Farsi (Nastaliq): the advanced path

16 lessons after the 43 of the path, in two levels: from long sentences on one line to a whole page of several lines. They open with a Mashq Learn plan. See the plans

Levels 7 and 8 are written in the practice face, with the four steps you know. A long line is written a word at a time.

Level 7 · The line

Complex sentences on one line: longer sayings, a line of poetry, stretching, stacking and the spacing of words.

44Space between words
توانا بود هر که دانا بود
Whoever is wise is strong.
Each word steps down and ends before the next begins; leave the same gap, about one dot, between all five words.
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45Letters that change shape
با دوستان مروت با دشمنان مدارا
Kindness with friends, forbearance with enemies.
The same letters (ب، ت، ن، م، ا) come alone, first, inside and last in one line: keep each form true where it falls.
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46Letters that stack
بنی‌آدم اعضای یکدیگرند
The children of Adam are limbs of one another.
In یکدیگرند the teeth climb and step down one over the next: let each join sit on the one before, at the slope of the line.
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47A long proverb on one line
مشک آن است که ببوید نه آن که عطار بگوید
Musk is what gives off its own scent, not what the perfumer says it is: worth shows itself.
Ten words: keep the words' feet on one line from the first to the last, so the long line does not drift.
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48One stretch in the line
آسایش دو گیتی تفسیر این دو حرف است
The ease of both worlds lies in the meaning of these two words.
Stretch one letter only (the seen of تفسیر is the usual place; a calligrapher confirms) and shorten the words around it so the line keeps its length.
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49A whole verse
بشنو این نی چون شکایت می‌کند
از جدایی‌ها حکایت می‌کند
Listen to this reed as it complains: it tells the tale of separations.
The two halves of the verse side by side, right half then left: make them the same width, as a divan page does.
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50An Arabic verse in Farsi
أعز مكان في الدنى سرج سابح
وخير جليس في الزمان كتاب
The noblest seat in the world is the saddle of a swift horse, and the best companion in any age is a book.
Arabic spelling in the Persian hand: ي with its two dots, ك, the hamza on أ and the ending ى of الدنى, each as Farsi draws it.
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51A fully vowelled verse
اَلْخَيْلُ وَاللَّيْلُ وَالْبَيْدَاءُ تَعْرِفُنِي
وَالسَّيْفُ وَالرُّمْحُ وَالْقِرْطَاسُ وَالْقَلَمُ
Horses, the night and the desert know me, and so do the sword, the spear, the paper and the pen.
The vowel marks are written last, small, with the pen's corner, each over or under its own letter and never on the line of the next word.
Write it

Level checkOne line you have not practised, shown when the check opens and written from memory, word by word.After lessons 44 to 51

Level 8 · The page

Several lines as one page: the space between lines, lines that end together, the margins.

52Two lines: the space between
آسایش دو گیتی تفسیر این دو حرف است
با دوستان مروت با دشمنان مدارا
The ease of both worlds lies in the meaning of these two words: kindness with friends, forbearance with enemies.
Two hemistichs one above the other: the gap between the lines is the same all along, so the descending words of line one do not touch line two.
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53Two lines, equal ends
توانا بود هر که دانا بود
ز دانش دل پیر برنا بود
Whoever is wise is strong; through knowledge an old heart grows young.
The second line is shorter in letters; widen its spaces and its one stretch so both lines start and end together.
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54An Arabic verse as a page
إذا غامرت في شرف مروم
فلا تقنع بما دون النجوم
When you risk yourself for an honour you long for, do not settle for anything below the stars.
Two lines that end on the same rhyme (مروم / النجوم): the two final meems stand one above the other.
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55Margins round the lines
باران که در لطافت طبعش خلاف نیست
در باغ لاله روید و در شوره بوم خس
The rain, whose gentle nature no one disputes, raises tulips in the garden and weeds on salt ground.
Set the two lines inside a frame with the same margin right and left, and a wider one below, as on a qit'a.
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56Four lines: the qit'a
بنی‌آدم اعضای یکدیگرند
که در آفرینش ز یک گوهرند
چو عضوی به درد آورد روزگار
دگر عضوها را نماند قرار
The children of Adam are limbs of one another, made in creation from one essence. When time brings pain to one limb, the other limbs find no rest.
Four lines, the classical Persian qit'a: equal widths, equal gaps, the same slope in every line.
Write it
57Four lines in a frame
بشنو این نی چون شکایت می‌کند
از جدایی‌ها حکایت می‌کند
کز نیستان تا مرا ببریده‌اند
در نفیرم مرد و زن نالیده‌اند
Listen to this reed as it complains, telling the tale of separations: ever since they cut me from the reed bed, men and women have wept at my cry.
The qit'a inside its frame with margins: the four lines and the margins read as one page.
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58A quatrain as a qit'a
ای بس که نباشیم و جهان خواهد بود
نی نام ز ما و نی نشان خواهد بود
زین پیش نبودیم و نبد هیچ خلل
زین پس چو نباشیم همان خواهد بود
Many a day we will not be here and the world will go on, with no name or trace of us left. Before us, we were not, and nothing was amiss; after us, when we are gone, it will be the same.
A full quatrain: lines 1, 2 and 4 rhyme on خواهد بود; make those three endings stand in one column.
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59A page of your own
هر آن که تخم بدی کشت و چشم نیکی داشت
دماغ بیهده پخت و خیال باطل بست
Whoever sowed the seed of evil and hoped for good cooked up idle fancies and tied himself to a vain dream.
Lay out a two-line page by yourself, with no frame drawn for you: line gap, ends and margins come from you.
Write it

Level checkA short page you have not practised, shown when the check opens and written from memory, line by line. Here each word is judged; the page’s layout is judged by a calligrapher once Mashq has one.After lessons 52 to 59

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