Confession: I either have no inspiration to write or get so incredibly excited that I can’t focus on one topic and therefore hop from draft to draft to draft, like a hummingbird going from flower to flower. This week I was having one of my latter moments deciding between three songs to post when fate intervened and made the decision on my behalf. I was talking to a friend who told me he was out one day looking for something and “porsun porsun” went up the street until he found it. It was settled. The Delkash song, Porsun Porsun.
Except I’m choosing a modern interpretation of it, Slowly, Slowly by Dang Show. Let me backtrack. The original version of this song was sung back in the day by Delkash, a singer from my parents’ generation and a voice alongside those of Googoosh and Vigen that we woke up to on Saturday mornings. There’s a scene in the comedy series Shahgoosh where the widow is remembering her recently-killed husband, saying that he loved the way she nagged at him. And when she didn’t, he’d ask her to because, for him, listening to her nag was like listening to Delkash. I laughed out loud the first time I heard that line, and it still cracks me up.
So why was this song among the three contenders? There are a few reasons. One, it’s a classic. Two, I like the use of reduplication. The original song (which you can listen to here) has examples like porsun porsun (asking, asking [asking several people]), yavâsh yavâsh (slowly slowly), tarsun tarsun (scared, scared), and larzun larzun (shaking, shaking). Like other classics, this song has been redone by contemporary artists like Hojat Ashrafzadeh (listen to his version here). But I chose the Dang Show version (whose lyrics are slightly different) because they’re awesome, but more importantly, because they essentially take one verse and repeat it, making the song super simple to memorize. You even hear it in spoken form at the beginning. I have a feeling that once you have it down, it’ll become an earworm (and for that, I apologize in advance). It’s also worth noting that âseh is a short form of âhesteh (slowly).
Here are the lyrics and English translation of Slowly Slowly by Dang Show.
âseh âseh, yavâsh yavâsh / slowly slowly
umadam dar-e khunatun / I came to your house
yek shâkh-e gol dar dastam, sar-e râhat benishastam / a single flower in my hand, I sat on your way
bekhodâ ân negâhat az khâteram naravad / I swear that look of yours will never leave my memory
âseh âseh, yavâsh yavâsh / slowly slowly
umadam dar-e khunatun / I came to your house
majnun o geryun, del negarun / lovesick and weeping, worried
umadam dar-e khunatun / I came to your house
yek shâkh-e gol dar dastam, sar-e râhat benshastam / a single flower in my hand, I sat on your way
az panjare man-o didi, mesle golhâ khandidi / you saw me from the window, you laughed like the flowers
ah, bekhodâ ân negahat az khâteram naravad / I swear that look of yours will never leave my memory
ah, bekhodâ ân negahat az khâteram naravad
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