ḤĀJI FIRUZ

ḤĀJI FIRUZ

ḤĀJI FIRUZ, 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. He rarely knocks on a door, but begins his performance as soon as the door is opened.

Ḥāji Firuz blackens his face, wears very colorful clothes, usually—but not always—red, and always a hat that is sometimes long and cone-shaped. His songs, quite traditional in wording and melody, are very short repetitive ditties . 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?)

(It’s Ḥāji Firuz

It’s the Nowruz festival

It’s only a few days a year.)

Be that as it may, the Ḥāji Firuz as a character of traditional Iranian minstrelsy has fallen on hard times in this age of religious governance, and may not survive the official piety.

Tags: HAJI FIRUZ, iran tours