What it means
بید مجنون (bid-e majnun) is a compound of بید (bid), the pure Persian word for willow, and مجنون (majnun), an Arabic adjective meaning “mad,” “possessed,” or “driven out of one’s mind” (from Arabic جَنَّ, janna, to cover or conceal the mind). The compound means “the mad willow” or “the willow of Majnun.” The name describes the weeping willow’s drooping, dishevelled branches, which resemble a person hunched in grief or derangement. The word is mixed in origin: Persian بید plus the Arabic مجنون. Majnun is also the name of the legendary lover from the epic Leyla va Majnun, whose grief-stricken wandering gave the willow tree its poetic identity in Persian literature.
How to use it
- کنار رودخونه یه بید مجنون قدیمی وایستاده. (Kenar-e rudkhune ye bid-e majnun-e qadimi vaistade.) “An old weeping willow stands by the river.”
- شاخههای بید مجنون رو آب میبوسه. (Shakh-haye bid-e majnun ro ab mibuse.) “The water kisses the branches of the weeping willow.”
- زیر اون بید مجنون نشستیم و حرف زدیم. (Zire un bid-e majnun neshastim o harf zadim.) “We sat under that weeping willow and talked.”
- بید مجنون یه درخت غمگینه به نظر میاد. (Bid-e majnun ye derakht-e ghamgine be nazar miya.) “The weeping willow looks like a sorrowful tree.”
Cultural note
The weeping willow’s Persian name is inseparable from the story of Qays and Leyla, the tragic lovers whose tale was immortalized by Nizami Ganjavi in the twelfth century. Qays, who loses his reason for love and becomes known as Majnun, is associated with the willow because both are seen as bowed under the weight of longing. In classical Persian miniature painting, weeping willows appear at the banks of streams as a visual shorthand for sorrow and unfulfilled desire. Today بید مجنون is a common park and garden tree across Iran, planted along water features, though most city dwellers know its name and its literary echo without necessarily knowing the full legend.