New NaqqaliFereydoon’s Sons Go to Yemen
The princes enter Yemen in ceremonial splendor, then demonstrate that correct judgment can distinguish age from a misleading arrangement of seats.
The chapter in five texts
| Text | Chapter treatment and distinctive choices |
|---|---|
| F&R English | Twenty-two couplets make a full arrival-and-identification chapter. |
| Moscow | The princes’ visit falls within the fuller printed marriage sequence; Ganjoor’s section boundaries cannot define its whole extent. |
| Mohl | Pp 65–66 retain the palace description and identification exchange. |
| Ganjoor | Sh4.1–10 supplies arrival and palace. The identification exchange has no counterpart in its poem body. |
| Khaleghi | Pp 100–101 print the identification exchange in the main text, beyond the earlier bracketed briefing. |
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
The distinction between the briefing’s bracketed status and the enacted test’s main-text status is more useful than a blanket claim that one edition either contains or rejects “the Yemen story.”
Couplet commentary
Quoted text · evidence · interpretation1–7Royal arrival
The departure, escort, jewels, perfumes and ceremonial meeting correspond to Ganjoor’s first nine couplets, with compression at the opening.
The wealth is a language of royal equivalence, answering the diplomacy of the embassy. The princes arrive as a coordinated group; their individual dispositions will emerge in the trials.
8–10The furnished palace
Ganjoor briefly places the princes in the decorated palace. Mohl p 65 and Khaleghi p 100 give the palace, imperial textiles and golden building imagery more space.
The English’s architectural detail has a fuller printed setting. “Gold” and “paradise” form a conventional register of royal magnificence; they need not be taken as measurements of literal building materials.
11–16The king’s questions
Khaleghi p 100 and Mohl p 66 print Sarv’s presentation of the daughters and his questions identifying eldest, middle and youngest. Ganjoor passes directly to the wedding sequence.
The English preserves an actual test rather than adding a decorative encounter. Because the father has warned them beforehand, success combines composure with the careful use of counsel.
17–22Recognizing beyond appearances
The printed answer identifies the youngest in front and the eldest at the rear, leaving the middle in the middle. Sarv realizes that the apparent rearrangement has not deceived them.
The scene rewards trained perception. The English’s explanatory finish helps the reader register why a seemingly simple question was meant to defeat the visitors; it is not necessary to compress it to the shorter digital narrative.