New NaqqaliThe Death of Fereydoon
The three heads remain before the bereaved father. The reign ends by measuring all royal achievement against mortality and the survival of a good name.
The chapter in five texts
| Text | Chapter treatment and distinctive choices |
|---|---|
| F&R English | Twenty-four couplets retain the longer paternal lament, public mourning and ethical coda. |
| Moscow | Pp 133–134 close the reign with the three heads, death and funeral; supplementary closing material is distinguished in the apparatus. |
| Mohl | Pp 105–106 print the fuller lament and coda, giving the English ending a clear Persian location. |
| Ganjoor | Sh20.65–75 supplies only eleven couplets at the close, ending after the first world-address. |
| Khaleghi | P 157 prints the tomb and first world-address, with the week of public mourning and additional coda preserved in the apparatus. |
Parallel text
English left · Persian right. Ganjoor is the reference except where a row names a printed source. Select a number to open the relevant note. G identifiers distinguish digital sections across chapter boundaries.
Narrative and poetic form
This ending is a powerful reason to retain the translation’s breadth. The father’s final sight is not a restored family but three severed heads. The longer close lets the poem distinguish victory from consolation and lasting goodness from temporary dominion.
Couplet commentary
Quoted text · evidence · interpretation1–9Victory cannot repair the family
The shared core has the withered Kayanian tree, withdrawal from rule and all three heads before the father. Mohl pp 105–106 prints the longer lament explaining his grief.
The father mourns both the innocent son and the guilty sons. The English’s fuller speech does not undo the moral distinction between them; it shows that justified retribution cannot restore the household.
10–16A good name and a royal tomb
Death leaves a name; Manuchehr sets aside the crown, dons a bloody girdle and builds the gold-and-lapis tomb with an ivory throne and suspended crown.
The funeral preserves distinctions of rank even as death empties their power. The English keeps the formal objects so the final leveling reflection has something concrete to work against.
17–18The week of mourningMain text versus apparatus
Mohl p 106 prints Manuchehr’s week of grief and the city and bazaars sharing the mourning. Khaleghi p 157 places this additional week-and-bazaar couplet in the apparatus, beyond the main narrative’s tomb closure.
The English makes grief a public duration. Its inclusion has printed support, while the apparatus placement records a different editorial judgment about the extent of the continuous text.
19–24The fuller closing address
Ganjoor ends with one couplet addressing the world as fraud and wind. Mohl p 106 continues through mortality’s leveling of kings and servants to the surviving memory of goodness. Khaleghi p 157 prints the first address in the main text and records additional closing verses below in the apparatus.
The English’s ethical close is not simply six invented moralizations after a short Persian ending. It preserves a transmitted longer farewell, whose different editorial placement should remain visible. Goodness and a remembered name are what the story leaves standing after the failure of possession and the incompleteness of vengeance.