سنگ

سنگ shows up wherever Iranians mark something permanent. Persian cemeteries are dense with carved سنگ قبر, often horizontal, often inscribed with a Hafez verse. Iranian architecture leans on stone: the takht-e jamshid columns at Persepolis, the marble floors of Safavid mosques, the cobbled back-alleys of Yazd. There is also an idiom, سنگ کسی را به سینه زدن (sang-e kasi râ be sine zadan, "to beat someone's stone against your chest"), which means defending that person fiercely, the way a partisan stands up for an absent ally. The image is muscular and old, and you still hear it on news commentary. Another expression, سنگ تمام گذاشتن (sang-e tamâm gozâshtan, "to lay the complete stone"), means going all-out, sparing nothing, doing the full job, originally from masonry, now used for hospitality and effort. And the proverb سنگ بزرگ علامت نزدنه (sang-e bozorg alâmat-e nazadan-e, "a big stone is a sign you won't throw it") is a quiet warning about people who threaten too loudly: real action is smaller and quieter than the gesture promises.