zompist bboard

For my thesis, I'm using sources from multiple languages, and Classical Persian (not Pahlavi, but post-Islam) is one of them. My Persian is very rusty, and while I can look at a text and usually get the gist of it based purely on all the Arabic loan words alone, the syntax is quite difficult for me. The text comes from a 16th century Persian hagiographical book called the "Meadow of the Martyrs," a combination of poetry (called marthiya, or "dirge") and prose meant to be read during Shi`i observations of `Ashura', which has become almost institutional in the Persian-speaking shi`i world. I'm looking at it for strands of inherited epic and archetypal references. The context discusses the beginning of creation, saying basically how sorrow has be a predetermined part of human existence, and how this is related to the martyrdoms at Karbala'.

Here's the text I'm working with at the moment:

• آنروز كه آب و خاك بر هم زده‏اند
  بر طينت آدم رقم غم زده‏اند
  خالى نبود آدمى از درد و بلا
  كان ضربت اولين بر آدم زده‏اند
  
  هنوز آدم صفى از كتم عدم به فضاى وجود نيامده بود كه ملائكه زبان طعن بر آدميان گشادند و به فساد و خونريزى ايشان گواهى دادند و بعد از آن كه عزراييل به حكم ملك جليل از همه اجزاى زمين يك قبضه خاك برداشته در بطن نعمان بريخت حق سبحانه قطعه سحاب پاك را بر بالاى آن قبضه خاك چنان تعيين فرمود كه چهل روز بر آن خاك ببارد و به هيچ نوع سايه از سرآن برندارد آن سحاب به فرمان رب الارباب سى و نه صباح از درياى اندوه آب برداشته بر خاك آدم مى‏باريد تا آن خاك به آب غم و عنا گل شد.
  
  خاك آدم را به آب غم مخمر ساختند
  پس درو درد و بلا را جا مقرر ساختند
  
  روز چهلم از بحر شادى آب برگرفته قطره‏اى چند بر آن خاك افشاند گوئيا كثرت هموم و غموم آدميان و قلّت نشاط و انبساط ايشان بدين سبب است چنانچه فرموده‏اند:
  
  بيحكمتى غريب و حديثى عجيب نيست
  شادى يك زمان و غم جاودان ما

My running translation:

• that day when water and earth have stirred
  in the disposition of Adam is a grief-stricken character
  
  vacant was not humanity (someone?) from pain and tribulation (humanity did not lack pain and tribulation?)
  Treasure blow foremost (?) upon Adam struck
  
  Still Adam pure from hiding lack with the expanse of existence had not come when the angels' language mocking on men they opened and to their corruption and slaughter they testified, and after which`Azra:yi:l (Azrael) with the judgement of the glorious angel apart from all parts of the one earth clutch of soil taken in the belly of blessings to the form of the truth, praise to him, the piece of the pure cloud on above that clutch of soil thus it set in place (commanded?) when forty days in that soil (to cold?) and in no black type from that head (secret?) not lifted that cloud to the command of the Lord of Lords thirty-nine days from the sea within water taken from soil of Adam that is falling while that soil in the water of sorrow and (/?ana: gol Sod/ (what is this?))
  
  in the water of sorrow the soil of Adam brewed
  afterward, the place was confirmed, in it pain and tribulation
  
  the fortieth day, from the ocean of happiness, water received a few drops upon that soil emited a multitude of speech (?) [on] human worries and sorrows and a paucity of their joy and gladness with this reason was just as has been commanded.
  
  It is not without strange skill and wonderous novelty [that]
  happiness [is] one time (a singular moment) and sorrow [is] our eternity

Obviously, this is an EXTREMELY rough translation (indeed, I hesitate to even call it that, since it's barely readable), so no need to point that out. I'm looking for some help parsing it, and figuring out some of the more obtuse meanings; the preceding is a result of extensive dictionary searching, but that only goes so far.
Any assistance would, of course, be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for grave digging (and not having shared any thoughts when this was posted.) Unfortunately I don't have reading knowledge in Persian and Arabic yet, but I am working on both as I am interested in the interaction of Islamic philosophy and spirituality. Out of curiosity, how did this project turn out?

Wow, I wasn't ever expecting a response to this. Well, first of all, the thesis project that this translation/analysis was for was shelved (the subject ended up being too controversial at my uni in Cairo), so I ended up doing something else and didn't finish this translation. I'm planning to revive it for my PhD dissertation, which I'll be starting this fall at Harvard, but yeah, I haven't really touched the research since I started the second thesis draft. I have about 25 pages of research I did on this project though.
However, I have to say that this project really had little to do with philosophy (my second thesis was about Islamic philosophy); this research was primarily working with what is called maqatil literature (literally, martyrdom/murder accounts) and rather...shall we say...overtly supernatural Shi`i hadith. An analysis of devotional literature is more accurate, since texts like the Meadow of the Martyrs ended up being central to the modern Shi`i ta`ziya and roze-khane (`Ashura mourning rituals).

This is what I got for the first four lines. I'm only familiar with modern Persian though, so there's probably something I'm missing. I'm not sure whether the .PP-3P should be present perfect or copular, and I'm not sure if kân should have ezâfé, and I'm only 5% sure that kân means what the dictionary says it means.

ân-ruz ke âb-o xâk bar ham zadé-and
bar teynat-e âdam raqm-e ğam zadé-and
xâli na-bud âdami / âdam-i az dard-o balâ
kân(-e) zarbat-e avvalin bar âdam zadé-and

that day that water and earth are disrupted / water and earth have disrupted / they have disrupted water and earth
onto man's nature marks of grief are struck / marks have struck grief / they have struck marks of grief
mankind was not void of pain and disaster / nobody was void of pain and disaster
(those which are) initial blows on man are struck / have struck / they have struck initial blows on man

I don't know. It might help. I'll look at the rest later.