Zahhak Dreams of Fereydoon

Ganjoor z3 1–5; Mohl I p 37; Moscow I pp 53–54; Khaleghi I pp 57–58.

Forty years remain in Zahhak’s reign; the phrase does not mean the dream occurs in its fortieth year. Two older men flank the younger royal figure, anticipating the configuration of Fereydoon and his brothers. The dream presents this figure before his birth, so its mature appearance is prophetic rather than a chronological inconsistency. The ox-head gorz links the dream to the weapon later designed at the forge.

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Ganjoor z3 6–7 gives the rush, neck-halter and journey to Damavand. Mohl I p 37 prints a fuller blow and thong-binding sequence.

The English’s blow and drawn leather are supported by the fuller presentation. They should not be labeled inventions merely because the digital reference compresses the action. “Broke the pride” develops humiliation rather than adding another physical blow. The dream forecasts capture and removal; it should not be read as a report that Zahhak is actually imprisoned at this point.

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Ganjoor z3 8–15; Mohl I p 37; Moscow I p 54; Khaleghi I pp 58–59.

The liver-rending fear is a bodily figure, followed by a cry that shakes the hundred-columned house. The English preserves both inward terror and outward scale. The sun-faced women rise, and Arnavaz speaks. Her reminder of the Seven Climes explains why the fear is astonishing; it does not prove that the dream is harmless. Zahhak initially withholds it because disclosure would destroy confidence in his survival.

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Ganjoor z3 16–25; Mohl I pp 37–38; Moscow I pp 54–55; Khaleghi I p 59.

Arnavaz is an active adviser. Disclosure, assembly of specialists, interpretation and a remedy form a sequence of proposed actions. The signet and ring figure royal control, contrasting with the king’s inability to control what frightens him. “Human, Div, or pari” preserves uncertainty about the threatening agent. The advice is practical within the narrative’s cosmology; it should not be treated as the commentator’s endorsement of divination.

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Ganjoor z3 26–33; Mohl I p 38; Moscow I p 55; Khaleghi I pp 59–60.

The raven-black night and yellow ruby on the lapis vault are explicit source imagery. The English distributes the transition across three couplets, allowing advice to become an official inquiry at daybreak. The king asks both when life ends and who receives the royal insignia. The Persian’s final alternative can suggest threatened disgrace or death; the English takes it as a demand for revelation even at personal cost. The ensuing coercion clarifies how unsafe the inquiry is.

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Ganjoor z3 34–40; Mohl I p 38; Moscow I pp 55–56; Khaleghi I p 60.

Dry lips and wet faces are retained as the source’s compact image of fear. The English articulates the double bind: an unwelcome truth is dangerous, and concealment of what must happen is dangerous too. Three days of silence end on the fourth with a threat of the gallows. This is not free scholarly consultation; the scene dramatizes knowledge constrained by arbitrary power.

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Ganjoor z3 41–47; Mohl I pp 38–39; Moscow I p 56; Khaleghi I pp 60–61.

Zirak carries the sense of cleverness or discernment as well as functioning as a name. The English retains the named speaker and his fear before his bold reply. Birth directed toward death and the heavens wearing down an iron stronghold dismantle Zahhak’s imagined immunity. The admonition concerns mortal limits, not a newly discovered physical weakness in the palace.

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Ganjoor z3 48–54; Mohl I p 39; Moscow I pp 56–57; Khaleghi I p 61.

The succession is foretold before the child is born. Noble maternity, fruit-bearing growth and the ascent toward the moon are conventional royal amplification. The English keeps the blade-like specificity of the steel gorz and separates its blow from capture. Palace gate and street in English 58 make the humiliation public; they are more spatially explicit than the digital binding couplet.

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Ganjoor z3 55–59; Mohl I p 39; Moscow I p 57; Khaleghi I pp 61–62.

The answer names the father’s death and the nurse-cow’s death as future injuries. It does not make the unborn child’s revenge causeless or merely a desire for kingship. “No man does evil without reason” belongs to Zirak’s explanation of a hostile act from Zahhak’s perspective; it is not a universal ethical defense of wrongdoing. The parallel losses will be recalled by mother and son after they occur.

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Ganjoor z3 60–64; Mohl I p 39; Moscow I p 57; Khaleghi I p 62.

Zahhak falls unconscious, the truth-teller withdraws in fear, and the revived king begins an overt and covert hunt. The English retains those distinct agents. The closing denial of sleep, rest and food gives the prophecy a continuing bodily consequence. Searching for the future opponent becomes one of the ways the king helps create that opponent’s grievance.

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