Sign of the Letter (Neshan-e Nameh) or Seal of the Letter (Sahay-e Nameh)? Correction of a Verse Composed by Rudaki

The ode of Dandanieh is one of the few ode poems composed by Rudaki Samarkandi, which fortunately has been preserved from looting and sedition and has been registered as a valuable heritage of Persian literature. Apparently, in Rudaki's poems, there have not been many changes in terms of the number of verses and the preservation of words. In the present article, based on stylistic criteria as well as various evidences of Persian literature and occasionally Arabic, an attempt has been made to correct the following verse: “My heart was a treasury full of treasure and a treasure of speech, the seal was our sign of the Letter and the title of our poem”. The correctors and commentators of Rudaki's Collection of Poems have made diacritic placement and interpreted "Seal" (Mohr) as "Affection" (Mehr) in the second hemistich, while according to the other components of the verse, "letter" and "title", it can be understood that it should be considered as "seal"(Mohr). Of course, the reason for this mistake of the commentators was the attempt to make the second hemistich meaningful, unaware that the patrolling and correction of "Saha-Nameh" (Seal of the Letter) to "Neshan-Nameh" (Sign of the Letter) are the main forms that occurred in the verse.