term ga¯ covers cow and ox.) 567.

Hey ga¯ kol, ey hey ga¯ kol. Hey, short-tailed cow, hey short-tailed cow.

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The phrase is repeated throughout the story to keep the beat and the pace of work. 568.

Hey ga¯ kol, ey kol mola, Na khish ikone na mala. Hey, short-tailed cow [with the] little hump, Neither ploughs nor levels [the paddy field]. S.W.: Cows have a hump on their withers against which the yoke of the plough rests. This one has a small, ‘pretty’ hump, but it also does no work involving a yoke. Men flood the rice fields and plough the mud below the water. As this leaves the muddy soil too uneven for planting the rice seedlings, they attach two ropes to either side of the wooden yoke of the ox and tie a heavy wooden pole to them. (The pole is now on the ground, at right angles to the ox.) Dragged over the ploughed mud, the pole levels it enough that the rice seedlings can be planted. Levelling also makes it easier to keep the plants watered equally throughout the summer, maximising the crop.

569.

Hey ga¯ kolom raı¨se, Vaghti ikhose var nise. My short-tailed cow is a leader, When it sleeps, it can’t be made to get up. S.W.: Some cows have long tails and others have short tails. Long tails trail in the water and flick mud over people whilst planting rice, so a short-tailed cow is much preferred. E.F.: The few words also speak about beauty: a beautiful girl (or cow or indeed anything) may be good for not much more than being beautiful, at leisure like an important person. In 2002 an elderly woman in Sisakht said, without sarcasm, about her young, beautiful but somewhat inept daughter-in-law, ‘It’s enough that we can enjoy looking at her.’

570.

The singer omitted the first line but it is sung in Boir Ahmad as part of this story. [Ga¯ye kolom ghom a¯bi My short-tailed cow got lost.] Ga¯ye kolom nadidi? Haven’t you seen my short-tailed cow? Joghidom ey joghidom I ran [after it] and I ran. Va Kolasia rasidom

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN I arrived in [the village of] Kolasia. Do daste nun ghapidom I grabbed two folds of flat bread. (S.W.: Hungry by now he eats on the run as he does not want to stop looking for his cow.) Va am Shahrokh porsidam I asked uncle Shahrokh Ga¯ye kolom nadidi? Haven’t you seen my short-tailed cow? Vallah bellah nadidom. No, by God, by God, I have not seen it. Joghidom o joghidom I ran and ran, Dota sib ham dozdidom I also stole two apples. Va Ghae¨dan rasidom [Then] I reached [the village of] Gha’edan (Keydun) Ve ye merdak porsidom I asked a man, Ga¯ye kolom nadidi? Haven’t you seen my short-tailed cow? Vallah bellah nadidom. No, by God, by God, I haven’t seen it. Hey ga¯ kole kol mola The short-tailed cow [with the] little hump Na khish ikone na mala Neither ploughs nor levels [the paddy field]. (See footnote 1) Sarsha icˇpane men dala It crams its head into a can Khosha ikone men dala [Then tries to] push itself into the can Ga¯ye kolom javun bi My short-tailed cow was young Khash-esh va del e hamemun bi. All of us were happy [with it]. S.W.: The large rectangular aluminium cans (dala) have many uses, such as measuring rice and wheat yields or to carry water and feed for the animals. This cow pokes its head into such a can in search of food, gets stuck, and then tries to get the whole of itself into it to eat whatever is there. Singers add such funny lines that lighten the work. The song conveys contradictory feelings, though, as this cow would go to sleep and refuse to get up, and did not work as expected. Even so, a cow was a major

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resource and its loss would be a major blow. Although it was wilful and lazy, in the end the cow is remembered fondly and its antics did make everybody laugh. Segment 4: Ha¯l Mashadi Mother-brother Mashhadi 571.

Brrr! Jam balaye ha¯l Mashadi. Brrr! The bragging mother-brother Mashhadi. S.W.: This line is the most frequent filler in this segment, sung or chanted repeatedly in between the few lines of lyrics. ‘Brrr’ is a sound made to direct animals such as a working cow or ox, and funny when applied to a person, especially a relative. The song makes fun of a neighbour who brags about his prowess rather than doing his work. E.F.: Despite his status as successful pilgrim to the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, the man criticised here is called maternal uncle, which connotes a relaxed relationship but also a lack of authority and respect. (For ha¯lu see Glossary.)

572.

Sarai narofte Khanali. Zanale jofte Mashadi. Khanali’s house is not swept clean. The Mashhadi has two wives. Despite having two mistresses who ought to do the housework, Mashhadi Khanali’s house is neglected. This refers to the stereotype of a polygynous house where each wife expects the other to work and therefore chores are not done. It is a joke on polygyny, doubled by the exalted status of the owner of the house, a man who made the pilgrimage to Imam Reza in Mashhad and ought to be a model householder, able to manage his family. Brrr! Jam balaye ha¯l Abdollah. Gandom naboride Abdollah. Gandomesha einani vay ba¯la¯. Khesha einane tey am Ala. Brrr! The bragging of mother-brother Abdollah. Abdollah who has not cut [his] wheat. His wheat is [still] up [on the hill], He himself is with father-brother Ala. S.W.: The verse criticises and ridicules Abdollah for bragging about his exploits, yet he sits and chats with his uncle Ala while neglecting his own work, the all-important harvesting of wheat. The singers congratulate themselves for being more energetic/capable than Mashadi and Abdollah.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN E.F.: Laziness is disparaged in men (and women). While the term for maternal uncle connotes a lack of authority and belittles Abdollah, the term for paternal uncle carries respect and importance. (For ha¯lu and a¯mu see Glossary.)

Milking Song In Susan Wright’s collection, this is song number 4 at http://www.oralliterature. org/collections/swright001.html. In contrast to the rice transplanting song, the lyrics of the milking songs deal with the work proper. Women see a connection between the mood of the cow and the amount of milk the cow gives. Singing relaxes the animal, they say, and thus the work for the milking woman is easier. Only women milk animals and process milk. While a woman is milking, she may sing to the rhythm of squeezing the cow’s teats. Praising the cow and talking to it in the songs was said to calm the cow and increase the flow of milk. A milk-cow is a ‘mother-cow’ (ma¯ga¯) in contrast to a dry cow (ga¯) or an ox (also ga¯) used for ploughing. Throughout the song, fill-words such as da¯i, mother, and nana, grandmother, and lines such as, ‘My dear cow, my dear cow ( june delom ga¯m, june delom ga¯m)’ stretch the text to fit the beat and to allow the singer to think of more stanzas. These have been omitted after the first verse, as have verses the singer repeated to make the song last longer. In the text the singer at times talks to herself, talks about the cow to an imagined third person, and talks to the cow. (For jun and june delom see Glossary.) 573.

Num khoda¯na da¯i khom goftom june delom ga¯vom. Ma¯ga¯ye zardema nana khom dokhtom, vay ma¯ga¯ye zardoma khom dokhtom. I myself said, ‘Thank Goodness,’ mother, for my dear cow. I milked my yellow cow myself, grandmother, oh, I milked my yellow cow myself. ‘Yellow’ describes the light-brown colouring of the local cattle in use in the area at that time, a small, tough breed. S.W.: The phrase, num khoda¯, ‘(in) the name of God’, in this context invokes God to protect the cow against the dangers of the Evil Eye or other ill fortune that the singer’s praise may provoke. It is also a term of encouragement for children, or in this case for the cow, so the two meanings come together as ‘Well done and God protect you!’

574.

Da¯i num khoda¯ da¯i vo parizi, Shirta vam da¯di vo narizi. God’s name [may] keep harm away, You gave me your milk and you don’t spill it.

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Cows often kick the bucket and spill the milk, but this good cow stands still. 575.

Jun ga¯m omade ga¯duna. Shekar kharde vo rajuna. My dear cow has come to the cow-place [at milking time]. It has eaten sugar and fennel. S.W.: After a day out grazing, the good cow has come by itself to the place where it is milked in the evening. Sugar and fennel are said to make a cow give lots of good-tasting milk.

576.

Shekar kharde june delom va golon My dear cow has eaten sugar with the teats. The singer realises she made a mistake here and, starting over, corrects it: Shekar kharde june delom va dendun Shir malusesha a¯vorde da¯i va golon. My dear cow has eaten sugar with the teeth, Has given its fine milk from the teats.

577.

Zanal u ma¯l da¯i ba¯la¯ye Hametun korbun ga¯ ma¯ye You women of the upper village All are sacrifices for my cow. S.W.: Many villages in the area were divided into an upper and lower part, often with tension between them. Thus, the singer (presumably from the lower village) says all the women of the upper village may be sacrificed like sheep to keep her valuable cow well. (For qorbun see Glossary.)

578.

Pui, pui kerdom ga¯m uma¯, Jun va dast o del o pa¯m uma¯. I called ‘pui, pui’ and my cow came, Life came back to my hands and heart and feet. S.W.: Pui is the sound used to call cows for milking. Each type of animal had a special call. By implication, the verse alludes to the devastating loss for the owner if the cow disappeared and did not return from grazing in the hills round the village. When the singer saw her cow returning from the pasture, she breathed again, relieved from her anxiety.

176 579.

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Ma¯ga¯ye zardom nana ˇcon kashti. Sahra¯ye golza¯ra gashti. My yellow cow is like a ship. You have walked around in the blooming pastures. S.W.: When the returning cow appears on the horizon it is big and impressive, like a ship.

580.

Num khoda¯ va june ga¯m, Das(t)e Ali sar shune ga¯m, Ay jun delom ga¯m. [May] God protect my dear cow, [May] Ali’s hand [be] on my cow’s shoulder, Oh, my dear cow. The singer asks God and the Imam Ali (see Glossary) to protect the cow.

581.

Seta¯re ˇceshmone ga¯m, ˇ ehel ˇceshme golune ga¯m. C My cow’s eyes are stars, My cow’s teats are 40 springs. The cow gives an extraordinary amount of milk. ‘Forty springs’ is an expression for a torrent of water.

582.

Num khoda¯na khom goftom, ma¯ga¯e zardom khom dukhtom. – Jun delom ga¯m, jun delom ga¯m. Ma¯dar mehrabunom ga¯m, gelei bicˇupunom ga¯m. I said God’s name myself and milked my yellow cow myself. – My dear cow, my dear cow. My cow is [like] a kind mother, my cow is [like in] a flock without a shepherd. S.W.: In this bragging verse, the cow is said to be as generous with milk as a kind mother is with her milk when nursing her child. The cow can also be trusted to return home from the pasture on its own, without a cowherd. A herd that took itself to pasture and saved the cost of paying for, feeding and clothing a shepherd or cowherd, would be a dream!

583.

Gashti vo ˇcardi june delom, beyo sar dun. Shala va na buyi june delom pashimun. My dear [cow] you walked around and grazed and you came back at milking time. God willing you don’t feel regretful, my dear.

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The singer hopes that after the cow had a good time in the pasture it will not resent having to come back at milking time, as that would make it withhold the milk. 584.

Zanal goften ai ga¯tun uma¯, Mo jun ve das o pa¯m uma¯. The women said, oh, your cow has come back. Life returned to my hand and foot.

585.

ˇ ehel ˇceshme golune ga¯m C Morvare dendune ga¯m. My cow’s teats are 40 springs, My cow’s teeth are pearls.

586.

June delom omade pishe Korbune ei ma¯ga¯m noh gale mishe. My dear [cow] came forward [to be milked]. My cow [is worth] the sacrifice of nine flocks of sheep.

587.

Ma¯ga¯ye zardom ˇcon kashti. Durgal vadinesh megashti. My yellow cow is like a ship. The girls went after it [to bring it for milking]. It was the girls’ important job to fetch individual cows, sheep and goats for milking and to keep them still while the animals were being milked.

588.

Ma¯ga¯ye zardom va¯dushe. Shiresh por va ga¯dushe. My yellow cow is being milked at the second attempt. Its teats are full of milk in the second milking. S.W.: When a cow withholds the milk because it is upset, it is left alone for a while to settle down and then is milked again, successfully. Usually at the second attempt (called va¯dushe) cows do not give much milk, but this one is giving milk like it is the first time.

589.

Ma¯ga¯ye zardome jun delom bedoshom, ma¯yash bekonom va beposhom. Mo i roghan zardesha befroshom bedomesh va katun vo beposhom. My dear yellow cow, I want to milk you, put in the starter to make yoghurt and cover [the pot]. I want to sell the yellow clarified butter, give [the money] for shoes, and wear them.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN S.W.: These final lines show how much a cow’s milk boosted the household economy. Clarified butter (from yoghurt; cow’s milk gives yellowish butter) could be sold to make a precious purchase of a new item of clothing or shoes. E.F.: At the time when this was sung, katun (‘cottoncloth’) meant any kind of apparel, including shoes. Most women in the area were barefoot then, and shoes were highly prized for practical reasons and as a luxury. However, here it may refer to any clothes – women lacked clothes, too. In most parts of the province, women had little or no access to traders or to money. Their menfolk transported and sold all cash products, including yoghurt, butter and woven textiles, and spent the proceeds as they saw fit. By far most of the women’s products went to moneylenders outside the tribal area who were an economic scourge of the population. (For milk products see Yoghurt in the Glossary.)

CHAPTER 8 OTHER PLACES, ALL THE SAME ( JEI DA, HAMASH YEKI)

Linguistically and in many other ways the Lurs of the Zagros area are closely related. The following verses I selected from collections of poetic texts from Luristan, Bakhtiari, Boir Ahmad and Mamasani show the relationships. They represent Lur poetry between, roughly, 1900 and 2000. The similarities across time and space are striking as to format, themes and mood. As the earlier collections lack ethnographic information and explanations we cannot see complete schemata to which the poems belong. However, the poems provide clues that allow us to project ethnographic information backward from the present. When I asked a Sisakhti woman about this problem, she shrugged it off: ‘A bullet in the back then is like a bullet in the back now, and it hurt then as it hurts now’, she said. Of the many verses in these collections, I selected some that speak to topics that are not much in evidence in the Sisakht lyrics, or that add background, illustration or explanation to the Sisakht songs. For example, what appears in the Sisakht repertoire (Nr. 386) as a single two-liner, in the 1910 Mann collection is a dialog with two stanzas (Nr. 568–9), indicating the greater popularity of dialogic singing in the past. I thank the colleagues and/or the respective publishers for generously giving me permission to use examples from their collections: Sekandar Amanolahi and W.M. Thackston, Yaqoub Ghafari, Oscar Mann, Fereydun Vahimian and Garnik Asatrian (for Lorimer) and Susan Wright. These scholars used different transliteration styles but all in modified Latin script. I omitted complex phonological and diacritical signs but otherwise kept most of their spelling. It reflects differences in dialects across the Luri-speaking area but also the fact that Luri is an unwritten language and the transliteration is not standardised. Some authors provide translations of the texts, and I used most of those but took the liberty to substitute my own words, in [. . .], where I felt that the text got bent

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into an English idiom. With few exceptions the authors did not provide interpretations or explanations beyond footnoting certain words. Thus, the notes I add after each verse (to keep the format I use throughout the book) are my own unless indicated otherwise, and are based on my familiarity with the milieu and on information the collectors provide. Yaqoub Ghafari recorded the songs he published mostly in northern Boir Ahmad. The dialect is quite similar to the Sisakhti dialect, and the verses fit the Sisakhti repertoire in terms of their themes and cultural/philosophical background. The translations are my own. 590.

Qa¯rati derow qatr, pishtow zere sha¯l, Kam bekon ya¯qigari, beyow mene ma¯l. (Ghafari 2013: 37). Plunder, two rows of pistols under your sash. Stop the rebellion [and] surrender. An indignant speaker tells the warrior, most likely a rebellious khan, to stop it already. By the 1950s most people were tired of the violence and insecurities of their khans’ plunder and pillage, of which they were regularly victims themselves, and of the ideology of heroism. The khan’s riflemen were feared, as was the Shah’s army. The verse fits Abdullah Khan Zarghampour (see Glossary), the last paramount khan in Boir Ahmad, who, in 1963, with a bounty on his head fled to the mountains rather than surrender to Shah Mohammed Reza’s army.

591.

Qad ba¯rik, ba¯la¯ boland mishe kohi row, Ja¯helale beirahmad sit nikenen khow. (Ghafari 2012: 96.) Slim back, tall body, the gait of a wild sheep, The young men of Boir Ahmad cannot sleep because of you. The trope of female (or, less so, male) beauty disturbing the peace is popular throughout Iran. In 2016, the morality police in Iran reportedly issued a condemnation of a notorious California socialite, claiming she was confusing and corrupting the youth of Iran with alluring images of herself on social media. Local people say such stirred-up emotions of longing and lust cause friction and aberrant behaviour especially in young men, and that therefore young beautiful women ought to avoid such agitation and ought to don modest dress (heja¯b) when they have to be in public. The ‘gait of a wild sheep’ means graceful walking, and altogether the bragging speaker is proud and happy of the (or his) girl’s beauty.

592.

Ye heza¯ro punsadi kha¯l pase pa¯te Ma¯leya¯t Kohgelu kam shirbeha¯te. (Ghafari 2013: 50.)

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A thousand five hundred tattoos above your heel. The wealth of Kohgiluye is not enough for your brideprice. While usually men bemoan a high brideprice, here the tone changed a bit: the suitor declares his beloved’s value to be beyond measurable wealth. In either case a bride’s value is measured in money. For tattoo and brideprice see Glossary. 593.

Dovaru deyta bego bowta khavar kon, Shirbeha¯t ˇca¯rsad temen yacˇisha kam kon. (Ghafari 2012: 36.) Girl tell your mother, let your father know, To make your brideprice a bit less than four hundred Toman. The suitor and his people try to persuade the bride to put in a good word for him and lower the asking price. The verse shows how a girl can influence her marital ‘fate’. If she does not care for the suitor she will tell her parents to ‘go high, high’ with the brideprice demand so as to discourage the suitor without having to refuse him directly and cause a social embarrassment. The brideprice is negotiated very carefully and with witnesses from both sides, but is less of an issue if the families are closely related or else – in the past – if girls are simply exchanged between two families. For shirbeha¯ see brideprice in the Glossary.

594.

Dardom yaki dota¯ ni Hicˇi mene ey donya¯ ni Da¯yni da¯yni har dam Mirat bemire jahnam Da¯yni da¯yni dotashun Dota¯ telesm va na¯shun Da¯yni da¯yni eyva¯la¯ Beyow bereym vey ba¯la¯ Dardom yaki dota ni Da¯yni da¯yni sa¯la¯r zan Zey sare gordam ˇci pa¯zan Yava¯sh bera [. . . ]. (Ghafari 2012: 78.)

My pain is not [just] one or two There is nothing in this world – any moment May your husband die [and go to] hell – the two of them, both Two amulets around their neck – O God Come, let’s go up My pain is not [just] one or two – Great woman You hit my side like an ibex Walk slowly [. . .].

In this chant of two-liners (da¯yni or daini) a love-sick man, weary of the whole world, strings together various themes in the language of longing and obsession, including a death-wish for the woman’s husband. The ibex was an emblematic animal in the Zagros until it was hunted nearly to extinction, by the mid- twentieth century, and to this day is a metaphor

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN and a nostalgic male dream-concept of power, hunting, the free and dangerous life in the high mountains. A push in the ribs by an ibex may kill a man.

The second verse of the following dialogue went solo in Sisakht (see Nr. 386). 595.

Man: Sama¯var band ˇca¯laya quri ˇcap o ras, Ma¯beine ˇca¯rsad dovar delom khotey kha¯s. (Ghafari 2012: 98f.) Samovar in the fireplace, tea glasses to the left and right, Among four hundred girls I wanted you.

596.

Woman: To kola va sar mane nago mo merdom, Tey khoda¯ pashimunom shi vat kerdom. Don’t put a cap on your head, don’t say, I am a man, By God I regret having married you. The man assures his wife that he had made a good choice by marrying her, or else that, sitting pretty (tea and glasses spell comfort) with many choices he could have done much better than choosing her. The wife makes an unequivocally critical statement about her husband. Nevertheless, the song was sung at weddings. Spousal disagreements are part of being married, a woman commented.

597.

Va bali va nune bali mah to dus lerruni, Korala vo dovaral va dine khot idowni. (Ghafari 2013: 62f.) O acorn and acorn-bread, are you maybe friends with the Lurs, That the boys and girls run after you? To this day acorns are emblematic in the Zagros areas, collected in the oak woods mostly by women and children. The verse somewhat coyly speaks to both, the abundance and necessity of collecting acorns and to the chore, including children’s labour input. Recently, gathering acorns has become a sort of picnic-entertainment for middle class and urban families. For acorns see Glossary.

Amanolahi’s collection (Amanolahi/Thackston 1986) from Luristan, a Zagrosarea province adjacent to Bakhtiari, contains songs that are quite similar in tone and structure to those from Boir Ahmad and Bakhtiari. The next eight verses are examples from the one hundred mourning songs in his publication. The translations are by the authors, with occasional remarks by me, in brackets.

OTHER PLACES, ALL THE SAME (JEI DA, HAMASH YEKI) 598.

183

Dawa¯rkai khut shawnami vash nia¯ya Ca¯r dassak buri u kucˇil ishkana¯ya. (Amanolahi 1986: 182, 99.) Your tent has so much dew on it, The four ropes have snapped and the pole is broken. The heavy tears of grief broke the tent support. The scene describes a pastoral setting but the meaning of the metaphor transcends the tentimagery. The poetry moves people to this day.

599.

Qawrkam tana ka nakanash bara¯ri. Shivanam sarda ka nakirdash khwari. (Amanolahi 1986: 182, 100.) My grave is narrow, for no brother dug it. The mourning for me is cold, for no sister wailed. This is an explicit statement about the importance of siblings for each other. Sisters were the chief mourners for their brothers, just as they were expected to be the happiest guests at a brother’s wedding. Without their emotional support, wedding and death are without warmth, people say. A ‘narrow grave’ is to be taken literally. Digging graves in the rocky, hard soil is hard labour, and if the diggers are not committed mourners like the dead person’s brothers, they will try to dig as little as possible. When I listened to people talking about what they were afraid of after death, the discomfort of a narrow, dark grave was most important. This implies that feelings extend beyond death and that the confines of the grave meant despair to the dead, while to the living they meant fearful anticipation for themselves and anxiety about their dead relatives. Thus, the simple scene rests on an eschatological premise and refers to several schemata of death. See also Chapter 5.

600.

Nunmu murti u sa¯yai sarmu san. Shun ra¯ssam qawrissun u ja¯kamu tan. (Amanolahi 1986: 183, 101.) Our bread is myrtle and the shade over our head is stone. My right shoulder [lies] in the grave, and my place is tight. A dead person laments being dead: the grave is tight and neither food nor shade are comfortable. (Resting the dead on their right side was customary in Luristan.) The reference to the myrtle is enigmatic. It is not used as food anywhere in the Zagros area. There might be a shadow of antiquity here because myrtle was the sign of a hero and was used in Greece in mortuary rituals as well as a perfume in embalming in Egypt. Professor Amanolahi assured me that in Luristan the myrtle is common and that it has ‘sacred connotations’ in Islam. (Amanolahi, personal communication.) In the eastern Zagros the plant is not common and I did not hear of it spoken

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN there. Murti may also be the lurified Arabic word for myrrh and its bitter taste: murt, murrat, bitterness. Myrrh, too, was used in antiquity for embalming corpses.1 The meaning of the verse does not change, though. Either way, a grave is a bad place to be in.

601.

U dawa¯r khua pa¯rcˇai kuna da¯ra. Ha¯ hura a¯w barf, qayd v akas nada¯ra. (Amanolahi 1986: 183, 100.) It’s a good tent that commands the foot of the mountain. He drinks snow water and is bound to no one. Either the dead person had a good life or else the dead now enjoy a good life after death. The scene is pastoral and the message is timeless: a location that affords a vista of the landscape and of people’s comings and goings, ‘freedom’ in a wide sense of the word, and being near a source of cold water delineate a pastoral tribesman’s ideal environment. This combination resonates still, although few people in Boir Ahmad live in tents and migrate any more. At least in the view of many women (and women are the chief mourners), life after death may be a continuation of life on earth: the happy will be happy, the poor will be poor, etc. This idea stands behind the verse. Graveyards are preferentially located on hills surrounding a settlement.2

602.

Tamda¯rat va da¯r u da par garivu, Ha¯ shuni karkitta hamsun pariu. (Amanolahi 1986: 185, 102.) Your loom is placed next to strangers, You beat down the woof sitting by the fairies. The abandoned loom means separation, a standard metaphor for death. However, although the loom is depicted on women’s gravestones, the image of the dead woman weaving with the fairies is unique. In standard folkloric reality, fairies live in this world, not the next. Although people expected human and fairy activities to intersect at times, they did not expect dead people to end up with the fairies.

603.

Va garivi naravam, da marg tarsam, Kas niya¯, kas narawa ava¯l bapursam. (Amanolahi 1986, 104.) Let me not go into exile [literally: the strange place] – I fear death, No one comes or goes with whom I can chat. Death as a going-away to a strange place (the literal translation of what the authors call ‘exile’) is a common concept, here illustrating what it means to be a stranger: nobody is familiar enough to talk to. Indeed, nobody is there at all. Death is being alone. This is another philosophical statement about death.

OTHER PLACES, ALL THE SAME (JEI DA, HAMASH YEKI) 604.

185

Ye bara¯ri ha¯ssam da da¯lakai khum bu, Shir da¯a¯m hardua, mihrash da dilam bu. (Amanolahi 1986: 187, 105.) I wanted a brother to be of my own mother, Who had drunk my mother’s milk, whom I could love with all my heart. [Literally: whose well-being is in my heart.] Half-siblings of one father are said to be competitive rather than supportive, while children of the same mother are close. Amanolahi (footnote 24) says, ‘This stems in part from the frequent rivalry between the mothers.’ Mother’s milk appears as a strong bond among siblings. The important themes that emerge in the schema of kinship here are the longing for a ‘good’ brother as a trusted ally and mother as a link to this support, although this expectation runs counter to the strong patrilineal ideology.

605.

Ma dil-am miha¯ss ye ma¯lgai nubaha¯ri. Ga¯warash kuri u mihmunam bara¯ri. (Amanolahi 1986: 188, 107.) I wanted a springtime campsite. A child [sic! kur is a male child] in the cradle and a brother as my guest. A variant of the ‘I wish – ’ songs, this one states a pastoralist’s priorities, namely, to have good grass, a baby son and a supportive brother. Springtime greens promise healthy animals, the baby son means status and a strong family, and visiting brothers exemplify the amiable and supportive relations of a¯mad o raft, coming and going, between houses. (Lack of it means animosity, estrangement and isolation and is considered unhealthy, unwise, dangerous and morally reprehensible.) The dead person laments and asserts his innocence, saying, in effect, ‘I was a reasonable man who wanted a modest, peaceful life.’ For kur see kor(r) in the Glossary; for ma¯l see Glossary.

Oskar Mann (1910) published texts from several places in Kohgiluye as documents of Luri languages, in Luri, with Farsi and some German translations. My translations here are mostly from his Luri texts. The first, a bragging verse from Basht in southern Kohgiluye, tells a story from the violent pillage-and-plunder history of the area to the middle of the twentieth century. It must have happened in the late nineteenth century, fresh enough in people’s memories for Mann to get the background story to the poetically coded song at the turn of the century. 606.

Sha¯hinom ze maza¯ye da¨lu mushnida va Na¯rak Zadish va ˇcire malacˇa¯, gula da¯d o gha¯rat. (Mann 1910: 64.) My falcon from the Dal Mountain attacked Narak Threw [the man] into the water channel and took the woman as loot.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Mann has this story behind the verse, here translated from his German text: ‘A certain Muhammad Ali Khan Kuhgalui Bavi from Basht was in love with a woman by the name of Shahrbanu. He took off from the Kuhe Dil, raided the village Narak, abducted the woman and her husband, Qasim, and threw him into a water channel.’ The story was outrageous enough to make it into folklore, and shows the violent, aggressively masculine culture at the time. A woman, especially a pretty woman, her family and her husband could never be sure that a chief would not steal her or oblige her people to give her to him. Into the 1950s, when a certain infamous chief was seen approaching Sisakht with his riflemen, the girls ‘took to the trees,’ as people said.

607.

Har du zulfa kupaka das vayek nada¯da ˇ un ˇcavile pa¯ Dana¯ shouna¯mish niha¯da. (Mann 1910: 64.) C Her two side locks are buds, have not yet joined their hands. Because the night dew has fallen on the cˇavil at the foot of the Dena mountain. The mourning song with the touching image of night dew falling on ˇcavil is for a young bride. Side locks were cut on the wedding day, left to peep out from the head scarf left and right, and were tucked back as the hair was growing again. It was the most obvious sign of a married woman. The high peak rising behind the town of Sisakht is famous throughout the area. For ˇcavil see Glossary.

608.

Tarsakom barf bezane, ra¯hyala buanda, Rah va rah bandun bia¯, kas kasi nabina. (Mann 1910: 66.) I am afraid [that] snow will fall, block the roads, road after road will close, nobody can see the other. This is both a gripping image of loneliness and death as well as an apt description of a winter scene in the high mountains. Weather, landscape and the feeling of isolation are packed into a few words. In the Zagros area one hears stories of people who, disoriented by a snowstorm, felt exposed and abandoned or else disappeared in the deep snow.

609.

Se ˇci si a¯shiqi bad inuma¯ya¯: sag o homsa¯ya va ma¯h ke vara¯ya. Sagala nun bedom, homsa¯dana rushva, balka pavaldaga¯r ouri vara¯ra. (Mann 1910: 32.) Three things bring bad situations for lovers: dog, neighbour and the waxing moon. I’ll give the dogs bread, the neighbours gifts, [and] maybe God the Provider will move a cloud [across the moon].

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Dogs bark and bite, neighbours spy and gossip, and the moon lights up the place. The verse suggests that if one wants a clandestine meeting one better take precautions such as keeping dogs and neighbours quiet. Beyond that, one hopes that God will help, maybe. The verse contains a philosophical remark about God’s Will and ‘fate’: the man won’t leave the success of his romance to ‘fate’ – he has to do his part by being circumspect. Only what he cannot control he leaves up to his fate as determined by God. In vernacular use, rushva means bribe, ‘gifts’ that keep people quiet. 610.

ˇ i khasha zimisun pase tash, amma¯ da¯shta bei ya¯re dilkash. C Se ˇci va nahmate dunya¯ bekhari: kabab u nune gandum u za¯daye mash. (Mann 1910: 36.) How pleasant is winter at the fireplace, but you ought to have a beloved with you. Eat three things from the bounty of the earth: kebab and wheat bread and the product of the bee. The two lines rhyme but otherwise the only connection between them is a general common-sense wisdom, an admonition to an unspecified male. The three suggested foods are ‘warm’ or neutral in the Galenic system (see Glossary) of humoral qualities popular in Iran. Lamb’s meat is ‘warm’ and so is honey, roasted meat is said to have more energy (qouve) than boiled meat, and wheat bread is tastier and more expensive than the traditional acorn-meal bread. The underlying assumption is that Lurs in the mountains tend to suffer from an imbalance of the body’s humours, from an inclination toward ‘cold’ conditions, weakness and corresponding ailments, and that this imbalance naturally increases with age. The verse thus has a medical message: for a man to be healthy and ageing well, he has to have creature comforts such as a warm fireplace, a pleasant partner for companionship, sex and services, and good, ‘warm’ food to counter the natural tendency toward cold imbalance. Furthermore, the peaceful fireplace scene indicates that the man had procured enough firewood to last him for the winter; that winter workdays are short and winter evenings and nights are long and lazy, to be enjoyed with a willing and appealing spouse. Thus, the two lines sketch a male philosophy of health and of winter.

611.

Barf a bare khar bukunom, vu khom khara burunom, Sho nima bukunom, khoma vat berasunom. (Mann 1910: 35f.) I will load the donkey with snow and will drive the donkey myself, I will halve the night to get to you.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Mann identifies the singer as a man in the summer quarter in the mountains tending the animals and pining for his beloved back in the south. It is a realistic short story. In the hot summer, snow – anything cool – was sorely missed by the people left behind in the winter quarter to guard and work the fields. Often, young men in Sisakht took the trouble of climbing up the steep mountains to take snow from a snowhollow as a special treat for visitors, running all the way back ‘like antelopes’ with the dripping back-packs. As a sign of his devotion, the young man in the verse will forgo sleep to get the snow to his beloved before it all melted. Since about 2000 the few families living in tents use generator-powered refrigerators to keep water cool but the emotional message of devotion in the song is popular still.

Vahman/Asatrian’s publication (1995) of the large Lorimer collection of Bakhtiari songs of around 1900 shows the similarity among different Lur regions in poetry, cultural assumptions and habits over time. The Bakhtiari remained nomadic and transhumant pastoralists longer than most tribes in Boir Ahmad. When Mr and Mrs Lorimer (see Glossary) collected folkloric texts there around 1900, the pastoral lifestyle and the heroic/violent interactional patterns, the rivalry between factions and families and the accompanying patterns of life that 50 years later we met in Boir Ahmad – changing rapidly under the impact of modernity – were in full swing in Bakhtiari. 612.

The first example expressing this mind-scape is a ‘ballad.’ The dead man and his wife are talking. I added spaces between verses and made a few editorial changes [in brackets] in the translation. (Vahman/Asatrian 1995: 45, 103.)

Seyed Hashim [speaking to his son, Ali]: Mo khudum ba Lurdagun, khus sar e pire, Hamatun da¯a kunin Ali’m namire. Tu kur i Said Ha¯sume, nishun ˇce da¯ri? Ka¯rd i sauz sar i kadat, nila-suwa¯ri. Bard a sherum bikashin ba nar ga¯mesh, Na khudat bad az khudum, pa¯ bina wa¯ pesh. I am at Lordegan, he is at the shrine, Pray all ye that my Ali may not die. You are the son of Saiyid-Hashim, what token have you? You have a green dagger at your waist, you are riding a grey horse. Have my lion-tombstone fetched hither by a bull buffalo. You are next to me (in succession to the headmanship), step forward (and lay claim to it).

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His wife: Na-radum ba Lurdigun, dori kharidom? Navedum ba kil i ma¯l, bi’s narasidum? Dilum sod, dilum birisht zulf o gula¯lat, Mu tarsum Maurun rivi, shirum hala¯lat. Dilum sod, dilum birisht rish i burat, Har du dast wa¯ sar zanum wuja¯qi kurat. Mon a bur, kul a kumet aved dar ma¯l, Diduyel, gyap o kucˇir, sardast a tushma¯l Mun a bur, kul a kumet da raved ba bozi, Diduyel, gyap o kucˇir, sar dast i sozi. Wurkishid haftcˇu bahun, bahun i mirza¯, Sahav i ˇca¯r a¯siau, ˇca¯r jufta wurza¯. ¯ lkha¯luk ˇcitiqalum, sha¯lat haza¯rgul. A [Didn’t I] go to Lordegan [and] buy medicines? [Didn’t I] return again to the camp and arrive (in time) at his (bedside)? My heart burned, my heart roasted (at the thought of) your locks and top knot, I fear you may take your way to the Land of the dead, may my milk be lawful to you! My heart burned, my heart roasted (at the thought of) your tawny beard. With both hands I beat my head (at the thought of) your cold, deserted hearth. The chestnut mare, the yearling bay came to [the entrance to] the camp, Sisters, old and young, (arrange yourselves) above the musicians. The chestnut mare, the yearling bay came out to the dance, Sisters, old and young, (arrange yourselves) above the [oboe player]. He set up the seven-poled tent, [the Mirza’s tent]. He was the owner of four mills and four yoke of plough oxen. Your under-coat was of printed chintz, your waist-cloth of hazar-gul. Seyed Hashim: Rasidum sar a guda¯r, manzil Qala-tul. Uso ke jangimun bivast ba sar i kun, Dastum rahd si gurz e sur, pa¯m rahd ba zuni. I came to the ford at the river, my (next day’s) halting place was Qala Tul. When our fight began on the precipitous bank of the river, My hand went for the red club, I fell on my knees (and died). Hashim died in a skirmish, and the mention of having been on the way to a fort (qale) at the time indicates danger and high status. In the lyrics we learn about qualities of tribal chieftainship and hear the widow’s voice.

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Hashim was a descendant of the Prophet and a rich, important tribal chief. Chieftainship was hereditary. Concerned about his son, the heir to wealth and leadership, he urges him to claim both forcefully. This was not mild advice. Unless an heir, especially a young one, was savvy and had good support and allies, one of his father’s brothers or their sons likely would claim the leadership position. In a somewhat defensive or complaining voice the hero’s widow sings of her devotion, the troubles she took for her husband, and of her grief. Despite her efforts, she is afraid that her husband left for good, into eternity. About this (fourth line from top), Vahman says, ‘Maurun “Land of dead” – is attested only in cultic poetry, being, perhaps, very archaic; [. . .] Perhaps, it is a unique genuine Iranian designation for the “Next World, Land of deads,” preserved in the whole New West Iranian linguistic ground.’ (Vahman/Asatrian 1995: 19f. Original spelling and italics.) This sheds light on observations in several poems from Sisakht, too: death is a leaving, a final separation; there is no connection between this life and the Land of the Dead. Lordegan, a town near the border between Bakhtiari and Boir Ahmad, was – and still is – an important market place for tribal people. The shrine ( pir, see Glossary) is not named, but being a Seyed the dead man likely was a descendant of the ‘pir’. Allegiance of certain families to ‘their’ shrines, including regular visits there, is in evidence throughout the area. Mentioning the shrine in the poem, the family emphasises its generational link to the saint, thus presenting itself as a well-grounded, important, pious kin group. The ‘lion-tombstone’ is a specialty of ancient mortuary art in the area. (Mortensen 2010, Khosronejad 2013.) Sisters of a dead man again appear as chief mourners. Not only did they sing and wail but until the early twentieth century they performed ‘mourning dances’ near the graves of brothers. (Mortensen 1996.)

613.

Several themes about men’s passion and women’s reactions to propositions come together in a lengthy type of dialogic poem, telling a story about an old man smitten by a young, beautiful, married woman. (Vahman/Asatrian 1995: 46, 105f.) In these excerpts from the translation my editorial changes are in brackets.

Man: Oh, Sweetheart, little Sweetheart, may your husband die [. . .] Woman: [Don’t curse] my husband, o ignorant fellow, Let him provide my food and clothing, and you may be my lover.

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Old [father-brother], go and die, it is not your time (for love), I am spring, full of flowers, you are a [white-beard]. Man: If it pleases you, I will cut off my beard And come to you in the semblance of a [young fellow.] [. . .] Woman’s Mother [or Woman]: Let no dog seize this [poor guy] who is near the camp; [. . .] His eyes are [dilated], his senses are [mad with passion]. Man: It was a moonlight, thief began his work, [. . .] I crept along like a snake and went in under the bedclothes. A repulsive old woman looked round and saw me. Repulsive old woman, why do you interfere with my business, If I don’t fuck your asshole, I have no God. [. . .] [The girl said,] ‘The garden that belongs to others is sealed, are you blind?’ [The man said,] The garden of others is sealed, but I am the leader of a robber gang [. . .] Man: When spring comes on me, I sell goats, I give them for [new clothes to wear]. Woman: When spring comes on you, you sell goats, When it is autumn, [baldy], bowl in hand [you will] milk the goats. The man’s wants, actions and opinions are clear, unlike the woman’s. She is ambivalent, teasing and belittling the man. The story rests in a courtship-schema: the man pursues, the woman holds back and has clever, alluring and mocking/critical answers to his advances. Thus, ‘baldy’ was a derogatory term for people in the past who lost their hair from a scalp infection; milking is a woman’s chore, not a man’s. Anal intercourse that the man threatens the old woman with who foils his ‘theft’ was and is common enough to make it into curses. A voice of reason tells the listeners that a deranged man should be avoided. 614.

The collection also has a version of a poem by an unknown author about the popular acorn, a two-verse Luri ode to the nut that fed people in the

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN Zagros since prehistoric times. Men and boys use stones and long sticks to beat the acorns out of the trees before anybody else gets them. The verses refer to this mode of harvesting. For acorn see Glossary.

A Lur man speaks: Balitum bigire, buzum bizoihe, Kalg o du’m yak igire, minat khuda¯ye. Balit i ka¯l, balit ai, kashk i sa¯sa¯, Harke da¯re nakhure, hunash khara¯ba¯! Balit i ka¯l, az kul kula¯wa sar daraverd, Har lure wa¯ jilt i buland ba¯la¯ saras awed. (Vahman/Asatrian 1995: 57, 119.) May my oak tree bear fruit [and] my goat give birth, [Then] acorn-bread and my buttermilk come together, thanks are due to God. Ripe acorn, o acorn. (And) dried acorns ground down [sic! See kashk below], Whoever has [this] and won’t eat, his house [will] perish! [When] the ripe acorn pushed the head out of the acorn-cup, Every Lur beat it with a long stick. This plain comment on local subsistence conditions is famous throughout the region. Kashk (in the third line) is the term for dried curd-balls, a substitute for buttermilk in the winter. Pounded and mixed with water, the kashk-water mix is added to acorn-bread. This mush was a staple food in the traditional pastoral/gathering economy. For acorn see Glossary. The acorn speaks: Lur e duykha¯r e mast Zeyd ba sarum, quli ze sarum wast. Reidum ba wa¯la¯, Burdum dar a ba¯la¯. Averd ba¯la¯ sarum ka¯rd i jun situna, Ishkamum dard, daraverd la¯s i na¯zinina. A buttermilk-drinking, drunken Lur Struck me on the head: the cap fell off my head. He threw me into a bag, (And) carried me off to the top of the gorge. He brought down on my head a murderous knife, He ripped open my belly and tore out my tender body. The acorn stops its lament when the man’s job is finished. (The subsequent pains and indignities in the course of making acorn edible are

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inflicted by women.) The personified acorn sees what is done to it in terms of hostility by having the Lur man behave as he would toward an enemy. In a different context, an elderly local man said that humans commit a sin every time they eat meat because it implied a killing, but also when they eat acorns (cut and killed), the rice (pounded) and anything that is cooked. This empathy and ability to see one’s own actions in a philosophical and ethical context we met frequently in talks with people. The short, curved iron knife used to cut open the acorn shells was made locally, an essential tool in the gathering-mode of the traditional economy. To call a Lur a ‘dugh-eater’, a person who cannot afford anything better than the cheap, watered-down buttermilk as a staple food, is a derogatory epithet. In a light mood, Lurs often make selfdeprecatory statements like these. 615.

One of Lorimer’s lengthy mourning songs (‘Mourning for a Dead Man’, Vahman/Asatrian 1995: 71f., 140ff.) combines several themes familiar in Boir Ahmad a hundred years later. In the following excerpt the dead man speaks. [. . .] her-cˇe kha¯stum nasibum nahishtum, wa¯ibid amr I khuda¯ wa¯ tik nawishtum. rahdum ba rau-rau, [. . .] da¯kum ai, da¯kum, shir bikun halla¯lum, ba Maurun ki irivum ta¯qat nada¯rum. da¯kum ai, da¯kum, diyer bet neiguhum da¯, ˇci guwer ga¯i kuhi wer da¯dim wur ja¯. [. . .] [. . .] wer da¯dim, jisti. [. . .] All the things that I wanted, my fate would not let me have. What came to pass was the will of God, written on my forehead. I wandered about [. . .] O mother of mine, mother of me, make your milk lawful to me, When I go to the Land of the dead I shall have no strength left. O mother of mine, my mother, I shall not [any longer] call you ‘mother’, Like the calf of the mountain cow, you have left me where I was. [. . .] You have abandoned me [. . .] and betaken yourself off. [. . .] Without mother’s blessing (by making her milk lawful) the dead man could not be at ease after death. That much is clear but beyond it the lines about mother are ambiguous. They may have come into this lament from another song, switching protagonists and speaker, but they also may turn the abandonment theme around, letting the dead accuse his mother of

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN having abandoned him. Either way death is declared to be an abandonment and a lonely state. For Maurun, the Land of the Dead, see also Nr. 612.

616.

A genre of entertainment poetry – for lack of a better word – plays on scatological and sexual themes. These poems and jokes were popular among some khans and their (male) entourage, often accompanied by appropriate noises, and causing great hilarity. Some men had a talent for such verses, entertaining, for example, a khan’s party, and some women entertained a kind of women’s stag party before a wedding with scenes and verses describing the wedding night or a birth. We rarely attended such parties, though, because people were embarrassed when we heard such uncouth language, and did not urge us to record the jokes. Lorimer (Vahman/Asatrian 1995: 49, 109) has one example, a story about what happened when a rich man went on the hajj, leaving his two wives, Majan and Guli, back home. Here is an excerpt from the lengthy poem: Ha¯jim rahd ba haj si dil u ma¯lis, Sa¯duq kira keshid, vast ba aya¯lis. [. . . ] Ma¯ja¯n ze turi lagha vande. Vande ba Sa¯duq du gir zes kande. [. . . ] Kulla¯ ba dastis, kusha¯n ipaini. Hai baina¯, shukulat ba¯ina. Sa¯la¯r yashne, ibure paiha¯. [. . .] Hajim muna zaid, mu nabidum dar band, Sa¯duq kuse kerd, dast i mun ishkand. [. . . ] [Guli o Ma¯ja¯n ] sar i kir i Sa¯duq wa¯ yak neisa¯zan. Ma¯jan kus ideh ze da¯gh i Guli. My Haji went on the Hajj because of his heart and much property. Sa ¯diq drew out his penis and fell on Haji’s wives. [. . .] Ma ¯jan savagely kicked out. She kicked Sa ¯diq and knocked out two of his teeth. [. . .] Hat in hand he measures pudenda muliebria. Ever playing, ever playing with that penis of yours. If the chief hears it he will hamstring you. [. . .] My Haji beat me, I did not heed it (I did not mind that), Sa ¯diq committed the violation: (it was) my arm (that) was broken. [. . .] [Guli and Ma ¯jan] do not agree together over Sa ¯diq’s penis. [. . .] Ma ¯jan surrenders her pudendum out of vexation with Guli. Even the authors’ gentrified translation allows insights into local attributes of cuckoldry, here especially piquant as the man is cuckolded

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while performing the religious duty of a pilgrimage to Mecca. (The text asserts that the man wishes to go and also is obliged to go because he is wealthy.) The poem plays on what are considered men’s uncontrollable sexual urges that make men synonymous with their penis; it plays on the dangers that unguarded, unprotected women face – quite real ones, at that, not merely bogey-man excuses to control women’s movements; and it shows women’s reactions to explicit propositions and rape. Such violence may result not only in injury but in beatings by the husband, be his wife innocent or not. In the schema of sexuality, even rivalry and misgivings between co-wives (Majan and Guli) enter the plot. People considered such verses funny, including the described aggression and injuries: it serves Sadiq (likely a servant in the house) right to have his teeth kicked out, and it serves Guli right to have her arm broken. This, the poem says, is the world of men and women, and do not expect anything else from either.

NOTES

Introduction 1. This particular ‘lovely place’ (locus amoenus) is part of the province Kohgiluye and Boir (or Boyer) Ahmad, from the Dena-part of the major Zagros range southward. (See the map and the entry ‘Kohgiluye’ in the Glossary.) 2. By 2015 we had lived in Boir Ahmad for a total of over seven years, chronicling the changing lifestyle over half a century. Most of our insights come from the large village/small town of Sisakht in the north of the area. For a description of the traditional ways of local life that are reflected in the lyrics, see Friedl 1991, Loeffler 2002. For the history of the region see Loeffler 1986. Photographs, short videos and descriptions of the area can be found on the internet under ‘Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad’. 3. Women’s gathering activities are a theme in the songs. See also Friedl 1992, 2006. 4. The first writer commenting on this pattern of tribal life in the Zagros, in Luristan, was likely Rawlinson 1839. For Bakhtiari see Khazeni 2009. 5. There is an element of indigenism in all folklore, it seems, whereby ‘folk’ is putting a conceptual constraint on local arts and artists in such terms as ‘native art’ or ‘folksongs’. 6. Indeed, Orr 2002 sees ‘personal lyrics’ as a kind of therapy. My observations in Boir Ahmad suggest that even so-called reality-based poetry that vents not the singer’s emotions but speaks to and about happenings, effects emotional change. 7. For a more explicit discussion of these points and relevant literature see Friedl 2014, 2015. 8. Orr and others work with the notion of a basic cultural system of templates informing texts, whereby the more frequent is a motif, metaphor, idea or emotion in the text, the more likely it belongs to an important template. The term schema is more inclusive, better grounded in theory and thus more useful than ‘pattern’ or ‘template’. For schema theory in ethnology see Strauss and Quinn 1997. The best short introduction into the conceptual basis of this approach is Colby 1966, 2009. Colby developed scientific methodologies for the analysis of large bodies of texts, folktales in his case, using what later became schema theory in anthropology. His insights and principles pertain to the Luri songs as well but I do not follow his rigid statistical methodology.

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9. The men’s fight-dance, tarke ba¯zi, has its own choreography and music but no lyrics. 10. For aniconism in Islam see Allen 1988; Janata 1984 linked the bird-motif to pre-Islamic aesthetics. Sellier’s elegant new edition of Attar’s poem, ‘Congregation of the Birds’ (Attar 2014) is a testimony to the popularity of the bird-motif in the many colourful illustrations of bird-paintings in the Islamic world, including Iran. 11. Professor Eckhard Neubauer generously made this comment: ‘The form of the texts suggests a standard pattern. I find such beit-two-liners as daini in older Luri folklore. There, too, they are rhymed in pairs (a-a) and consist of 7þ5 syllables with the inner structure 3þ4 or 4þ3 ( ¼ 7), followed by 3þ2 or 2þ3 syllables. It is a pleasantly swinging rhythm, as, e.g., Vou khoda¯ ba¯run bezan, mishom beza¯ye. / Berreshe narz ikonom va¯yam verra¯ye. (May God let it rain [now] that my sheep is about to lamb. / I make a votive promise of a lamb to make all go well.) Deviations from this norm in the verse-pairs usually signify an improvisation due to a lapse in memory or else a change intended by the speaker. There might be or might have been another verse form in Boir Ahmad or the neighbouring areas consisting of 5þ5 syllables in each of the two lines of a verse. A more or less ‘clean’ example might be Nr. 67: Duar pei mishi, malus tombun keshkishe. / Ye angi da ¯re, ye khorde lishi. (The girl has legs like a sheep, a beautiful swishing skirt. / She has one fault: she is a bit thin.) However, the 5þ5 structure in most cases is only in the second line while the first one varies. ‘Generally, one has to expect insertions and changes that come about during the act of singing or are due to the singer’s insecurity about a text. A typical insertion is ‘junom’, which can safely be put into brackets, as can the translation, ‘Dear’, without disturbing the meaning. Without junom the meter in the following line is right: Qorbune khodat berram, kha¯l serre penshat, [ junom ]. (I am a sacrifice for the tattoo on your finger, [Dear].’ (In this book, see Nr. 136 for an example.) ‘The – e ending on nouns indicating a genitive is rare in the texts and presumably taken from vernacular Farsi. Occasionally, such additions disturb the form and/ or the rhyme, and thus can easily be recognised and – if one strives for purist editing – eliminated.’ (Personal communication, November 2015.) Amanolahi provides a short appendix on the grammar, phonology and syntax of a Luri dialect in Luristan (1986: 196 – 215), as does Windfuhr 1986. 12. For the lyric/poetry development see Ramazani 2014. He reports that Derrida (1976: 199) sees the separation as ‘degeneration’ – a romantic and unhelpful notion when applied to the present case. Text-deterioration, however, brought about by endless repetition of memorised texts over time, is relevant because it may make a text unintelligible even to the singer and the audience. 13. The Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Science in Vienna, Austria, has samples of Boir Ahmad music we recorded in the 1970s. As I am not a musicologist but focus on words, I will take the music quietly for granted here. Traditionally, songs are performed without instruments, in contrast to the oboe/ percussion dance music and in contrast to modern Luri pop-music that, I am told, frequently uses motifs and formats of traditional songs and music. Voices, especially women singers’ voices, are shrill and strained. Examples of songs from the neighbouring Mamasani area that Susan Wright recorded in 1974 are accessible on www.oralliterature.org/collections.collections.html. 14. In his book on the history of love songs, Gioia 2015 makes this point especially for love songs, globally and throughout history.

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15. In anthropology this was an early concern (Spencer 1947 and comments in Colby 1966, 2009; Scanlon 2014). Since then, and at the latest since Abu Lughod’s presentation of Bedouin women’s poetry (Abu Lughod 1986), Nussbaum’s insight that poetry is a vehicle for ethics and moral philosophy is stating the obvious for an anthropologist (Nussbaum 1990). Griswold gives an admirable example for the value of this approach to folk lyrics in her presentation of Afghani women’s songs (Griswold 2013). Morgan unites poetry and everyday life in the title of her book (Morgan 1996). 16. Here is a partial list of shared motifs and features by way of examples: formulaic phrases, the lovely place (locus amoenus), textile metaphors, bragging verses, courtship cliche´s, eros-death link, suitor’s servitude, woman’s rebuke of suitor, broken promises, fickle fate, stubborn parents, lack of privacy, lovers spied on, suitor’s night outside the woman’s door, the daybreak motif, woman as pain, woman as healer. 17. This is from the Exhibition, ‘Inside Ancient Egypt’, at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. No source is given. Personal observation, November 2000. 18. A tradition exists of composing long poems to be recited at public events, usually praising the beauties of the tribal homeland, the brave deeds of particular men or the good deeds of administrators. Most are tedious to listen to, according to people in the audience, and soon are lost after the event that inspired them. These poems do not concern us here. 19. Two are on folktales (Friedl 2007, 2014), the third is on proverbs (Friedl 2015). Amanolahi has published some Lur tales and poems (Amanolahi 1986) and is working on another volume (personal communication), and Ghafari, a native of Boir Ahmad, is tirelessly collecting and publishing in all areas of folklore, in Farsi. I am grateful to both scholars for their kind cooperation with me. 20. Luri, spoken by some five million people in Iran, is based on Middle Persian (Skjarvo 2010: 196 – 278.) Local amateur historian/linguists say that the Luri vocabulary contains many even older features, and that Luri is closer to ‘original Persian’ than is modern Farsi. 21. For an example of the central government’s uneasy and troubled relationships with ethnic minorities in the Zagros, see Khazeni 2009, Loeffler 1989, and Mortensen 2010, pp. 7– 12. Saleh 2013, especially pp. 105 – 36, only cursorily talks about Lurs. For him, Lurs obviously and regrettably are simply Iranians who do not speak ‘right’, but otherwise his information provides a wider context. 22. This seems to be a universal trait of oral poetry through the ages. See Morgan 1996: 6.

Chapter 2

Looks, Desire, Passion

1. Vahman (1995: 35), writing about Bakhtiari (Luri) poetry, unconvincingly concludes instead that the characteristic of ‘Bakhtiyari [. . .] lyric poetry is the rather direct but subtle approach to the corporal merits of the sweetheart, parts of her body (breast, legs, belly, etc.), which at the same time is devoid of any vulgar connotation, being only a reflection of the straightforward attitude of unsophisticated tribesmen towards the object of their love [. . .].’ In general, women’s poetry is more straightforward, direct and sensuous than men’s poetry. Dronke’s (1996) discussion of gender differences in Medieval European lyrics is most illuminating.

NOTES TO PAGES 117 – 184

200

Chapter 4 Relationships 1. In Sisakht most people, and especially women, frown upon smoking as an expensive, unhealthy and disgusting habit, one step away from a drug addiction. Years ago women decided among themselves not to offer cigarettes to guests at parties. Many young men, however, who study or work elsewhere, come home ‘stinking of tobacco’, as people say.

Chapter 5

Mourning garye, garye (crying, crying)

1. Dick Davis’ article on religion in the Shahnameh (2015) illuminates our ethnography-based observations. To this day people in Sisakht and elsewhere in the region express many of the theological and philosophical ideas that Ferdowsi’s epos expressed more than 1,000 years ago. The rich local theology far transcends modern Shi’a doctrines. For the great variety of individual belief systems in the village see Loeffler 1988. Friedl 2013 discusses religion and philosophical concepts in folktales from the area. For a description of so-called folk beliefs in traditional Luristan see Amanolahi 1975.

Chapter 6

Religion din

1. Dichotomous categories such as popular belief vs. Islam, shrine-religion vs. mosque religion, folk-religion vs. orthodox religion are unhelpful for characterising and understanding lived religion in the Zagros (and elsewhere). There is no sharp division between these categories. Islam as practised is syncretistic, and theology and rituals integrate many sources, from antiquity to humanism. Furthermore, the region has been ‘Islamised’ several times, each time with more or less different content and emphasis.

Chapter 7 At Work badbakhti, sahmat, ka ¯r (misfortune, trouble, work) 1. The Farsi dictionary translation of ‘work’ is ka¯r, but in Boir Ahmad this word is used mostly for the general idea of doing something, a job, being busy. Agricultural work, manual labour and women’s work are summarily referred to as a necessary hardship. Nobody expects having to work in paradise, said an old woman.

Chapter 8 Other Places, All the Same ( jei da, hamash yeki) 1. I thank Dr. Eckhard Neubauer for pointing me to this interpretation. Abu murrat, ‘Father of Bitterness’ is a name for the devil in Arabic (Steingass 1963: 1209.) 2. Mortensen (2010) discusses graveyards in Luristan extensively.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abu Lughod, Lila, Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986). Allen, Terry, Five Essays on Islamic Art (Sebastopol, CA: Solipsist Press, 1988). Amanolahi-Baharvand, Sekandar, The Baharvand. Former Pastoralists of Iran (Houston: Rice University Press, 1975). Amanolahi, Sekandar and W.M. Thackston, Tales from Luristan:Tales, Fables and Folk Poetry from the Lur of Bala-Gariva (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986). Attar, Farid-ud-Din and Diane de Selliers, The Canticle of the Birds, Illustrated through Persian and Eastern Islamic Art (Paris: Editions Diane de Selliers, 2014). Bausani, Alessandro, Religion in Iran. From Zoroaster to Baha’ullah (New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2000). Boas, Franz, ‘Mythology and Folk-tales of the North American Indians’, Journal of American Folklore 27/106 (1914), pp. 374 – 410. Brooks, David, ‘Sacred Spaces and Potent Places in the Bakhtia¯ri Mountains’, in Richard Tapper and Jon Thompson (eds), The Nomadic Peoples of Iran (London: Azimuth Edition, 2002), pp. 90 – 111. Cicero, Marcus Tullius, ‘Oratio in Catilinam Prima in Senatu Habita’ Available at www. wikisource.org (accessed 28 March 2016). Colby, Benjamin N., ‘Cultural Patterns in Narrative’, Science, New Series 151/3712 (1966), pp. 797– 8. ——— ‘The Analysis of Culture Content and the Patterning of Narrative Concerns in Texts’, American Anthropologist 68/2 (2009), pp. 374– 86. Cole Cooper, Fay, Traditions of the Tinguian: A Study in Philippine Folk-Lore (Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1915). Davis, Dick, ‘Religion in the Shahnameh’, Iranian Studies 48/3 (2015), pp. 337 –48. Derrida, Jacques, Of Grammatology Gayatri C. Spivak, translator (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1976). Dronke, Peter, The Medieval Lyric, 3rd ed. (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1996). Dundes, Alan, Folklore: Critical Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies, 4 vols (London: Routledge, 2005). Eskin, Michael, Ethics and Dialogue in the Works of Levins, Bakhtin, Mandel’shtam, and Celan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). Ferdowsi, Abolqasem, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings Dick Davis, trans (New York: Viking Penguin, 2006). Friedl, Erika, ‘Boir Ahmad Mockery: a research note’, Iranian Studies 10/4 (1977), pp. 281– 6.

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——— ‘Colors and Culture Change in Southwest Iran’, Language and Society 8 (1979), pp. 51 – 68. ——— The Women of Deh Koh: Lives in an Iranian Village (London and New York: Penguin, 1991). ——— ‘Women’s Spheres of Action in Rural Iran’, in Nikki Keddie and Beth Baron (eds), Shifting Boundaries: Women and Gender in Middle East History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 195– 214. ——— ‘Old Plants and New Woman in the Zagros Mountains, Iran’, in Z. Fu ¯ sun Ertug (ed.), Ethnobotany: At the Junction of the Continents and the Disciplines (Istanbul: Ege Yayinlari, 2006), pp. 475 – 81. ¨ r Orientkunde, 2007). ——— Folk Tales from a Persian Tribe (Dortmund: Verlag fu ——— Folktales and Storytellers of Iran: Culture, Ethos and Identity (London: I.B.Tauris, 2014). ——— Warm Hearts and Sharp Tongues: Life in 555 Proverbs from the Zagros Mountains of Iran (Vienna: New Academic Press, 2015). ——— ‘The Ups and Downs of Dwellings in a Village in West Iran: The History of two Compounds’, Archiv fu¨r Vo¨lkerkunde 48 (1994), pp. 1 – 44. ——— ‘Archaeology and Cultural Memory in Boir Ahmad, Southern Zagros, Iran’, Archiv fu¨r Vo¨lkerkunde 61 – 62 (2013), pp. 183 – 231. Ganzer, Burkhard, Deutsche Agenten bei iranischen Sta¨mmen 1942 – 1944. Ein Augenzeugenbericht (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 2008). Ghafari, Yaqub, Maqadae¨a¯i darba¯re pushesh gia¯hi Kohgiluye va Boir Ahmad [Introduction to the plant cover of Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad ] (Yasuj: Dariush Publisher, n.d.). ——— Marasm arusi va dagarguniha¯ye-a¯n dar Kohgiluye va Boyr Ahmad [Wedding Customs and their Changes in Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad ] (Esfahan: Naqshmana Publisher, 1390H/2012). ——— Pushak Sanati mardom a¯sta¯n Kohgiluye va Boyr Ahmad [Traditional Clothing of the People of the Province of Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad ] (Yasuj: Behta Publisher, 1391H/2013). ——— Ghaza¯ha¯ye Sanati mardom bumi a¯sta¯n Kohgiluye va Boyr Ahmad [Traditional Foods of the People of the Province of Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad ] (1391) (Yasuj: Behta Publisher, 1391H/2013). Gioia, Ted, Love Songs: The Hidden History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015). Griswold, Eliza, ‘Landays: Poetry of Afghan Women’, Poetry Magazine, 2013 (Chicago, IL: Poetry Foundation). Available at www.poetryfoundation.org (accessed 15 September 2015). Halpern Spencer, Katherine, Reflections of Social Life in the Navajo Origin Myth (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico, 1947). Jacobsen, Thorkild, The Harps that Once . . . Sumerian Poetry in Translation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987). Janata, Alfred, ‘Tierdarstellungen als Nachleben eines vorislamischen Weltbildes im Schmuckwesen Afghanistans’, in Peter W. Schienerl (ed.), Tierdarstellungen im ¨ ttingen: Herodot, 1984), Islam am Beispiel des Schmuck- und Amulettwesens (Go pp. 30 – 46. Khazeni, Arash, Tribes and Empires on the Margins of Nineteenth-century Iran (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2009). Khosronejad, Pedram, Les Lions et Pierre Sculpte´e chez les Bakhtiari (Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, 2013). Loeffler, Reinhold, ‘Lur Hunting Lore and the Culture-History of the Shin’, in Peter Snoy (ed.), Ethnologie und Geschichte: Festschrift fu¨r Karl Jettmar. (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1983), pp. 399 –409. ——— Islam in Practice. Religious Belief in a Persian Village (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988).

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——— ‘Boir Ahmadı¯ I: The Tribe’, in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica, IV/3 (1989), pp. 320– 4. ——— ‘The World of the People of Deh Koh’, in Richard Tapper and Jon Thompson (eds), The Nomadic Peoples of Iran (London: Azimuth Editions, 2002), pp. 134– 43. Mann, Oskar, Die Mundarten der Lur-Sta¨mme im Su¨dwestlichen Persien (Berlin: Georg Reimer, 1910). Moeini, Jamshid (ed.), The Dream of Four-Season Land (Yasuj: Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Kohguilouye and Boyer-Ahmad Province, n d). Morgan, Gwendolyn A., ‘Introduction’, in Gwendoly A. Morgan (ed.), Medieval Ballads: Chivalry, Romance and Everyday Life (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1996), pp. 1– 7. Morier, James, A Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the Years 1810 and 1816 (London: Longman, 1818). Mortensen Demant, Inge, ‘Nomad Iconography on Tombstones from Luristan, Iran’, in Tore Ahlba¨ck (ed.), Dance, Music, Art and Religion (Turku: The Donner Institute, 1996). ——— Luristani Pictorial Tombstones: Studies in Nomadic Cemeteries from Northern Luristan, Iran (Leuven: Peeters, 2010). ¨ nkler, Marina, ‘Die Ku ¨ nstlichkeit des Dialogischen Liedes’, in Marina Mu ¨ nkler Mu (ed.), Aspekte einer Sprache der Liebe: Formen des Dialogischen im Minnesang (Bern: Peter Lang, 2011), pp. 19 – 34. Nussbaum, Martha, Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990). Oberling, Pierre, ‘Qasˇqa¯’i Tribal Confederacy I: History’, in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica. Available at www.iranicaonline.org (accessed 28 March 2016). Orr, Gregory, Poetry as Survival (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2002). Ramazani, Jahan, Poetry of Mourning (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). ——— A Transnational Poetics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009). ——— Poetry and Its Others: News, Prayer, Song and the Dialogue of Genres (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014). Rawlinson, Henry C., ‘Notes on a March from Zohab, at the Foot of the Zagros, along the Mountains of Khuzistan (Susiana), and from thence through the Province of Luristan to Kirman Shah, in the year 1836’, The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 9 (1839), pp. 26 – 116. Renfrew, Colin, ‘Symbol before Concept’, in Ian Hodder (ed.), Archaeological Theory Today (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001), pp. 122 – 40. Sajjadi, Sadeq, ‘Bı¯ma¯resta¯n’, in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica, IV/3 (1989), pp. 257– 61. Saleh, Alam, Ethnic Identity and the State in Iran (New York: Palgrave and Macmillan, 2013). Scanlon, Mara, ‘Ethics and the Lyrik: Form, Dialogue, Answerability’, College Literature 34/1 (2007), pp. 1– 22. ——— ‘Introduction’, in Mara Scanlon and Chad Engbers (eds), Poetry and Dialogism (New York: Palgrave, MacMillan, 2014), pp. 1– 19. Scruton, Roger, Beauty: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011). Skjarvo, Prods Oktor, ‘Middle West Iranian’, in Gernot Windfuhr (ed.), The Iranian Languages (New York: Routledge, 2010), pp. 196– 278. Steingass, Francis Joseph, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, 5th ed. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963). Strauss, Claudia, and Naomi Quinn (eds), A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

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Vahman, Fereydun and Garnik Asatrian, Poetry of the Baxtiaris (Copenhagen: Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 1995). Windfuhr, Gernot, ‘Boir Ahmadı¯ II: The Dialect’, in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), Encyclopaedia Iranica, IV/3 (1989), pp. 324– 6. Wright, Susan, Iran Collection – 1974 – 76: World Oral Literature Project (Cambridge: Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2011). Available at www.oralliterature.org/collections/swright001.htlm.

GLOSSARY

Information on most places and people in the Glossary may also be found on the Internet. Abdullah Khan Zarghami The last paramount khan of Boir Ahmad (about 1904– 63) forcefully resisted the Shah’s attempts to integrate the tribal region fully into the state and to carry out land reform there. In 1963 he was assassinated by his servant/bodyguard at the behest of the government while a fugitive in the mountains. In Sisakht he is remembered as a villain because he had ordered the assassination of his half-brother, Khosrow, whose mother was from Sisakht. Acorn, belli (Farsi: balut). The oak tree (quercus brantii) producing these nuts is indigenous to the Zagros mountains. The large acorns were traditionally the most important staple food in the area before wheat and other modern foods were introduced. The various food items made from acorns were the quintessential Lur cuisine, as local people joke. People competed for acorns with each other and with wild pigs. In the fall, parties of men, women and children collected them: men and boys made the acorns fall by beating the branches with long sticks or by throwing stones into the trees, and women and children collected the acorns in bags. At home men and women peeled the nuts out of their hard shells with special knives, and then women turned them into a kind of flour in a laborious process including fermenting, leaching, drying and grinding them. Mixed with water and salt the acorn-meal made a thick dough. The acorn-dough was either formed into round, thick flatbreads and baked in hot ashes or on hot stones, or else was evenly pressed by hand into slightly concave iron sheets and baked/dried over a fire. This acorn-meal bread was called kalg and was eaten like a brittle flatbread, as a buttermilk-mush or in several other dishes. Acorn-meal dishes taste bitter and likely cause constipation. After wheat became generally available, kalg use sharply declined, but since about 2000 it has become fashionable among local people as well as outsiders to collect acorns again. Kalg has become a popular nostalgia food.

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Ali (Ali bin abi Talib). The Prophet Muhammad’s nephew, son-in-law and successor in leadership is one of Shi’a Muslims’ most important saints. People invoke him routinely when difficulties arise. See also Saint. Alma ¯ni -rifle. This is the local name for the Mannlicher shotgun, made in Steyr, Austria. It was a favourite, expensive hunting and fighting weapon in the area. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi disarmed the tribes, and now gun ownership is licensed. Amir al-Momenin The title ‘Leader of the Faithful’ refers to Ali bin abi Talib. See Ali. ¯ Amu, see Ta ¯ta ¯ Bakht, luck, destiny. A much-used term in Iran, including in Luri dialects, it refers to one’s luck as part of one’s fate. Locally, the pre-Islamic concept describes a personified, male power that accompanies each person throughout life. When bakht is young and vigorous the person is energetic and lucky. When or if it is old, tired or asleep, the person is unlucky. ‘My luck is asleep’ means that nothing goes well for the speaker. Ba ¯zi, play. The elastic noun and verb (ba¯zi kardan) ranges in application from children’s play to playing games and, used euphemistically, to petting and sex. Bibi The honorific title connotes either a female descendant of the Prophet Muhammad or a woman in a tribal chief’s lineage. It precedes the first name and signifies high status. Bibi Hakime(h) A daughter of the 7th Imam and thus a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, she is said to have perished in what is now the south of Boir Ahmad, fleeing the Mongols. Considered efficacious when petitioned, her shrine is the biggest and most visited pilgrimage place in the area. See also Shrine. Boir Ahmad, Beiramad The meaning and etymology of the official name for what now is part of the province Kohgiluye/Boir Ahmad are obscure. Neither written nor oral sources remember a man by the name ‘Ahmad’ in a prominent position. Local amateur historians suggest that the name as spoken in Luri may derive from the times of the Medes, a powerful people reigning from 678 BC to 549 BC in an area adjacent to what now is Boir Ahmad, and may mean ‘along the road to the Medes, bey ra¯h-e Mad’, which sounds like Beiramad.

GLOSSARY

207

Brideprice The English term covers several traditional local customs of transference of goods from the groom and his family to the bride and her family. When women were scarce in Boir Ahmad, the most important marriage custom was the negotiation about money and/or gold, and livestock. One item in the brideprice-schema was the shirbeha, the ‘milk-money’ parents of a betrothed daughter got from the groom’s family as a compensation for bringing her up. This transaction implies the premise that daughters were an economic burden for the father – bringing her up was not benefitting him but her future husband’s family, so the groom and his people should compensate him by paying for her. With other brideprice-payments they got for their daughter, her people bought household items to take with her to her husband’s place upon marriage. Some fathers spent more than they got from the groom’s family, others spent less – these differences were part of ongoing inter-family competitions over status. Gifts of gold jewellery and gold coins belonged to the bride personally but she was supposed to sell them if her husband or sons needed money later. As a rule of thumb, the higher was the status of the girl’s family and her own reputation, and/or the more beautiful (and healthy) she was, the higher was the brideprice. The various brideprice customs have changed considerably over the past two generations. For one, the monetary lay-out has risen steadily, as parents (and the bride) want to put the couple on a secure economic basis, as people say. Now it often is measured by the number of gold coins asked by the bride and the size of alimony pay in case of a divorce. (See Gold.) If a bride and her people want to lord it over the suitor and his family with economic superiority or with an exaggerated trust in him, they might ask a non-monetary value, such as a copy of the Qur’an or else a nonsensical item such as a kilogram of fly’s wings. This puts the suitor’s family in the socially awkward, difficult position of recipient of the girl as a gift, and tells them that the girl’s family will be watching closely how well the husband and his ‘house’ will treat her. Bridewealth A bride’s family may not only ask a brideprice from the groom but also ask him to bring various items listed on a kind of shopping list, ranging from simple household goods to a car and a house, leaving him or the young couple to procure the household furnishings themselves. (Part or all of the brideprice may also pay for these goods.) These goods are displayed for inspection – and evaluation – by the relatives on both sides. The various stages and terms of economic transactions around marriage have changed considerably over the past two generations, leaving the meaning of traditional terms for them in flux, too. Brno -rifles. Made by Brno Zbrojovka in Brno, now the Czech Republic, these were the most famous and most coveted weapons in Boir Ahmad and to this day are markers of Lur men’s identity. After 1960 the tribal people were disarmed and

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later had to have permits for guns and hunting. A large part of the Zagros region now is the Dena Protected Area where hunting officially is not allowed. Buhun, black tent. The traditional black goat-hair tent was typical for pastoral peoples in West Asia. Women used yarn of naturally black goat hair to weave panels of a coarse fabric that, held together with heavy needles, was stretched over a frame of wooden beams and anchored with ropes to wooden pegs in the ground. In summer the tent’s long front was open, and the space inside was divided by screens of reeds, kilims or other fabric into a kitchen/women’s space and a living/guest area. In winter the wide front was closed and the entrance was on the sides. Until the 1980s the floor plan and the utilisation of space of mudbrick houses in Sisakht resembled the space in these tents. (Friedl and Loeffler 1994.) Although no longer used by herders in Boir Ahmad, the black tent remains an important identity feature and is a main attraction in folkloric events organised by local governmental agencies to promote tourism in the area. ˆ aq(e)lei, lad, chap, young man, fighter, hunter. A caqlei kola safid is a young C man with a white felt cap, a daring, chic young man. ˆ avil The pungently fragrant tall grass growing near the snow line high in the C mountains is mostly used as fodder, but people also put it on graves to surround the dead with a pleasant scent, they say. Poetically, it is a metaphor for death but also for all that is good and dear in the mountains. Colours The environment of Boir Ahmad is poor in colours for most of the year. When there is no snow, grey/brown tones dominate, interspersed with green trees in orchards and light oak-forest. Some places have an abundance of wild colourful flowers in spring, and fields show various shades of green. People are ‘colour-hungry’, and this shows in the appreciation of women’s colourful clothes and in the prevalent use of ‘flower, blossom’ (see Gol) for ‘woman’ in the lyrics. People, especially men, now often comment on the ‘black-on-black’ Islamic dress local women wear since the Islamic Revolution, and wax nostalgic about the traditional colourful women’s costumes. See also Dress; for colour semiotics see White/red, Souz and Jume zard. Crazy, kelu, mas. In the context of the songs, both words mean love-crazed. Literally, kelu means deranged, incoherent, irrational while mas means drunk from alcohol and is used routinely for being besotted with passion. One of the rationalisations for the ban on alcohol in Islam is that drunkenness makes people lose control over their sexual impulses. In popular psychology and in the songs infatuation has a similar effect.

GLOSSARY

209

Day of Judgment, ruze qeya¯mat (Farsi: ruz-e qiya¯mah) Like Muslims in general, people in Sisakht expect that at the end of time all life on earth will end and everybody who ever lived will be judged according to the criteria of a pious, moral life as proscribed by Islam. After this reckoning they expect the start of a new, just life, but this is not a theme in folklore. Colloquially, if one promises to finish something by the Day of Judgment, it means never. A cry of ‘Qeya¯mat!’ is an emphatic ‘No!’ Del The purported seat of emotions and stamina usually is translated as ‘heart’. It can refer to the stomach and intestines (del dard is a stomach ache) but in the lyrics it always means the most-quoted part of the human body, said to be located in the solar plexus. It is a quality rather than a physical organ, though, and figures in idioms ranging from anxiety (dellom tang: my del is tight) to empathy (dellom isuze: my del burns); from sadness (dellom sangin: my del is heavy) to ‘love’ (dellom tonna ikha¯: my del wants you); from happy (delkhosh) to angry (delse: black del). Obviously, it is not the anatomical heart, which is qalb in Farsi and Luri. Dress The traditional local women’s dress that is taken for granted in the songs consisted of a long shirt with slits at the sides, worn over several wide, long skirts, all of colourful fabric. On the head, women wore a small cap made of velvet with ornaments of glass seed-beads in front and a few gold or goldtoned coins hanging down the forehead. This was covered with a large headscarf of light fabric, fastened under the chin with a safety pin and on the head with a headband of folded silky, light fabric. A light, long veil covered everything in public but was not obligatory. Only the face and the hands were readily visible in private and in public. In the Islamic Republic women in public are covered by a headscarf and a mantle or a dark, long veil over their either traditional or urban clothes. At home, many women in Sisakht now wear ‘modern’ clothes that are less expensive and less restrictive than the traditional tribal costume. The tribal costume, however, remains as a Lur identity marker and is increasingly designed and reserved for festive occasions. Descriptions of men’s attire in the songs are limited to the feltcap and a wide sash, both from the times before Reza Shah outlawed traditional tribal dress for men, and to occasional references to the modern jacket as a sign of urban sophistication. Duar, girl, daughter, young, unmarried woman, virgin. This is one of several terms (dodar, dodaru, duaru, douduar, dor) used for reference and for addressing a female person, from girl-child to adult woman. Colloquially, duar may also be used to address married women, such as when women talk amongst themselves. It carries less authority than the term for a married woman, zan.

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Evil Eye Based on preconception and on experience, as people say, one has to expect that some people’s eyes may channel a destructive, involuntary force by looking, gazing and staring at any object, especially an admired one. Although this belief is widespread in Iran together with many ways of guarding against it, it is rarely mentioned in the songs and in other folkloric texts. Fate Several concepts and terms correspond to ‘fate’ in Boir Ahmad. In the songs the term, bakht (see Bakht) is important. The ancient notion of the inscriptum in fronte (see, for example, Cicero against Catilina I, line 39), namely, that one’s fate is written on one’s forehead from birth like an inescapable programme, is popular throughout Iran. Except for bakht, fate or destiny as an uncontrollable, God-ordained power rarely figures in folkloric texts. There, human agency is much more important and consequential for motivating and explaining happenings. Galenic Medicine As used locally, the complex medical system of the Greek physician Galen of Pergamon (130– 217 AD ) is mainly reduced to the assumption that a healthy body depends on keeping various bodily qualities (‘humours’) in balance, foremost ‘cold’ and ‘warm’ ones, and that many foods likewise are more or less ‘cold’ or ‘warm’ and can influence the body’s humours. For example, older people tend toward ‘cold’ and thus need ‘warm’ food such as walnuts and eggs to stay well. ‘Warm’ foods such as lamb’s meat tend to be more expensive than ‘cold’ ones such as beef, and ailments based on a ‘warm’ imbalance are said to be easier to cure. Thus, economic standing and health are related, as are knowledge and health. Many popular health practices in Iran rest on the Galenic model of humoural balance. Gol, gul, flower, blossom, rose. This is the most popular poetic metaphor for a girl and a woman. (In the love-songs it often is not clear if the beloved ‘flower’ is a girl or a married woman.) In an environment relatively poor in natural colours, bright flowers are especially appreciated. Women’s traditional costumes were colourful, catching the eye like flowers in a meadow, and people now lament the uniformly black, bleak sights of women in Islamic dress. Gold, ta¯la¯. Gold is an enduring indicator of wealth and high status. Most women’s gold bangles, necklaces and the gold coins sewed in front of the velvet cap were part of the dowry (paid for with the Brideprice) and were an ordinary tribal woman’s only valuable possession. In 2010 a local woman in Sisakht had ‘1,000 gold coins’ written in her marriage contract, meaning that should her husband divorce her, he would have to pay this fortune. Gold stands for a woman’s status as well as for her financial security.

GLOSSARY

211

Gun A quintessential male tool, status symbol and traditionally a marker of identity of young men, it appears especially in love-songs and in songs about men’s prowess as fighters. The guns used locally were vintage models by the time they were outlawed, around 1960, and all were used for fighting and hunting. See Brno, ¯ Alma ¯ni, Osma ¯ni. Gyou, gyegu, brother, son of father’s brother The term was used widely but now is popular only in the south of the province. See Kaka. Hala ¯l and harum (Farsi: hara¯m). In Islam, certain actions and objects are pronounced religiously lawful (hala¯l), their use and practice allowed, and others unlawful (hara¯m), forbidden and polluting. To disregard a hara¯m label is sinful. It is used in curses, such as calling a person harumzadeh, descendant of an unlawful ancestor. Ha ¯lu, maternal uncle. This is the address and reference term for mother’s brother. In the texts I use ‘mother-brother’ for ha¯lu to emphasise that it is a kin term, not only a kin category. In accordance with the patrilineal base of the local kinship system, the mother’s side of the family is regarded and treated as emotionally and socially closer than the father’s side. Ha¯lu thus is the kind, easy-going uncle. (In Farsi, the term is not used for uncle but has the connotation of fool, a funny guy.) Horse. The horse was a sign of status and wealth among Lurs. By around 1950 very few people in Boir Ahmad had horses any more, and the stables in the khans’ forts were empty. The saddled, riderless horse is a symbol of death, an image found on many old gravestones throughout the Zagros areas. For photographs and a discussion of the history of this motif see Mortensen 1996 and 2010: 83f. Imamzadeh. The term covers a purported male descendant (sey, seyed) or female descendant (bibi) of an Imam, and his or her tomb/shrine. Some of these exalted personages are said to possess the power to influence their visitors’ lives positively or else to have ‘God’s ear’ and use this position to plead their visitors’ cases before God. The more powerful such descendants are thought to be, the more attractive are their shrines for pilgrims. Descendants of such a ‘saint’ may make regular visitation-pilgrimages to ‘their’ shrine, meaning the burial place of their illustrious ancestor. Many shrines are of pre-Islamic origin. Local people call them pir, elder, wise person or shah, great, exalted person. Others have a doubtful history. In Boir Ahmad (and elsewhere) the government is renovating and rebuilding ‘legitimate’ shrines and razing undocumented, pre-Islamic shrines. A recent book published to increase tourism in Kohgiluye/Boir Ahmad (Moeini, n. d.) has pictures of some 15 accepted shrines. There are many more in Boir Ahmad, waiting to be catalogued. (For Bakhtiari shrines see Brooks 2002: 99ff.) See also Saint.

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Jume zard, yellow shirt. This stands for a young, pretty, chic woman with good clothes. Yellow in Luri mostly means a light colour, including the favourite light pink. (Friedl 1979.) Jun (Farsi: ja¯n). The term for life-force, life, ‘soul’, spirit, consciousness does not entail a character quality or moral component. In an oath, it means, ‘by my life’. As a term of endearment it is often paired with del (see Del). Thus, jun-e dellom means that the beloved person is as dear to the speaker as his or her life. Children often are addressed simply as ‘jun’. See Bausani 2000: 48f. for a short discussion of this complex Persian notion. Kadkhoda As used locally, this term of reference connotes a more or less powerful chief of a village or a tribal group, a man who, traditionally, represented his group at the khan’s assemblies. It is a hereditary status in the partrilineal line. The kadkhoda is not a landlord, though, as he is in other areas of Iran, although after the land reform in the 1960s many local chiefs tried to get a title to tribal land. With the integration into the modern state this form of leadership and political authority no longer is relevant. Kaka, brother. The Luri word means brother, especially eldest brother, and also father-brother’s son, and is used for address and reference in various pronunciations. As address-term it carries authority. Given that patrilineal parallel cousin marriage (between children of two brothers) is declared to be the preferred arrangement, the term implies a confusion for a woman because it can pertain to a woman’s brother as well as her potential spouse. For men, brothers and patrilineal cousins are competitors over a paternal (grand)father’s inheritance and over women. It is a socially loaded term. In the past the word was also used for a male slave. Kelu see Crazy Kerbela, Karbala. In 680 AD in this city in central Iraq the Imam Hosein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was killed in a battle over political leadership. His shrine became one of the most important pilgrimage places for Shi’a Muslims, visited by millions annually. Visitors expect special blessings from the pilgrimage, such as a guarantee of paradise after their death. Kerim Khan see Khoda Keram Khan Khoda Keram Khan. The memory of this powerful, famous leader in Boir Ahmad survives in songs and stories to this day. He assumed power in 1850 over most of the summer quarters of Boir Ahmad with the help of the tribes of the Qayed Givi

GLOSSARY

213

and Aghai in fights with a son, Muhammad Hosein and the son’s mother’s tribe, the Tamradi. In 1873 Khoda Keram was defeated. M. Hosein’s son Kerim assumed power in 1898 and was killed in 1907. The names of these famous chiefs get confused in anecdotes and songs. For the complicated history of strife and war in the area see Loeffler 1989. Kohgiluye and Boir Ahmad (spelled differently in various transcriptions) covers the combined area of several tribal groups, roughly 15,500 km2 (6,000 square miles), in the south-eastern part of the Zagros range. Since 1990 it has the status of a province, with the capital Yasuj and nearly a million inhabitants. The area has had a complex and variegated history since prehistoric times, in turn populated by hunter-gatherers, villagers, settled farmers and pastoral/transhumant groups. See Friedl and Loeffler 2013 for a summary of this history. Kor(r), kur(r), son, boy, lad. This is a much-used term of reference and address. As ‘son’ the word fits a male of any age and social standing, from infant to adult man with children and grandchildren. In connection with Boir Ahmad, it means ‘son of Boir Ahmad’ in general. With the equally important meaning of lad, boy, guy, it connotes an unmarried man. Without a wife a male person does not have the responsibilities and thus the authority to be counted as a fully functioning man, mard. In the era of declining agriculture, a stagnant economy and concomitant high unemployment and poverty of young people, many young men cannot marry for economic reasons and thus remain ‘boys’ long into their middle age. Koug, partridge (ammoperdix griseogularis; Farsi: kabk). Abundant in the Zagros mountains until the middle of the twentieth century and nearly extinct by 1980, the partridge has made a slow comeback recently in the Dena Protected Area to which Sisakht and its surrounds belong. People say that the partridge was easy to catch, easy to shoot and good to eat. It also is considered beautiful, and several local amateur artists have made it a favourite motif in watercolour paintings. It continues to be an iconic game-bird. Lorimer, David L.R., 1876 –1962. The British military officer and linguist worked mostly in India, Pakistan and Iran, and is remembered and appreciated for his pioneering collections and publications on folklore and local languages in, among others, the Bakhtiari dialect of Luri in Iran. See a short biography on www.https://wikipedia.org. Ma ¯l Any place where people live, from a nomadic camp of tents to a village or a neighbourhood in a town, may be called ma¯l. It is the place one belongs to.

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Maza ¯r, grave, tomb, burial place. See also Imamzadeh. Mullah, mulla. As used in the vernacular and in the songs, a mullah is a literate, learned person, male or female. Before modern formal addresses (Mr, Mrs, Dr, followed by last name) became the norm, ‘Mullah’ was used as a title of honour for literate people such as teachers, followed by the first name. (The term for a Muslim cleric, a¯khond, does not appear in the songs at all.) Numzad, nuzad. The term refers to a fiance´/fiance´e, a person who is betrothed, engaged, spoken for. When women were scarce, little girls often were engaged to much older men. A man with a fiance´e had several obligations toward her and her father, such as paying the Brideprice and making gifts of clothes, etc., but also being of service to her family. In Islamic law girls have the right to reject a suitor but until recently hardly any young girl in Boir Ahmad exercised this right when a marriage was arranged for her. The newly popular trend among young people to choose their spouses without heavy parental input is seen by many people as the most glaring sign of the changing times. Over the past two generations, engagement parties have become fashionable, an additional expense for the husband-to-be. In the past, engaged couples could see each other – well chaperoned – occasionally, but over the last two generations, engagement has become a time with few social restrictions for the couple, allowing them to be seen in public together and even to take overnight trips. Osma ¯ni -rifle. The long-barrelled shotgun was either made in Damascus or with a Damascus barrel. See also Gun. Pir see Imamzadeh. Qad ba ¯rik, ‘slim back’. Metaphorically and in the lyrics ‘slim back’ is an attractive, well-shaped woman or girl. Qad boland, ‘tall body’. In the lyrics it means an attractive woman or girl with a good posture and self-assured bearing. Qar kardan. This describes the breaking of relations over an offence, from falling silent to stopping all interaction, by individuals or whole families. In the lyrics the verb describes the behaviour of a wife who is grievously insulted or hurt by her husband or his people and takes herself out of social intercourse by sulking, silence or even moving back to her father’s house. It was one of the few means of public protest a mistreated woman could use, and sometimes had dramatic consequences.

GLOSSARY

215

Qashqa’i. The large, powerful tribal confederacy of mostly Turkish-speaking pastoral groups in Fars Province adjacent to Boir Ahmad/Kohgiluye has been politically involved with the neighbours for the past 200 years (see Oberling for a history). Until Reza Shah forcefully tried to settle them, most Qashqa’i groups were transhumant farmers or pastoral nomads, migrating seasonally around Boir Ahmad to the south, east and north. See also Soulat al-Dowla. Qobad Nikeqbal. ‘Mulla Qoba¯d’ was the literate son of the founder of Sisakht, and a capable, perspicacious leader who turned the fast-growing settlement into a strong social and political power in Boir Ahmad in the first half of the twentieth century. Qorbun, sacrifice; also slave, servant. The ubiquitous phrase, ‘I will be your sacrifice’ (qorbunet berram) means that the speaker is ready to do anything at all for the admired or exalted person addressed. It is a hyper-polite way of saying yes to a request, for example, or to give weight to a plea. For a man to offer his servitude to a woman is a standard phrase indicating devotion. The original meaning refers to Abraham’s offer of the sacrifice of his son to God, an event annually commemorated by many Muslims with the ritual sacrifice of sheep. Reza Shah Pahlavi, 1878 – 1944. His reign (1925 – 41) was marked by modernisation efforts in all areas of public and private life in Persia/Iran. Locally, he is lauded for his successes in the areas of education and public health, and criticised for his destruction of tribal social and political structures and the forceful settlement of pastoral tribes. Saint. In English, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad usually are referred to as ‘saints’. They are said to have special powers through their genealogical position as patrilineal relatives of the Prophet rather than through their merits or a specific act of God’s grace. Visitors to their tombs or burial places, that is, their shrines (see Imamzadeh), may tap into this beneficial power through supplication and vows. Sangar, rock-blind. A quickly built structure of stones, this small wall-circle of varying height and diameter served as a safe spot on a hill to watch the area from, and as a defence against attacks. There were many such structures on hilltops throughout Boir Ahmad until the mid-twentieth century. Until around 2000, children built small stone-circles around themselves when playing ‘fort’. Sey Mamad, Seyed Mahmad One of many purported descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, his shrine, in Khafr, Fars Province, is known for its

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beneficial powers. Close to the northern border of Boir Ahmad, it is a popular pilgrimage place among the people of Sisakht and is mentioned in several songs. Shah Qasom. The shrine of a purported descendant of the Prophet Muhammad a few miles east of Sisakht is a place for small local pilgrimages. In conjunction with a saint’s name or a shrine, shah means ‘great’. Shoes. The upper part of the traditional footwear (giveh) looked similar to crochet but was done with a sewing needle and cotton yarn. The sole was made of felt, leather or rubber from old tires. Women sewed the top and a shoemaker attached the top to the sole. Until the 1960s everyday wearing of shoes was a luxury, especially for women. Out of use for decades, recently these shoes became expensive markers of tribal identity for Lurs as well as the adjacent Qashqa’i. Now they are much more expensive than the customary footwear made of plastic or leather. Sisakht. The administrative centre of Dena Township in north-central Kohgiluye/Boir Ahmad Province developed from a small seasonal settlement of a few families in the late nineteenth century at the foot of one of the highest peaks of the Zagros range to a town of over 5,000 people by 2015, and is growing still. The former mountain village and its surrounds of woods and pastures was known and functioned as a sub-tribal unit under the leadership of its founder and his heirs to the chieftainship until about 1960. Firmly integrated into all administrative and legal features of the state since the end of the twentieth century, the town prospers, growing mostly by attracting new inhabitants from other areas in the province and outsiders. Part of the Dena Protected Area, a kind of provincial park, it has attracted tourists since about 2010 from as far away as the Gulf States. Most lyrics in this book are from the Sisakht area. Soulat al-Dowla Qashqa’i. Esmail Sowlat al-Dowla, Esmail Khan, (ca.1883 – 1933) was the most influential paramount khan (ilkhan) of the Qashqa’i confederacy during a bloody period of its history. He assumed power in 1903 and was executed by the Iranian government in 1933 for insubordination. Qashqa’i tribal territory surrounds Boir Ahmad/Kohgiluye on three sides, and the leaders of both areas had political dealings with each other throughout their history. See Qashqa’i. (See Oberling for a general political history of this Turkish-speaking confederacy.) Souz, green and other colours. In the traditional local colour scheme, souz covered ‘grue’, the saturated shades of green and blue. (In modern local use and in Farsi it connotes green.) In the songs it may mean health (vital like green grass) but also a dark skin colour, especially when paired with ‘black’ (souz o se). A tan

GLOSSARY

217

from working outdoors, for example, is considered low-class and ugly, reminding some people of animals and of black slaves. Ta ¯jik, tajik. As the word is used in the songs it means soft, pliable, tender, a tactile quality of a beautiful female body as well as of the meat of young animals and the softness of a baby’s skin. In another application, the neighbouring pastoral Turkish-speaking Qashqa’i call the Lurs tajik, soft weaklings, in contrast to themselves who are tork, proud, tough and strong. Ta ¯la ¯, see Gold Ta ¯ta ¯, paternal uncle (Farsi: a¯mu). This is the local address and reference term for a father’s patrilineal brother. I use the word ‘father-brother’ for it in the text to emphasise that it is a kin term, not only a kin category. In the patrilineal kinship system, the paternal uncle projects authority and is a potential warden for his brother’s children. One’s relationship to him may be cordial, but more likely is respectful and politely distant, especially when he and one’s father do not get along well. Tattoo, kha¯l. The small, dark blue, geometric tattoos on a woman’s forehead, upper lips, chin, hands, and feet had ornamental, apotropaeic and health functions, and were considered to be especially attractive to men. Out of fashion for several decades, tattoos recently became en vogue again among young women for outlining lips and shaping or even replacing eyebrows. Teknonymy Adults and young children may address each other by the same term. Thus, for example, if the child says, ‘Aunt!’ the woman answers the child, ‘Aunt, what is it?’ Tent, see Buhun Tie¨ ka ¯l, dark eye. Dark eyes and eyes outlined in black are attractive signs of youth in a woman. A gender-indexed mark of beauty, tie¨ ka¯l is a term of endearment or admiration for wife, girl or young woman and in the songs metaphorically stands for all female beauty. (Unlined eyes are tie¨ sa¯l, plain eyes.) Yellow shirt, see Jume zard Yoghurt, ma¯s yoghurt products such as butter, clarified butter, buttermilk (dugh, du) and dried milk curds (kashk) were made by women. Yoghurt and butterfat products were important cash items in the past, while buttermilk and curds were a source of protein for local people. In many places in the province, animal

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husbandry is now limited to a few men with large herds. These herders figure that letting the young animals have most of the milk prevents the high rate of loss that plagued herds until the 1980s, and increases profits because meat is much more expensive than milk products. Thus, for most households, processing of milk has ceased; dairy items are imported from the city and sold in stores. White/red. While white may connote snow and death (as in a shroud) and also sickness (a pale face), together with red it stands for a beautiful, healthy complexion, especially in women. White skin was highly valued, while tanned skin meant the person was working in the sun and thus was of low status. Dark skin tone was declared ‘ugly’. (This colour evaluation is true throughout Iran; skin-whitening is a lucrative cosmetic industry.) Wolf, gorg Seen as a menace to herds, shepherds and their dogs, wolves are feared but their strength and their hard lives are also appreciated. In folklore and in poetic language young men on amorous adventures are sometimes called wolves.

INDEX

Abadan, 74 Abdullah Khan, 19, 20, 24, 30, 180 acorn, see food aesthetic, 4, 5, 7 Afghani women, 199 afterlife, 139, 140, 141, 157, 158, 164, 184 Land of Dead, 140, 189, 193, 194 Aghai, 17, 18 Amir al Momenin (Ali), 35, 62, 162, 176 amulet, 63, 104, 105, 128 androcentric, 116 Angel of Death, 140, 164 animals, 2, 5, 87, 129, 144, 145 antelope, 17, 112, 188 bear, 130, 144 bee, 68, 187 buffalo, 188 camel, 66 cow, 50, 91, 100, 101, 126, 129, 170 – 3, 174– 8, 193 dog, 75, 117, 144, 168, 186, 187, 191 donkey, 1, 74, 131, 137, 154, 161, 187 dragon, 165 fish, 31 frog, 170 goat, 1, 2, 5, 61, 90, 101, 102, 137, 138, 158, 167, 168, 177, 191 ibex, 5, 79, 137, 138, 144, 181, 182 horse, 5, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 24, 34, 37, 54, 65, 77, 87, 96, 99, 123, 169, 188 mare, 149, 189 riderless, 147, 151 lamb, 34, 39, 99, 158

lion, 5, 16, 17, 108, 110, 188 mule, 154 ox, 189 rooster, 110, 111, 132 sheep, 5, 34, 90, 97, 158, 175, 177 ram, 30, 50, 78, 97, 145 woman as, 97, 180 snake, 29, 37, 55, 75, 76, 103, 120, 121, 191 tiger, 108, 129, 144, 145 wolf, 5, 39, 41, 117, 130 see also, birds; groom Arabic, 7, 8, 158, 184 army, 96, 100, 135, 136, 162, 180 see also, soldier arrow, 138 baby, 127 – 32, 134 ‘s father, 130, 131 ‘s mother, 130 Bakhtiari, 8, 179, 182, 188, 197, 199 Basht, 185, 186 beauty, 6, 16, 20, 21, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 89, 109, 150 of animals, 174, 175, 177 dangers of, 29, 39, 180, 181, 186 henna, 106, 108, 109 important, 43, 123, 161, 171 pain and, 29, 181 wealth and, 40, 41 see also, body; woman betrothed, 23, 32, 42, 46, 55, 58, 60, 62, 63, 67, 73, 85 – 103 guarded, 95, 161 troubled, 69, 71, 74, 90, 94

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

Bibi, 16, 17, 20, 106, 109 birds, 5, 32, 139, 156, 169, 198 crow, 18, 142 dove, 32, 54 eagle, 24 falcon, 185 partridge, 5, 21, 33, 38, 44, 48, 72, 78, 117, 149 vulture, 149 body, 35, 37, 42, 47, 50, 53, 60, 62, 164, 180, 192 dead, 143 parts of, ankle, 39, 57, 145 arm, 37, 38, 54, 56, 68, 88, 90, 165, 194 arse, 191 back, 54, 79, 80, 89, 102, 131, 180 broken, 61, 62, 71, 93, 96, 155 belly, 192 blood, 40, 59, 65 breast, 7, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 47, 48, 49, 51, 64, 69, 78, 80, 81, 94, 97, 118, 119, 121, 163 fondled, 48, 75, 83, 91, 94, 96, 118, 160 painful, 113 chest, 48, 64, 150 feet, 39, 48, 55, 56, 81, 88, 102, 111, 175, 177 finger, 42, 51, 109 hair, 38, 67, 68, 90 bangs, 47, 109, 110, 186 braid, 32, 37, 38, 46, 47, 49, 50, 58, 62, 65, 89, 110, 118, 119, 148, 164 colour, 32, 73, 164 men’s, 47, 104, 143, 189, 191 hand, 57, 64, 65, 75, 102, 108, 113, 129, 151, 160, 164, 175, 177 Ali’s, 176 baby’s, 128 beautiful, 36, 39, 60, 63, 74, 112, 125, 164, 186 healing, 64 and sex, 75, 78, 81, 98, 110, 113, 160, 194 tied, 61, 121 head, 51, 57, 69, 87, 94, 96, 113, 124, 131, 160, 192 aches, 90, 111

heart (del), 40, 52, 58, 69, 70, 74, 78, 86, 92, 109, 114, 118, 119, 122, 124, 175, 194 burns, 31, 152, 163, 189 sad, 59, 64, 68, 102, 114, 118, 124, 153, 161 heel, 29, 66, 181 hip, 34, 63, 78, 89 swing, 42, 43, 61, 67, 101, 111 knee, 54, 102, 189 legs, 34, 36, 75 liver, 18, 61 navel, 37, 47, 52, 98, 126 neck, 37, 38, 51, 63, 68, 73, 82, 88, 94, 113 penis, 117, 194, 195 shoulder, 42, 81, 100, 118, 121, 164 skin, 27, 33, 35 spleen, 13, 39, 141 thigh, 7, 165 waist, 82 see also, face Boir Ahmad, 7, 8, 13, 27, 85, 86, 114, 115, 154, 157, 179, 180, 182, 188, 190, 193, 197, 200 history, 2, 14 – 24, 123, 141, 197 landscape, 1, 2, 148, 155, 184, 186 person from, 21, 141, 142 southern, 137, 149, 155, 156, 162 see also, history bridal chamber, 108, 109, 110, 111 bride, 8, 47, 48, 60, 69, 91, 97, 99, 103, 105, 110, 181 ‘s brother, 107 dead, 186 eager, 105, 106 honoured, 106 ‘s parents, 181 young, 47, 85, 96, 97, 98, 186 -wealth, 99, 107 brideprice, 28, 41, 73, 95 economics, 69, 86, 89, 90, 91, 93, 123, 181 brother, 135, 136, 152, 153 and brother, 98, 100, 107 devoted, 149, 153 fratricide, 19 half-brother, 19, 185 mourned, 142, 150, 189 and sister, 75, 115, 126, 131, 136, 152, 183, 189, 190

INDEX support of, 151, 161, 185 see also, siblings California, 180 camp, see ma¯l car, 58, 59, 87 ˇ avil, 34, 137, 143, 146, 148, 155, 186 C child, 3, 9, 18, 27, 32, 68, 85, 112, 128 belongs to father, 113, 115, 125, 131 birth of, 135, 169 -bride, see bride control of, 129, 130 death of, 131, 140, 149 depends on mother, 130, 176 infant, 6, 65, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 176, 185 marriage, 96, 97 mortality, 2, 134, 149 of one’s own mother, 185 work, 97, 103, 128, 177, 182, 192 Christian Missionary Center Hospital, 63 clergy, 67 clothes, 46, 54, 67, 80, 89, 106, 166, 169, 178, 190 cap, man’s, 47, 132, 182, 192 woman’s, 99, 150 gift of, 15, 85 hat, 113 headband, 59, 150, 154 jacket, 54, 146 mantle, 70, 146, 189 modest, 180 shawl (sash), 42, 49, 59, 60, 63, 82, 120, 121, 180 shoes, 42, 52, 61, 79, 91, 105, 111, 177, 178 scarf, 44, 46, 47, 54, 57, 58, 59, 67, 69, 88, 106, 108, 111, 120, 150, 153, 154, 186 man’s, 108 shirt, 52, 64, 81, 83, 89, 131 man’s, 57, 150 skirt, 46, 62, 63, 111 and status, 15, 20, 23, 93, 121, 142 colours, 5, 31, 108, 135, 136, 150, 154 black, 76, 150, 154 blonde, 32, 73 blue, 113 brown, hair, 164

221

horse, 77, 87, 189 rooster, 110 green, 39 green/black, 40 grey, 188 red, 111, 154 -and white, 16, 34, 40 violet, 59 white, 30, 33, 35, 59, 67 is beauty, 89, 110 yellow, 16, 17, 60, 174, 176, 177 competition, 2, 15, 62, 69, 94, 185, 188, 192 cosmetics, 82, 121 see also, tattoo courtship, 90, 118, 120, 121, 123, 160 -schema, 91, 191 crazy, 41, 76, 80, 142, 163, 191 see also, love cry, 44, 97, 148 culture, 6, 7 androcentric, 27, 83, 115 curse, 70, 93, 117, 119, 137, 141, 157, 161, 163, 166, 168, 181 on relatives, 190, 191 dance, 5, 67, 103, 107f, 189f, 197 daughter-in-law, 83, 97, 98, 171 see also, father; mother day, 49, 60, 68, 96, 105, 155, 156, 157, 161 -break, 127 of Judgment, 28, 43, 82, 92, 157 dead (person), 40, 49, 137, 139, 140, 151, 184 feels, 140, 183, 193 is leaving, 143 – 8, 151 needs of, 147, 148 shroud, 24, 49, 50 death, 5, 25, 64, 69, 80, 139, 154, 158, 164, 186 as abandonment, 193, 194 allusion to, 34, 108, 124, 136, 146 anxiety about, 136, 157, 183, 184 of child, 131, 132, 140, 149 denial of, 139, 144, 153 as leaving, 19, 140, 142, 143, 144, 156, 190 love and, 62, 80, 96 in oath, 121 premonition, 19, 150

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FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

quick, 156 smell of, 152 violent, 8, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 134 -wish, 64 see also, metaphor Del (heart), see body; emotions Dena Mountain, 1, 16, 17, 24, 65, 143, 155, 186, 197 county, 148 Protected Area of, 1 water of, 147, 154 divorce, 86, 113, 115 doctor, 7, 31, 59, 63 dream, 6, 56, 57, 133 drunk, see crazy economy, 1, 2, 41, 85, 89, 90, 171, 178, 181 agriculture, 1, 14, 15, 136, 146, 169, 177, 200 field, 1, 60, 114, 169, 171, 172, 188 gathering, 2, 162, 169f, 182, 193, 197 household, 171, 178 mill, 41, 189 money lender, 2, 178 teacher’s salary, 89, 106 see also, brideprice; food; herding; poverty education, 8, 31 high school, 56 high school student, 56, 81, 88, 161 literacy, 8, 41, 49, 61, 87 school, 37, 67 Egypt, 1, 7, 183, 199 emotions, 3, 154 anger, 4, 18, 71, 74, 87, 113, 114 anxiety, 75, 68, 69, 93, 94, 99, 132, 175 about co-wife, 56, 68, 115, 133 about death, 157, 183 disappointment, 54, 57, 58, 69, 71, 77, 86, 90, 91, 92, 94, 102, 137, 193 embarrassment, 44, 74, 75, 77, 164, 181, 191, 194 empathy, 152, 193 fear, 66, 69, 75, 129, 133, 168, 186 grief, 67, 68, 139, 152, 155, 162, 183, 190 happiness, 44, 56, 58, 59, 77, 88, 89, 97, 109, 132, 134, 152, 172

jealousy, 56, 72, 94 joy, 5, 6, 44, 62, 78 loneliness, 61, 67, 68, 117, 140, 155, 184 longing, 47, 54, 64, 66, 69, 116, 126, 127, 150, 160, 180, 181, 188 man’s, 27, 36, 41, 47, 57, 91, 159 sadness, 50, 65, 67, 92, 94, 97, 105, 118, 124, 147, 148, 151, 170 seat of (del), 40, 70, 74, 78, 86, 92, 175 shame, 73, 76, 121 tenderness, 58 unhappiness, 44, 59, 70, 72, 103, 106, 122, 162 see also, body; death; feelings; love engagement broken, 74, 85, 94, 102, 120 enmity, 66, 70, 93, 193 see also, fight eschatology, 183 ethics, 3, 7, 148, 193 ethnography, 2, 3, 4, 28, 168, 179 Europe, 7 evening, 46, 83, 106 extra-human powers, 157f devil, 31, 201 Evil Eye, 30, 35, 128, 132, 155, 157, 174 jinn, 105, 124, 128, 157 Ezrael, 140, 164 face, 30, 40, 43, 67, 77, 82, 154 beard, 90, 189, 191 cheek, 55, 64 chin, 40 ear, 74 eye, 29, 30, 40, 43, 44, 55, 58, 59, 64, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71, 74, 76, 76, 81, 82, 93, 165, 176 blind, 44, 56, 127, 191 -brow, 29, 55, 59, 71, 75, 92, 101, 142, 145 -problem, 79, 118 forehead, 193 lips, 30, 31, 32, 34, 38, 40, 52, 53, 55, 61, 64, 65, 82, 96, 165 cold, 142 tremble, 67 teeth, 31, 52, 83, 130, 131, 165, 177, 194 fairies, 157, 184 family, 69, 76, 131 change in, 86, 102, 134

INDEX obligations, 100 politics, 93, 181 relations, 53, 124, 129, 131, 135, 149, 152, 156, 185 tension in, 95, 120, 125, 133, 188 see also, brother; father; husband; siblings; wife Farsi, 7, 8, 9, 33, 47, 74, 158 fate, 14, 97, 112, 187, 193 bakht (luck), 14, 17, 20, 82, 108, 152, 155, 158 father, 106, 131, 132, 133 of bride, 105, 181 and daughter, 56, 89, 92, 93, 128, 131, 155 father’s brother, 55, 70, 71, 85, 100, 118, 120, 131, 173, 174, 190, 191 son of, 190 father’s sister, 131 is god, 119 owns child, 113, 131, 137 and son, 138, 188 and son-in-law, 93, 124 feelings, 66, 137, 156 abandoned, 160, 186, 193 after death, 183, 193 depression, 124, 140 pain, 15, 59, 64, 129, 181 regret, 57, 122, 176, 182 shyness, 44, 46, 77 tired, 66 see also, death; emotions; love fight, 16, 22, 49, 72, 73 fighter, 4, 8, 18, 21, 131, 142, 144 intertribal, 141, 189 against Shah, 22, 23, 24, 25 war, 13, 16, 19 about a woman, 16, 95, 99 wounded, 17, 20, 64 fire, 53, 109, 152 in body, 18, 60, 61, 68, 124, 152 -place, 187, 189 in soul, 123 -wood, 187 flirt, 127 eyes, 27, 43, 59, 74, 75, 87, 101 lovers, 35, 48, 55, 70, 88, 110, 118 man, 44, 35, 66 woman, 31, 32, 37, 42, 44, 61, 58, 62, 59, 74

223

flower, 1, 30, 31, 37, 66, 104, 108, 135, 150 blossom, 1, 65, 132, 135, 136, 176 rose, 118, 119 woman as, 5, 38, 45, 65, 73, 135, 191 folklore, 2, 3, 8, 9, 184, 186, 188 folklorist, 2 food, 2, 31, 45, 64, 75, 76, 190, 192 deprivation, 2, 41 dinner, 124, 154 edibles, acorn, 2, 182, 191, 192, 193 almond, 73, 117, 143 apple, 172 basil, 66, 146 bread (acorn), 2, 182, 192 bread (wheat), 126, 127, 172, 183, 186, 187 butter, 75, 127, 153, 177, 178 butterfat, 51, 178 buttermilk, 2, 127, 192, 193 cloves, 48, 108, 126 cumin, 105, 133 curds, 192 dandelion, 45, 46, 128, 169 eggs, 51 fat, 59 fennel, 175 grape, 110 honey, 187 kebab, 51, 62, 187 lemon, 62, 69 lizak, 45 milk, 110, 153, 174, 175, 176, 177, 189 mint, 45, 46, 76, 169 onion, 169 orange, 83 pepper, 122 pistachio, 48, 61 rice, 6, 64, 65, 96, 102, 122, 152, 160, 167, 171 soup, 51 spinach, 45, 169 sugar, 51, 52, 53, 64, 175 tea, 52, 53, 64, 66, 126 paraphernalia, 52, 53, 110, 127, 182 vegetables, 169 wheat, 126, 127, 146, 172, 173

224

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

yoghurt, 153, 177, 178 offering, 140 sex and, 50, 51, 52, 53, 102f see also, foodstuff fort, 20, 21, 103, 104, 146, 189 funeral, 6, 140, 142 bier, 151, 155 garden, 1, 48, 106, 191 gathering, see economy; women gaze, 81, 94, 124, 125, 153, 170 averted, 164 sinful, 161 gender, 27, 28, 82, 122, 134, 156 Ghafari, Yaqoub, 5, 8, 87, 167, 180 gift, 46, 69, 85, 89, 91, 104 bribe, 186 of clothes, 15, 94, 153 God, 3, 89, 157, 186 attributes of, 125, 141, 158, 174, 176, 186 complain to, 15, 160 in exclamation, 28, 42, 47, 57, 91, 98, 106, 113, 159, 176, 181, 182 may punish, 161 obedience to, 105 request from, 7, 86, 96, 98, 103, 135, 138, 157, 158 farming, 159 gun, 158, 159, 163 horse, 158 house, 159 killing, 64, 161 wealth, 158, 159 wife, 125, 158, 159, 161, 164 swear by, 28, 30, 56, 59, 149, 150, 154, 157, 172, 191 thanked, 192 will of, 90, 97, 158, 176, 187, 193 gold, 37, 40, 69, 99, 103, 105, 107, 112, 119, 123, 147, 153, 156 burns, 109 gossip, 51, 52, 76, 95, 121, 124, 156, 187 grave, 15, 49, 142, 143, 147 fear of, 140, 183 graveyard, 140, 184, 201 tomb(stone), 65, 147, 157, 160, 183, 190 see also, shrine groom, 91, 103, 108, 109, 135 lion-groom, 103, 107, 108, 109, 146

relatives of, 105, 106, 107, 109, 111 guest/host, 36, 51, 54, 55, 77, 106, 123, 132, 142, 152, 154, 185, 188 gun, 18, 19, 21, 24, 28, 31, 32, 72, 79, 101, 102, 121, 142, 144, 145, 180 army, 100 bloody, 144 Brno, 16, 17, 21, 23, 25, 32, 37, 52, 53, 57, 60, 61, 62, 64, 73, 78, 79, 80, 94, 101, 102, 123, 135, 136, 145, 158, 159, 163 cartridge, 87, 97 gun-man-girl, 38, 49, 60, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83 killed by, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24 outlawed, 22 powder, 39, 81, 13 harvest, 173, 192 see also, food, rice health, 16, 34, 40, 63, 148, 150, 187 broken bone, 61, 62, 71, 93, 96, 155 depression, 124, 140 elderly, 187, 191 fever, 121 healing, 64, 165, 175, 177 -water, 65, 147 humoral balance, 187 ill, 7, 64, 66, 74, 117, 149, 151, 191 medicine, 64, 189 wound, 17, 20, 60, 63, 64, 181, 142, 189 see also, emotion heart, see body, heart heathen, 100, 112, 160 heaven, 157, 163 see also, paradise hell, 141, 157, 181 herding, 1, 15, 56, 90, 99, 117, 134, 137, 153, 155, 173 – 7 lifestyle, 14, 33, 48, 133, 148, 158, 165, 184, 188, 189 migration, 35, 36, 114, 151, 154, 184 shepherd, 101, 168, 176 hero, heroism, 2, 4, 13, 18, 25, 145, 180, 188 history, 13 – 25, 63, 89, 121, 133, 152, 153, 180, 185, 192 honour, 105, 136, 139, 150 Houri, 74, 141, 163

INDEX house, 1, 2, 22, 55, 56, 71, 75, 77, 95, 117, 133, 149, 170 bath house, 98, 135 behind, 76, 126 branch hut, 75, 94, 133, 152 door, 58, 127, 129, 133 empty, 68, 69, 154 members of, 115, 124 neglected, 173 razed, 167 reed hut, 120 window, 80, 82, 103 see also, tent hunting, 5, 24, 49, 72, 78, 79, 103, 137, 138, 145 dead hunter, 144, 145 husband, 3, 38, 40, 63, 66, 68, 72, 76, 85, 161, 190 absent, 68, 112, 122 attractive, 41, 53, 161 bad, 113, 114, 136f comfort of, 111, 182 cuckolded, 72, 190, 194 cursed, 190 dead, 18, 181, 185, 186, 190 devoted, 42, 90, 91 grieves, 155 happy, 87, 152 mother of, 98, 111, 122 rich, 112 schema, 90 as servant, 90, 91, 111 and wife, 43, 74, 86, 87, 88, 90, 113, 131f, 137, 161, 188 disagree, 73, 182, 194 separated, 42, 114, 186 and wife’s mother, 3, 122 – 5, 131 identity, 1, 148, 193 infatuation, 8, 28, 37, 40, 48, 61, 76 and religion, 164, 165 see also, love innocence, 140, 141, 146, 185, 195 Iran, Islamic Republic, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 56, 76, 95, 139, 157 iron, 104, 105 Islam, 5, 157, 183 hala¯l, hara¯m, 19, 117, 136, 158, 159, 189, 193 law in, 41, 82, 96, 117, 131 marriage in, 89, 96, 96

225

modesty in, 56, 88 Muharram, 158 Muslim, 165 prayer, 7, 150, 151, 165 Qur’an, 128, 140, 164 soul (ruh), 76 see also, pilgrimage; Prophet Muhammad; religion; saint; Shi’a jewellery, 48, 74, 80, 85, 91, 99, 103, 105, 128 beads, 128, 132, 150 necklace, 123, 128, 150, 151 pearl, 106, 130, 177 ring, 57, 60, 63, 108, 164 watch, 112, 125 joke, 3, 57, 60, 161, 169, 172, 195 food/sex, 5, 51 mocking, 62, 57, 70, 75, 125, 127, 166, 173 scatological, 131, 172, 191 judgment, 3, 140, 161 justice, 141, 160 Kadkhoda, see tribal, chief Kerbela, 49, 163 Khan, see tribal, chief Khosrow Khan, 19 kin, 131 group, 61, 66, 68, 72, 75, 77 relations, 30, 42, 53, 55, 62, 74, 87, 109, 112, 131 kiss, 46, 75, 79, 80, 132, 160 dangerous, 65, 79, 80 demanded, 55, 59, 111, 116, 118, 119 flirt, 48, 51, 52, 62, 91 jealous, 72, 98 pleasant, 7, 32, 34, 40, 77 promised, 58, 135, 120 secret, 54f, 72, 75, 76, 78 virgin vs. widow, 127 Kohgiluye, 181, 185, 197 Kuwait, 68, 112, 125 lamp, 71, 103, 140 language, 8, 190 see also, Luri; Farsi laughter, 31, 53, 58, 59, 62, 64 leave-taking, 67, 80, 140, 148 lie, 66, 94, 98, 127, 142 white lie, 140, 152, 153, 154

226

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

life, 2, 4 shared with animal, 144 soul (jun), 36, 39, 62, 63, 68, 77, 140, 175, 177 style, 2, 14, 33, 48, 114, 133, 148, 151, 154, 158, 165, 182, 184, 188, 189 literacy, 13, 41, 61, 87, 105, 122, 131, 152, 163 script, 8, 9, 179 locus amoenus, 1, 197 Lordegan, 188– 90 love, 10, 20, 25, 27, 32, 56, 85, 120, 168 crazy/drunk, 21, 37, 42, 52, 54, 60, 94, 110, 121, 127, 191 dangerous, 39, 40 -making, 28, 96 pains of, 7, 29, 43, 57, 59, 60 – 2, 64, 66, 70, 71, 72, 75, 92, 96, 163, 170, 181 -schema, 27, 65, 86 -sick, 66, 165, 181 lover, 40, 48, 51, 54, 55, 56, 59, 70, 74, 82, 117, 141, 190 absence of, 67, 68, 147, 170 beloved, 45, 49, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 59, 65, 66, 68, 69, 71, 73, 78, 123, 134, 154 dead, 121, 148, 153 enemy of, 76, 186 pleasant, 88, 92, 153, 187 rejected, 70f, 117 sulks, 66, 72 Lur, 1, 3, 7, 179, 191 area, 1, 179, 188 language, 1, 8, 9, 10, 27, 33, 47, 158, 179, 184, 185 Luristan, 8, 129, 134, 135, 179, 183 people, 9, 22, 74, 75, 135, 179, 187, 192, 193 lyrics, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 27, 85, 173 poet, 8 poetry, 2, 4, 7, 8, 31, 183, 195 religious, 7 ma¯l, 33, 38, 42, 50, 60, 65, 87, 95, 156, 169, 189 asleep, 121 campsite, settlement, 33, 61, 110, 155, 185 see also, village Mamasani, 21, 168, 179

man, 33, 113, 142, 182, 191 behaviour, 41, 59, 118, 126, 160, 173, 174, 192 bragging, 18, 117, 119, 173, 180, 185, 191 captivated, 61, 79, 121, 180 character of, 82, 113, 159, 163, 188 chic, 122, 141, 142, 143, 191 comfort of, 53, 71, 123, 162, 182, 187 dancing, 108, 197 dead, 4, 8, 141, 143, 147, 155, 190 flees, 73, 80, 142 lusty, 48, 82, 164, 180, 190 old, 60, 63, 96, 98, 99, 147, 151, 187, 191 in paradise, 141, 163 pining, 97, 115, 116, 161, 182 reprimanded, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 24, 113, 117, 118, 122, 191 threatens, 72, 82, 93 unmarried, 86, 100, 101, 109, 158, 159 vexed, 73, 74, 77, 87, 91, 94 work, 58, 69, 112, 147, 167, 191 agriculture, 2, 43, 98, 101, 146, 169, 171, 173 crafts, 38, 69, 91, 146 hunter, 104, 105 servant, 20, 21, 90, 111, 167, 195 shepherd, 101, 168, 176 soldier, 23, 96, 100, 101, 167 trader, 99, 112, 178 young, 41, 61, 63, 64, 67, 86, 113, 122, 142, 188 in love, 27, 41, 48, 79, 110 see also, father; fight; groom; husband; love marriage, 2, 8, 29, 31, 33, 62, 69, 74, 85, 101, 113, 125 age, 41, 85, 96, 102 arranged, 55, 70, 73, 85, 86, 93, 102, 120, 163 child-, 37, 41, 62, 85, 96 choices, 40, 53, 85, 87, 99, 103, 182 contract, 85, 103 economics, 89, 94, 107, 123, 181 good/bad, 89, 109, 113, 125 negotiation, 85, 87, 94, 98, 105 politics, 65, 180 unmarried, 48, 100, 101, 102, 109, 158, 159, 161

INDEX Mashhad, 173 Mecca, 105, 195 metaphor, 139, 140, 165, 181, 191 for death: beads, 150 bird, 156 horse, 147, 150, 151 leaving, 140, 148, 149, 151, 154, 190 sleep, 154 snow, 139, 140, 143, 146, 155, 184, 186 tent, 153f, 183 weather, 143, 148, 153, 154, 183, 184 for infatuation, 164f for man, 97, 145 minnesong, 7, 27 Mirza, 136, 189 modernity, 8, 63, 67, 87, 88, 89, 140, 188 see also, history, literacy moon, 28, 29, 39, 40, 67, 109, 150 -light, 76, 106, 117, 121, 134, 186, 187, 191 morality, 4, 41, 48, 76, 82, 86, 120, 165, 180 morning, 71, 103, 106, 124, 127, 150, 161, 170 mother, 106, 131, 132, 176 and baby, 127– 35 bride’s, 106, 115, 123, 124, 181 brother of, 18, 100, 105, 131, 173, 174 blessing of, 136, 176, 185, 193 and daughter, 86, 92, 97, 115, 129, 131, 134, 154, 156, 161 and daughter’s husband, 53, 92, 122 – 5, 131, 161 dead, 149, 169 sister of, 53 and son, 15, 19, 23, 67, 80, 82, 86, 91, 95, 103, 111, 126, 129, 130, 133, 134, 136, 156, 193 and son’s wife, 3, 111, 134 mountain, 1, 66, 77, 80, 114, 117, 122, 129, 142, 146, 154, 155, 180, 182, 184, 187 pass, 8, 83, 102, 112, 117, 124, 142 top, 8, 113, 161 see also, Zagros Mountains mourning, 3, 140, 183, 193 ritual, 139, 183, 184

227

songs, 6, 13, 22, 66, 139– 56, 167, 169 mullah, 108, 109, 152 music, 4, 5, 7, 66, 107, 198 drum, 5, 107 musician, 189 oboe, 5, 107, 189 nature, 82, 125, 147 neighbour, 55, 74, 75, 113, 169, 173, 186, 187 New Year, 76 night, 49, 60, 96, 161, 187 danger, 22, 23, 81, 82, 117, 121, 186 death, 34, 144, 155, 186 sex, 31, 39f, 56, 57, 64, 71, 76, 79, 81, 82, 109, 111 nostalgia, 137, 182 oath, 154, 156, 157 oral texts, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 pain, 64, 68, 75, 113, 129, 181 headache, 90, 111 see also, health; love paradise, 47, 49, 74, 141, 163, 164 parents, 41, 85, 86, 93, 96, 102, 123, 156 pastoralism, see herding patrilineal, 1, 125, 131, 185 peace, 73, 74, 180 performance, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10 philosophy, 2, 3, 4, 7, 139, 144, 184, 187 in lyrics, 140, 180, 193 pilgrimage, 157, 160, 163, 173, 190 hajj, 194, 195 see also, saint poetry, see lyrics polygyny, 56, 74, 86, 99, 115, 129, 133, 173, 185, 194, 195 poverty, 1, 40, 66, 160, 193 and marriage, 58f, 61, 63, 65, 91, 93, 99, 100, 101, 102 privacy, 22, 56, 68, 74, 75, 76, 121, 191 Prophet Muhammad, 7, 35, 133 descendants (seyed), 7, 15, 17, 136, 140, 146, 157, 158, 163, 166, 188, 190 see also, shrine; saint psychoanalysis, 3, 28 Qashqa’i, 13, 14, 21 Qavami, 25, 100

228

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

Qayed Givi, 18 Qobad Nikeqbal, 15, 121 rain, 31, 35, 43, 130, 158, 170 rape, 83, 109, 117, 168, 194f religion, 7, 146, 148, 157, 158, 165, 194 faith, 164, 165 piety, 105, 150, 151, 165 sin, 17, 49, 76, 82, 141, 158, 161, 164, 193 this-worldly, 7, 164 See also, Islam; Prophet Muhammad; saint; shrine; votive-promise revolution, 22, 59, 67, 76, 104, 107, 108, 116, 140, 150 rhyme, 8, 9, 10, 33, 41, 47, 53 rider, 54, 77, 94, 106, 129, 156, 169 road, 1, 61, 66, 71, 77, 82, 88, 91, 92 difficult, 99, 100, 111 robbery, 83, 146, 172, 180, 191 rock-blind, 13, 17, 18, 21, 141 rug, 5, 100, 150, 151, 178 sacrifice, 44, 46, 51, 52, 71, 92, 108, 118, 159, 175, 177 Sadat, 147, 148 saint, 54, 73, 92, 96, 114, 140, 156, 160 is enemy, 95 powers of, 158, 162 see also, Prophet Muhammad; shrine scent, 5, 48, 110, 111, 118, 119, 126 for the dead, 143, 183 schema, 4, 27, 149, 179 beauty, 164 courtship, 91, 191 death, 183 gender, 27, 76 hero-romance, 118, 158 hospitality, 55 husband, 90 infatuation, 48 intra-family relations, 149 kinship, 185 love, 27, 65, 86 marriage, 85 mourning, 140 nobility, 16 patrilineality, 131 politeness, 139 sex, 195 war, 23

Semirom, 23 servant, 20, 21, 52, 53, 54, 103, 124, 136, 167, 168 dangerous, 194, 195 daughter-in-law as, 83, 97, 98 husband as, 90, 91, 111 killed, 167 sex, 28, 31, 41, 43, 48, 56, 164, 187, 194 and aggression, 37, 41, 82, 118, 194 anal, 191 deprivation, 41, 63 illicit, 86, 121, 194 petting, 75, 118 play, 32, 33, 35, 51, 83, 88, 96, 98, 109, 110, 113 unwanted, 97, 194f urges, 41, 48, 195 Shah, 22, 23, 25, 104, 136 army, 14, 23, 100 Nasreddin, 13 Shahnameh, 5 Shi’a, 1, 7, 140, 157, 163 ship, 176, 177 Shiraz, 63, 81, 96, 100, 146 shrine, 22, 54, 92, 158, 163, 188, 190 Bibi Hakimeh, 154, 162 Bibi Khatenun, 95, 114 Imam Reza, 173 Mokhtar, 15 Pir, 156, 163, 190 Sadat, 148 Sey Mahmad, 57, 65, 72, 162, 163 Sey Mahmud, 24 Shah Qasom, 15, 92, 95, 114, 119, 154, 163 siblings, 185 brother, 19, 31, 42, 70, 75, 81, 107, 183, 185 sister, 18, 53, 60, 79, 103, 109, 183 silver, 107, 119 singer, 9, 13, 16, 17, 32, 137, 170, 175, 177 chorus, 135 lead singer, 72, 135, 167, 169 singing, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15, 133 as therapy, 3, 7 see also, song Sisakht, 1, 5, 13, 15, 19, 21, 22, 27, 28, 74, 75, 87, 89, 99, 109, 114, 133, 136, 148, 152, 154, 155, 167, 169, 179, 180, 186, 188, 190

INDEX sky, 1, 31, 43, 57, 68, 72, 153 sleep, 21, 57, 62, 76, 79, 80, 81, 82, 129, 154, 171 child, 3, 130, 133 see also, dream snow, 1, 34, 35, 40, 137, 186, 187, 188 as metaphor, 139, 140, 143, 146, 155, 184, 186 social, 27, 82, 115, 121 difference, 4, 29, 40, 82, 93, 98, 105 hierarchy, 1, 16, 56, 66, 100, 101 status, 105, 107, 120, 123 soldier, 23, 24, 96, 101, 168 son-in-law, 53, 92, 93, 122– 5, 131, 161 song, 2, 4, 5, 32, 50, 51, 65, 128 as comment, 3, 6, 4, 86, 97, 98, 135 dialogic, 6, 7, 116, 119, 135, 163, 179, 182, 190 message in, 2, 3, 4, 6, 122, 130, 143, 154, 156 star, 106, 151, 176 story/drama, 3 hunting, 79, 144 lovers, 71, 72, 82, 91 marital, 74, 89, 92, 93, 95, 107, 120, 194 men, 134, 142, 154f, 185, 188 women, 126f, 130, 133 suitor, 55, 65, 69, 70, 71, 77, 85, 90, 92, 93, 101, 124 flees, 73, 85, 95 good, 87 old, 99 poor, 99 rejected, 74, 87, 91, 92, 93, 94, 102 shamed, 73, 75, 94 summer, 1, 149 -quarter, 15, 33, 41, 42, 114, 133, 137, 148, 152, 154, 188 see also, herding sun, 124, 130, 170 Tamradi, 24 tattoo, 30, 36, 38, 39, 40, 51, 55, 66, 75, 181 Tehran, 95, 100, 103 teknonymy, 128, 132, 134 tent, 133, 153, 155, 183, 184, 188, 189 see also, herding time, 147, 157, 159, 191

229

tobacco/cigarette, 42, 58, 71, 87, 92, 117 town, 8, 9, 117, 135, 136, 182 translation, 8, 10, 179f, 182, 185, 186, 194 tree, 34, 43, 61 oak, 1, 2, 192 plantain, 149 sandalwood, 149 tamarisk, 146 walnut, 110, 132 willow, 62, 103, 110 tribe/tribal, 83, 137, 140 chief, 1, 8, 14 – 21, 23, 25, 56, 99, 104, 132, 136, 142, 154, 190 court of, 5, 146, 194 elite, 2, 103, 112, 123, 136, 142, 146, 147, 151, 189 intertribal enmity, 2, 8, 142, 189 is killed, 1, 15, 16, 18, 142, 180, 189 kills, 121, 134, 142, 186 oppressive, 2, 101, 121, 143, 180, 186 people, 9, 13, 15, 17, 22, 33, 74, 75, 135, 179, 187, 190, 192, 193 riflemen of, 134, 180, 186 son of, 188, 190 wife of, 16, 99, 104, 151, 154, 189 see also, economy; herding; history; Lur Turk, see Qashqa’i Turkestan, 129, 135 ugly, 40, 67, 74, 81, 131 United States, 25, 59 village, 1, 77, 95, 112, 133, 169, 171, 175 see also, ma¯l violence, 2, 8, 13, 17, 28, 65f, 76, 80, 94, 95, 142, 146, 180, 185, 189 see also, woman virgin, 98, 127, 163, 164 votive-promise, 54, 73, 157, 158, 160 water, 38, 48, 50, 51, 55, 57, 66, 78, 142, 154, 168, 172 -bag, 89, 114 cool, 137, 163, 184, 188 healing, 65, 147 irrigation, 1, 169, 171, 185f -pipe, 102

230

FOLKSONGS FROM THE MOUNTAINS OF IRAN

river, 1, 125, 169, 189 spring, 1, 48, 50, 65, 78, 133, 154, 176, 177 wealth, 89, 90, 104, 160, 194 wedding, 6, 8, 74, 85, 87, 98, 104 –9, 142, 146, 182, 186, 194 dance, 67, 103, 107f see also, music widow, 16, 18, 63, 125–7, 153, 155, 189 reputation, 115, 126, 127 wife, 40, 76, 86, 87, 103, 110, 154 abused, 113, 115, 125, 130, 194, 195 and co-wife, 74, 115, 129, 133, 173, 185, 194f, good, 97, 125, 151, 153, 159, 190 husband’s comfort, 103, 111 leaves, 115, 129, 130 neglected, 121, 122 obligation of, 114, 115 regrets marriage, 113, 122, 182 see also, woman wild rue, 155 wind, 62, 63, 124, 137 and death, 143, 146, 149, 155 winter, 1, 96, 186, 187 -quarter, 83, 114, 137, 148, 188 see also, herding woman, 18, 23, 66, 82, 97, 141, 152 attraction of, 27, 33 – 6, 87, 89, 123, 150, 163, 164, 180 behaviour of, 28, 31, 41, 70, 91 childless, 112, 133 clothes, 20, 27, 29, 30, 31, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 43, 85, 169, 178 critical, 28, 41, 70, 87, 99, 102f, 113f, 116, 118, 122, 124, 129, 130, 132, 152, 161, 167, 191 dance, 5, 103, 107f, 189, 190 dangerous, 8, 28, 43, 58, 61, 82, 165, 180 dead, 148– 51

dependent on men, 102, 115, 178 desires of, 54, 63, 102, 103, 105, 122, 126, 127, 191 good, 25, 36, 41, 64, 112, 159 old, 75, 126, 141, 144, 150 pregnant, 133, 149 rejected, 63, 65, 77, 115, 120, 129, 130 rejects man, 73, 74, 77, 87, 91, 94, 122, 164, 181, 191 self-assured, 94, 101, 103, 119, 155 shortage of, 69, 85, 86, 96, 99, 109 silent, 4, 6, 28, 70, 122 sings, 4, 6, 89, 116, 128 teases man, 63, 91, 92, 191 threatened, 72, 81, 87, 186, 191 resists, 82, 194 unmarried, 48, 102f, 161 violence against, 78, 87, 109, 117, 129, 130, 134, 168, 185, 186, 194, 195 work of, 2, 5, 6, 38, 46, 50, 56, 79, 96, 150 buttering, 151 firewood, 1, 154, 162 gathering, 2, 169f, 182, 192, 197 housekeeping, 97, 98, 173 milking, 153, 167, 168, 174, 175, 176, 191 rice preparation, 113, 122, 160, 167, 168, 169 sewing, 57 washing, 154 water hauling, 2, 55, 89, 114 wool handling, 5, 148, 184 see also, bride; mother; wife Wright, Susan, 168 – 78 Yasuj, 112 Zagros Mountains, 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 13, 48, 137, 144, 145, 154, 179, 180, 182, 183, 186, 192

Erika Friedl is the E.E. Meader Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Western Michigan University. Her honours and awards include the Presidential Scholar Award; Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award; and Phi Beta Kappa. Friedl is the author of several books on the people of Boir Ahmad, including: Women of Deh Koh, Children of Deh Koh, Warm Hearts and Sharp Tongues: Life in 555 Proverbs from the Zagros Mountains of Iran, and Folktales and Storytellers of Iran: Culture, Ethos and Identity (I.B.Tauris, 2014).

‘This book will be a classic. It is amazing in its scope, depth, the topics it covers and the deep cultural understanding it demonstrates and conveys.’ Mary Elaine Hegland, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Santa Clara University

Picture credit: A young woman and child with the Zagros mountain range in the background, 1983. Photograph by Reinhold Loeffler

IB-FOLKSONGS-AW.indd 1

Culture, Poetics and Everyday Philosophies

‘This is the kind of book that will serve as a reference work for the next generations, not only of ethnographers, but also of Iranists, dialectologists and ethnomusicologists.’ Eckhard Neubauer, Emeritus Professor, Institute for the History of ArabicIslamic Sciences, Goethe University, Frankfurt

Folksongs from the Mountains of Iran

In Iran, folksongs are part of folklore and offer an intimate portrait of a vanishing era. This book is based on folksongs collected over a 50-year period among the Boir Ahmad tribal people in the Zagros Mountains of West Iran. Erika Friedl has recorded, transcribed and translated more than 600 lyrics from a Lur community. Her analysis provides an intimate portrait of local people’s attitudes, attachments, fears and desires. From songs of love, sex and mourning, to lyrics discussing beauty, infatuation and the community’s violent tribal history, Friedl’s solid understanding of the cultural background, lifestyle and worldview of these people lets her add ethnographic details that illuminate the deep meaning of the texts. Based on fieldwork that began in 1965, Erika Friedl’s research on the folklore in Boir Ahmad represents the best-documented modern folklore compendium on an Iranian tribe.

Erika Friedl

Folksongs from the Mountains of Iran Culture, Poetics and Everyday Philosophies

Erika Friedl

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21/11/2017 13:11