Farsi Translation/Botany Question! What does the word "Bita" mean?

July 28, 2014 3:43 PM

In the Persian song "Gole Bita" (گل بیتا) what does the word "Bita" refer to? Is there a flower called "Bita," or is that too literal of a reading?

Through Google searches I have found that the word "Bita" means "Beautiful / Unique," but I'm wondering if in this context it means something else or refers to something else.

Thanks in advance!

posted by ariela to Writing & Language (3 answers total)

I'm fairly certain it just means beautiful flower. By no means do I know every single flower name in Persian, but given that pretty much all of the Google results for it are for the album/song, I think it's safe to say it's not an actual flower name. Also, it's not on the Persian Wikipedia list of flowers.
posted by yasaman at 4:27 PM on July 28, 2014

My Persian coworker just explained to me that the beautiful//unique (without pair, as he put it) meaning of 'Bita' is deprecated in normal speech or for normal use. He says it is solely used as a given name for a female anymore. Perhaps this lyric is in reference to a particular Bita, who is flower-like somehow?
posted by carsonb at 7:13 PM on July 28, 2014

Best answer: I pulled up the song on youtube; I didn't listen to all of it, but it's clear within the first few lines that the guy was definitely singing about his daughter. It explains the baby giggles/cries before the start of the song; it's his "lalaeei"--that is, lullaby--to his daughter. A little googling bore out the fact that his daughter is, in fact, named Bita, and the song is dedicated to her [ctrl-F "daughter"].

"Gol" does literally mean flower. Figurative language or idioms calling someone a flower/like a flower has various positive connotations (other examples: gol dokhtar or gol pesar, gol-e man). I'd say with "Gole Bita," the "Bita" is straightforward (just his daughter's name); it's the "Gol"/flower part that's the figurative language (how he describes her).
posted by neda at 9:47 PM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]