Simile or metaphor: adjudicating two student claims in ten minutes
You are teaching a 38-student Class IX section a two-line verse for appreciation: «دلم چو آینهای روشن است / در او نقش غم پیدا نیست.» A candidate raises a hand and says the line contains استعاره, 'because the heart is called a mirror'. A second candidate insists it cannot be تشبیه unless the word مثل appears. In the previous class the same group correctly labelled «عمر چون برق» as تشبیه. You have ten minutes, a blackboard and no photocopies. The term test will ask candidates to name the device and explain the وجه شبه in two or three sentences; the scheme gives 1 mark for naming and 1 for explanation. Two weaker candidates at the back read Persian fluently but write slowly, and one of them is the student who raised the first objection.
1. Adjudicate both claims using a test the class can apply to other lines, and show what you would write on the board for the two slower writers.
Read the worked answer
First claim is wrong. چو is an ادات تشبیه. Both sides of the comparison are present: دل is the مشبه and آینه is the مشبهبه. Nothing has been replaced, so the figure is تشبیه. Metaphor would require one side to disappear, as in «آینهی دلش تیره شد», where آینه stands in place of دل with no marker.
Second claim is wrong. مثل is only one marker. چون، چو، همچو، مانند and بهسان all do the same work, and the class already accepted «عمر چون برق» as تشبیه - the same چون that appears in today's line.
Board for the two slower writers, in two lines only:
- تشبیه = هر دو طرف + ادات (چو، چون، مثل، مانند)
- استعاره = یک طرف حذف + بیادات
Then point to دل and آینه on the board and ask them to say which line of the board the verse matches. One-sentence oral answer is enough before they write.
2. Give the 2-mark model answer for naming plus وجه شبه, and explain what earns the second mark.
Read the worked answer
Model: «در این بیت دل به آینه تشبیه شده است. وجه شبه روشنی و صافی است: همانگونه که آینه هر چیز را بیغل و غش نشان میدهد، دل شاعر نیز از غم پاک و روشن است؛ «چو» ادات تشبیه است.»
Mark 1 - naming: the word تشبیه, with both sides identified (دل، آینه). Calling it استعاره loses this mark even if the explanation is good, because the term is what is being tested.
Mark 2 - explanation: the answer must name a shared quality (روشنی، صافی) and say what it does in the line - the mirror conceals nothing, and no trace of غم is visible in the heart. Simply translating the line («دل مثل آینه است») does not earn the second mark. A candidate who writes only 'وجه شبه روشنایی است' gets ½ if the scheme allowed halves, but this scheme does not, so the boundary must be stated in the moderation note.
3. Construct the three-item board exercise you would use in the remaining minutes, with the answer and the reason for each.
Read the worked answer
- «عمر چون برق گذشت» - تشبیه. چون is the marker; مشبه عمر, مشبهبه برق; وجه شبه سرعت و گذرا بودن. Reason: both sides plus marker.
- «آینهی دلش تیره شد» - استعاره. آینه is used for دل; there is no چو/مثل. Reason: one side replaced, no marker.
- «صدای زنگ مثل آواز پرنده بود» - تشبیه. مثل marks it; مشبه صدای زنگ, مشبهبه آواز پرنده. Reason: both sides plus marker.
Procedure: read each line twice, students show one finger for تشبیه and two for استعاره, then one student per item states the reason using the board formula. Item 2 is the discriminator and should be discussed last; it also prepares the weaker students for the term-test wording, which asks for a name and a وجه شبه rather than an essay.