Persian:به سر بردن

[Ahmed Biçer]

آنان هنوز هم درصدد التیام بخشیدن به احساسات جریحه‌دارشده ناسیونالیستی و رؤیای تاریخی از دست رفته خود به سر می‌برند
This sentence was extracted from a text about current Russian politicians. In this sentence به سر بردن what does it mean?

 

[PersoLatin]

به سر بردن means, to spend/pass time, e.g. او دو سال زندگیش را در زندان/سختی به سر برد/she spent two years of her life in prison/hardship. او چندین سال است که در خارج ازکشور به سر می‌برند/he has been living (passing time) abroad for several years (now).

The above sentence is not very well put although it does convey the message. Here هستند would work better as درصددبودن/"to be in pursuit of" something, so هنوز درصدد.........هستند but instead it saying: هنوز درصدد........ به سر می‌برند

The intention must have been "they are still living their lives in pursuit of ......"

 

[Qureshpor]

به سر بردن means, to spend/pass time, e.g. او دو سال زندگیش را در زندان/سختی به سر برد/she spent two years of her life in prison/hardship. او چندین سال است که در خارج ازکشور به سر می‌برند/he has been living (passing time) abroad for several years (now).

Would به سر کردن be equivalent to به سر بردن ?

 

[PersoLatin]

بسر/besar, a noun, figuratively means 'end' and almost always with reference to time. It combines with many verbs and depending on the verb, it will mean spending time (actively/voluntarily) or passage of time (passively/involuntarily).

Active: with بردن and کردن the primary meaning is, to take to the end/to make the end or to spend time.
بسرکردن means, to spend a period of time, which is the same بسربردن but used differently and it is more formal/poetic, you may see something like this:
او چندین سال [را] در خارج از کشور بسرکرد/he spent several years abroad.

Passive: with شدن آمدن رفتن رسیدن آوردن the primary meaning is, to arrive/finish/reach the end, it can refer to time (life), patience tolerance etc. here سر can also be used with most these verbs & with the same meaning.

به سر - is not the same as بسر although dictionaries seem to use them interchangeably.

 

[Qureshpor]

Thank you, @PersoLatin. I asked this question because in Urdu we use the verb ba-sar karnaa which is the exact translation of the Persian ba-sar kardan. Thank you once again.