Mullah Firouz / 2012
ḤĀJI FIRUZ / (Mullah Firouz) , the most famous among the traditional folk entertainers, who appears in the Persian streets in the days preceding Nowruz. The Ḥāji Firuz entertains passers-by by singing traditional songs and dancing and playing his tambourine for a few coins.
Typical of these songs is:
Ḥāji Firuz-e /Sāl-i ye ruz-e sāl-i ye ruz-e.
Hame midunan /Man-am midunam.
ʿEyd-e nowruz-e /Sāl-i ye ruz-e.
(It’s Ḥāji Firuz/[He’s] only one day a year.
Everyone knows /I know as well.
It is Nowruz /It’s only one day a year.)
The following song is usually sung with a traditional “funny accent” or a mimicking of a speech impediment:
Arbāb-e ḵod-am salāmo ʿaleykom,
Arbāb-e ḵod-am sar-eto bālā kon!
Arbāb-e ḵod-am be man nigā kon,
Arbāb-e ḵod-am loṭf-i be mā kon.
Arbāb-e ḵod-am boz-boz-e qandi,
Arbāb-e ḵod-am čerā nemiḵandi?
(Greetings my very own lord,
Raise your head my lord!
Look at me, my lord!
Do me a favor, my lord!
My very own lord, the billy goat,
Why don’t you smile, my lord?)
Occasionally, the Ḥāji Firuz, whose income depends on his ability and talent to entertain by humor, manages to work other traditional songs into his routine. One of the most popular of these, which is almost impossible to translate, goes as follows:
Beškan beškan-e, beškan!
Man nemiškanam, beškan!
Injā beškanam yār gel-e dār-e,
Unjā beškanam yār gel-e dār-e,
In siāh-e bičāre čeqad howṣele dār-e
(The word “beškan” may be called out as a refrain to the song by the onlookers.)
