Epic · 10th–11th century

I Shall Not Die

Ferdowsiفردوسی

سرآمد کنون قصه یزدگرد

Now the story of Yazdgerd has come to its end,

به ماه سفندارمذ، روز ارد

in the month of Esfand, on the day of Ard,

ز هجرت شده پنج هشتاد بار

when five times eighty years had passed since the Hijra,

به نام جهان‌داور کردگار

in the name of the Judge of the world, the Creator.

چو این نامور‌نامه آمد به بن

Now that this renowned book has reached its end,

ز من روی کشور شود پر سخن

the whole land will be filled with my words.

از آن پس نمیرم که من زنده‌ام

From now on I shall not die, for I live:

که تخم سخن من پراکنده‌ام

I have scattered the seed of words.

هر آنکس که دارد هش و رای و دین

Whoever has sense, judgement and faith

پس از مرگ، بر من کند آفرین

will praise me after my death.

From: The Shahnameh
Translation: Persiahaus Editors
Source: Draft translation from the Ganjoor text
Persian text: Ganjoor

A note for readers

The last lines of the Shahnameh, which close the story of Yazdgerd III, the last Sasanian king, killed as the Arab conquest reached Iran. Ferdowsi dates the completion of his book to the month of Esfand in the year 400 of the Hijra (early 1010 CE) and claims a life beyond death through his poem. A couplet often quoted with these lines, ‘I suffered much in these thirty years; I brought the Persians to life with this Persian’, does not appear in this section on Ganjoor.