افلاک که جز غم نفزایند دگر
ننهند به جا تا بربایند دگر
ناآمدگان اگر بدانند که ما
از دهر چه میکشیم نایند دگر
Dashti, quatrain 32, p.249
aflaak ke joz gham nafazaayand degar
nanhand be jaa taa berobaayand degar
naa-aamadegaan agar bedaanand ke maa
az dahr che mikeshim naayand degar
The world above adds nothing but pain,
it does not give before it takes again.
If the unborn world had ways to know
how this world makes mortals suffer so,
none ever would come to earth again.
Heaven multiplies our sorrows day by day,
And grants no joys it does not take away;
If those unborn could know the ills we bear,
What think you, would they rather come or stay?
Whinfield, quatrain 240
Translation & Discussion of the quatrain: دگر, degar, is a key word in this quatrain (دیگر > دگر , digar > degar, the long vowel is shortened. The shortening of long vowels is a frequent poetic device, poetic license, so to speak. Obviously it makes a difference to the meter, but it may in origin be only a language variation, let's say a shift in sound from long to short, rather than a convention for the sake of meter (metri causa). Note that here degar is not an adjective but an adverb which means something like "in addition", "else", "again", "further"... we will explore this further line by line by highlighting translations of degar below:
1. The celestial bodies,orb/the skies,sky, (aflaak is the plural of falak), which add nothing else except pain/suffering/add nothing in addition to pain/suffering (fazaa is the present stem of fozudan, an alternate form of afzudan, afzaa. 2. They put nothing in place before/until they take away again - nanhand --nanehand, with suppression of "e" metri causa. 3. If the not-having-come ones/the unborn were to believe/know for a fact/realize 4. what we suffer in the world ( az dahr che mikashim), there would be no coming again - naayand is possibly the negative na + the verbal noun aayand, "not-coming". Here, perhaps for meter's sake, na-aayand > naayand. Elision occurs. Or is it na + the verb in the 3rd person plural? We might expect نیایند , nayaayand, but here we have, more simply, نایند , naayand.
A tack to take, on the other hand, is to get what you can while here, as in this previously posted quatrain 11:
بر چشم تو عالم ارچه میآرایند
مگرای بدان که عاقلان نگرایند
بسیار چو تو روند و بسیار آیند
بربای نصیب خویش کت بربایند
Dashti, quatrain 66, p. 255 (& Forughi-Ghani 69)
bar cheshm-e to aalam arche miaaraayand
magraay bedaan ke aaqelaan nagraayand
besyaar cho to ravand o besyaar aayand
berbaay nasib-e khish kat berbaayand
Though they bedeck the world to catch your eyes,
Be tempted not as never are the wise;
so many like you come, so many go—
You'd better get your share before life flies.
Saidi, quatrain 111