گر خوش آواز بودی و خوش خوان......نبدی بهتر از تو در مرغان

“گر” is the literary form of “اگر” (if).

The presence of “اگر” in this line indicates that this is a conditional sentence. it’s actually the equivalent of the English conditional sentence type 2 (i.e. refer to an action in the present that could happen if the present situation were different) so although like English the TENSE is in the past (بودی instead of هستی), it’s talking about the present time, here is another example for conditional sentence type 2:

If I were you, I wouldn’t do this   اگر جای تو بودم، این کار را نمی کردم

Although “بودم” and “نمی کردم” are in the past tense, the sentence is talking about a hypothetical situation that might exist now.

Pay attention that the “ي” at the end of “نبُدی” is not 2nd person singular ending like the “ی” of the “بودی”. it’s there just so it rhymes with “بودی” in the first half of the verse.

زاغ می خواست قارقار کند.......تا که آوازش آشکار کند

In this line we have a verb, repeated twice (کُنَد) which is in subjunctive mood (it’s a mood so don’t confuse it with the tense) i.e. a mood of verbs expressing what is imagined or wished or possible. Compare it with indicative mood which is expressing simple statement of a fact. In English, Subjunctive mood of verbs is not very different from the indicative mood, that’s why it is not an important part of English grammar however it’s widely used in languages such as Spanish. It’s a common error among Persian learners to use indicative mood of verbs where they are expected to use subjunctive mood.

طعمه افتاد چون دهان بگشود.......روبهک جست و طعمه را بربود

طُعمه is from the Arabic “طعام”(food) and it means “خوردنی، خوراکی (whatever that is edible). in some cases it can be translated as “victim” but since “cheese” cannot be a victim here, I translated is as “morsel”

“چون” in literary texts can also mean “هنگامی که، به محض اینکه”(when, as soon as).

"گشودن" is a simple verb which in colloquial version of Persian is replaced by the compound verb “باز کردن” (to open).

جَست is 3rd person singular past of the verb“جستن” which means “پریدن” (to jump).

ربود is the 3rd PSP of the verb “ربودن” which means “to snatch”.

“ب” at the beginning of the simple past verbs such as “بگشود” and “بربود” doesn’t have any meaning, although it’s used frequently in literary texts (it attaches to more common verbs such as “رفتن”, “آمدن”, گفتن), its only function is to make a text more rhythmic.

[THE END]

sorry, I didn't expect it to become that long.

زاغکی قالب پنیری دید.........به دهان برگرفت و زود پرید

"زاغ" means “raven”, a bird very similar to the “کلاغ” (crow)

The "ک َ_"  or “ak” at the end of the words “زاغک” and “روبهک” (the last line) is called “diminutive suffix”. It’s an ending that is added to a word to express smallness, for example in English ‘ling’ is added to ‘duck’ to make ‘duckling’.
You will often see “دخترک” and “پسرک” in Persian texts with the meaning of “little girl” and “little boy”, but the word that you will hear a lot with the same structure is “مردَک “ which is considered as an insult when is said to a man (مرد).

“قالب” means "bar" as in "bar of soup/chocolate."

“ی” at the end of “پنیر” (cheese) is the indefinite article, it’s the equivalent of the English “a” or “an” as it is clear in the translation. The next line also contains 3 indefinite articles that you will find them easily.

“دید” is the third-person singular simple past indicative form of the verb “دیدن” (to see). I know it seems to be a big name for the simplest type of verbs in Persian, but by designating a definition like this for this verb, we actually exclude other conjugations of the verb. This way we know that it is 3rd person not 1st person (دیدم) or 2nd person (دیدی). It is singular not plural (دیدند). It is simple not continuous (داشت می دید). It is past not present (می بیند) or future (خواهد دید) and finally it is in the indicative mood not in imperative or subjunctive mood (ببیند).

“برگرفتن” means "to pick up" from the verb “گرفتن” (to take). this verb (برگرفتن) only used in literature and Persian speakers uses verbs such as "برداشتن" or "بلند کردن" to convey the same meaning.

روبه پر فریب و حیلت ساز............رفت پای درخت و کرد آواز

“روبَه” is the literary form of “روباه” (fox)

"پرفریب" and “حیلت ساز have the same meaning which is "حیله گر، مکار" (deceitful)

"پای درخت" means "زیر درخت" (beneath the tree, under the tree), these two words "پا"(foot), and "درخت" (tree) are linked together by the Ezafe particle "ی".

!گفت: به به چقدر زیبایی!.........چه سری، چه دمی، عجب پایی

“به به” is an expression used to express astonishment here and that’s why I translated it as “wow”, this is also used in greeting quite often, for example if you haven’t seen someone for a long time, you may want to add this expression into your greeting to make yourself look more excited and happy as you see him/her again, it’s kind of like “long time no see” when used in greeting.

Just like English “what”, Persian “چه” has usages other that just being a mere “question word”. “چه” in the phrases “چه سری” , “چه دمی” is used to emphasize the description (to say that you think that something or someone is very good, very bad, etc).
“عجب” and "چقدر" (Lit. how much) also have the same usages here, so for example we can say the following sentences are interchangeable
!چه خانه قشنگی! = عجب خانه قشنگی! = چقدر خانه قشنگی (what a beautiful house!)

although "چقدر" works much more like how (when it is used for emphasis):

ex: I can't tell you how pleased I am that you came = نمی تونم بهت بگم چقدر خوشحالم که تو اومدی

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