Translation: Persian to Hindi/English and Back
Direction changes the strategy
Persian and Hindi are both verb-final, so Persian → Hindi can proceed clause by clause with little reordering. English is verb-medial, so every clause must be rebuilt: pull the verb forward, turn the ezafat chain around, and supply articles.
Rules that decide marks
- Ezafat: reverse it. shahr-e Shiraz → Shiraz ka shahar / "the city of Shiraz".
- ra: Hindi ko; and with a perfective transitive verb the subject takes ne - Ali ne kitab padhi.
- Passive: daryā-pār kiyā gayā / "was crossed".
- Copula: ast → hai / is; hast → maujud hai / "there is".
- Indefinite -i: ek - mard-e 'alim-i → ek vidwan purush / "a learned man".
- Idiom over word: dast az kari shustan → kisi kaam se haath dhona / "to wash one's hands of".
Worked example
Persian: «پدرم که مرد عالمی بود در شهر لکھنؤ زندگی میکرد.» Hindi: mera pita, jo ek vidwan purush the, Lucknow shahar mein rahte the. Reasoning: pidaram = pidar + enclitic -am, "my father". The ki-clause is non-restrictive, so it is set off by commas and the Hindi verb agrees honorifically in the plural. zindagi mi-kard is literally "was making life", which no Hindi speaker says; render it rahte the. Note bud, not ast, because the whole sentence is past.
The reverse direction
For Hindi → Persian: put the verb last, mark a definite object with ra, and choose ast or hast deliberately. "Mere paas ek kitab hai" → man ra yek kitab-i hast.
Traps
- Translating ra as "ke liye".
- Leaving the English verb at the end of the clause.
- Literal idioms such as zindagi karna.
- Dropping the indefinite -i and losing "ek".
- Shifting tense because only the first clause was read carefully.