The Ballad of King Vahram - Epic Iranian Music

You can buy this song and the rest of my music here: A composition by Farya Faraji. The lyrics are in Middle-Persian, the chronological variety of the Persian language spoken in the Sasanian Era, and they are taken from a rhymed ballad dating to the time following the fall of the Sasanian Empire at the hands of the Arabic Rashidun Caliphate. According to J. C. Tavadia from “The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland“ in 1955, while the exact date of the poem cannot be pinpointed, some estimates can be made. The greatest peculiarity of the poem is that it rhymes--as a general rule of thumb, Iranian and Greco-Roman poems of the Ancient World did not rhyme, and the concept was popularised by the Arabs following their expansion in the Early Middle-Ages. This would point to a late date for the poem, but Tavadia indicates that the use of certain, more archaic Middle-Persian words supports the idea that this poem would have been written at an earlier date, therefore it is possible that this text was produced in the very decades following the conquest of Iran by the Arabs. The text expresses the hope of the era’s Iranians, who await the coming of a Zoroastrian messianic figure called Shah Vahram Varzavand, a figure who will come from India, overthrow the Arab invaders and restore native Iranian and Zoroastrian rule to the land. The poem can essentially be contextualised as a “wish-image“ of the oppressed Zoroastrian Iranians yearning for the return of the previous state of rule. The figure of Shah Vahram as a messianic figure carries with him the weight of Iranian mythology, as he is said to be of the lineage of the Kayanian--the mythological dynasty of Iran who was said to have ruled at the beginning of the world, and the dynasty around which the Shahnameh epic revolves. The poem can therefore be described as both a deeply nationalistic and religious one; the two concepts being intertwined in this historical context, with Zoroastrianism being one with the concept of Iranian identity in the eyes of the text’s writer(s). This is a text I’ve been trying to set to music since June, but the dozen or so melodies I came up with each failed to evoke the text’s deep sense of melancholy; hopefully this melody does the job, as this was a hard text to grasp musically. Keep mind that both the pronunciation and the music are not representative of the Sasanian and post-Sasanian eras—there are very few resources on Middle Persian pronunciation, and I decided to go with a modern standart Iranian pronunciation with a few archaic affectations from the Sasanian era, like the “v“ sound being pronounced as a “w.“ As for the music, no music is preserved to us from that time, so consider this piece as a whole a modern Iranian interpretation of an earlier Iranian subject. Lyrics in Middle-Persian: Kay bavâd kû pêg-ê âyed az Hindûgân? Kû : “mad hân i Shâh varhrân az dûd ag î kayân!“ Kê shpîl ast hazâr, abar sar-ô-sar ast pîlbân, Ke abrâstag drafs dâred ped êvên î husrôgân pêsh-lashkar barend ped spâh-sâlârân! Mard-ê visê abâyed kirdan zîrag targumân, Ke shaved bê gôbed ped Hindûgân Kû amâh cê dîd az dast î tâzîgân, Amâh azêr, avêshân côn shâhân, Bê stad hend pâdixshâyîh î az husrôgân, Nê ped hunar ud mardîh, côn êrân, Bê ped afsôs ud riyahrîh, côn dêvân! Bê stad hend ped stahm az mardômân, Abâz harâg âst hend, sâg î grân, Az amâh bê âyed hân Shâh Varhrâm, I Varzâvand az dûdag î Kayân , Bê âvarem kên î tâzîgân, Côn rôstahm âvurd sad kên î Syâvashân! Translation: When will a courier come from India? (to say) that: “King Vahrām of the family of the Kavi has come, Having a thousand elephants, being upon them an elephant-keeper, Having raised banners, in the manner of the Husrô (Persian kings) The advance-guards are led by the generals! A man should be dispatched, a clever interpreter, Who may go and tell to India, What we have seen from the hands of the Arabs! All at once they weakened the religion and killed the kings. We (have become) inferior, they are like have taken away the sovereignty from the Husrô, Not by virtue and valour, (like the noble Aryans,) But in mockery and scorn, (like the demons.) By force they have taken away from men They have demanded again the tribute, a heavy impost. From us shall come that king Vahrâm, Possessing marvellous power, of the family of the Kavi. We will bring vengeance in the Arabs, As Rostam brought a hundred to the Syavashan.