Learn Persian with Chaiyan Conversation.

In the last lesson, we went over the poem Bani Audam by Saadi with Mohamed Adi of Persian Poetics.

In this lesson, we're going to go over all the words and phrases

in the poem individually. In addition to learning their meanings in the context of the poem,

we'll learn how they relate to present-day Persian and how to use some of them in everyday

conversation. One of the most important parts of this lesson is that in addition to learning

the meanings of these words and phrases, I want you to memorize this poem.

Baniadam in particular is one of the most famous poems in the Persian language, and almost all

Iranians have it memorized.

It's a simple poem that really gets to the heart of what it is to be human.

In the West, we have this idea of individuality,

of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps,

the smith of the lone hero.

This poem really dismantles and shatters that notion.

It contends that, really, we're all part of the same being,

and that if one human is hurting, all of mankind is hurting.

And I think that's a lovely message to think about at any time and especially now. And it also gets to the heart of why we

learn languages too, to understand one another, to close the gap between humans. Understanding another

language is a way to be a little less alone. And after the last couple years we've had, I think we

can all use a little bit of that. But getting back to memorization, not only is this a particularly

important poem to memorize, but memorizing poetry will also really help with your language skills.

Memorizing these words and phrases will add them to your language tool belt, and you'll be

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