Farhang va Zarobomasal

The Iranian Dilemma

When in doubt, rely on Daayee Joon Napeleon.

And here is a zarbolmassal about the Jewish Dilemma:

Free ham !!!

To all

Annonymous :

You can count on me.

To Curious Joe :

Proverb A is about Pound and B about Dollars. So the first one is English and ther other one is American ! It is the culturel gap even if they speak the same language.

Knowing English people, they take care of Pound, Pennies even Dollars :-)

Baba Farsi benevis diege!

Baba Farsi benevis diege! Chera shekenjamun midi?

On Picking the Right Zarbolmassal

With all due respect, Troneg, while coming up with a cute proverb, or an appropriate Persian poetry at the right time may sound cute and perceptive, they are often akeen to telling a joke in a party among friends.  The older Iranian generation consider some Persian proverbs as mere gospel,  having universal applicability.  In fact many proverbs can be  countered with yet another opposing proverb.

Here are a couple of opposing proverbs (A) and (B), both sighted often, depending on the context of conversation:

A)    Penny wise, pound foolish

B)     Watch the pennies, the dollars take care of themselves

So which one is the ”right” one?

In your previous proverb, you referred to the possibility of making someone blind when using eyebrow tweezers.  This is unlikely to happen these days, simply because if you do it to yourself, you must be a nut.  If somebody else (say in a beauty salon) does it to you by mistake, and makes you go blind, you can sue the hell out of that person who caused you injury.

As regards to your current proverb on the relationship of Gooz to shaghigheh, I remember a long time ago I took a bus in a village near Damaavand in Iran.  The bus was full, and there was a woman passenger with her baby in her arms.  Some guy in the bus let some air out.  It smelled so bad, that the baby in her mother's arm started to cry.  I recall the mother was angrily shouting in Farsi “lamassab-ha shoma mageh dishab chi khordid?” (Translation: Ooo-Wow, some ass-hole in here, what on earth did you eat last night?).  So, as you can see, Troneg, sometimes a fart can have an impact on someone else’s brain.

If you were trying to make a parallel between the US invasion of Iraq (Gooz?) and the climbing airline fares in China and India (Shaghigheh?), then in fact, the two issues are very much related.  And here is why:

The US foreign policy is to continue securing the oil from the middle east.  Meanwhile, China and India are growing very fast - economically.  Their airplanes and industry need increasing amount of oil everyday.  China and India are competing for the same oil Americans want to have.  It just so happens that the US has the Saudi Royal Family, Kuwait, UAE, and Qatar in its pocket.  It just took over the Iraqi oil fields – and Iran’s oil field may just be the next target.

Now if you compare the US move as “a Gooz”, and the China/India’s concern/reaction as “the Shaghigheh”, then that is your personal interpretation of events.  Obviously, you are entitled to your opinion, and can use any proverb you please to make your point.

In spite of all my nit-pickings above, I enjoyed reading your articles.  They are fun reads.