دوری که در آن آمدن و رفتن ماست
آن را نه بدایت نه نهایت پیداست
کس مینزند* دمی در این معنی راست
کاین آمدن از کجا و رفتن به کجاست
source, دمی با خيام /Dami baa khayyâm, Ali Dashti, 5th ed., quatrain 1, p. 244 [hereafter, "Dashti"]
dowri ke dar aan aamadan o raftan-e maast
aan raa na bedaayat na nahaayat peydaast
kas minazanad dami dar in ma‘ni raast
kin aamadan az kojaa o raftan be kojaast
This coming and going, a cycle all share,
where it begins, where it ends, no one's aware;
who poses this question, who would dare,
the source of our coming, and going — going to where?
The sphere upon which mortals come and go,
Has no end nor beginning that we know;
And none there is to tell us in plain truth:
Whence do we come and whither do we go.
Ahmad Saidi, quatrain 75
Translation & Discussion of the quatrain: 1. That circle in which is our coming and going/which consists of our coming and going 2. In it neither beginning nor ending is/has been found - for aan raa, see W.M. Thackston, An Introduction to Persian, 3rd ed. revised, Iranbooks, Inc., 1993, 197-198 and Gernot L. Windfuhr, Persian Grammar: History and State of its Study, Mouton, The Hague, 1979, 49. Both note this classical usage for the -raa "dative" marker. The term "dative" -- the word is the Latin translation of the Greek dotikê, "giving"; in Latin grammar the dative(case) denotes a noun/pronoun construction or "case" of reference -- reference to whom or to what the idea of the main verb relates. Here the reference has a possessive flavor: neither its beginning nor its ending has been discovered. Windfuhr cites "a famous example": mard-i-raa do pesar budand - a man had two sons 3. No one speaks on this issue rightly -- here dami zadan = sohbat kardan; Dashti has می نزند in his first edition and in this 5th edition as well on page 137, but here he has می زند ; this is likely a typographical error since می زند would not even work metrically, and of course the intent is to say "no one" addresses the real issue 4. Saying/Explaining where this coming is from and where the going is to -- here the function of ke (+-in) is to pose a question, indirectly.