Original Persian Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Ey ki ez-nāvek-i ān ġamze dil-efgār-ı tovem
V’ey der-ān silsile-i zülf giriftār-ı tovem
Fikret ey cān-ı men ez-rīḫten-i ḫūn-ı menest
Be-Ḫudā bende-i bī-çāre der-ān yār-ı tovem
Enderīn devr ki bāşem be-heme ḥālet ü dem
Der-serem cüz heveset ne ki hevādār-ı tovem
Ṣūret-i ‘āfiyet ez-ber-dil-i bī-çāre ne-būd
Luṭf fermā vü be-küş zār ki bīmār-ı tovem
Be-çonīn eşk çü seyl-āb-ı revān-geşte-i mā
Veh ki müştāḳ-ı ḳad ü şīve-i reftār-ı tovem
Bī-gül-i gül-şen-i ruḫsār-ı cemālet çü Münīr
Mānde der-ḫār-ı belā bülbül-i gül-zār-ı tovem

In English

1. O you, by the arrow of whose sidelong glance my heart is wounded, and in the chain of whose curls I am captive.

2. O my soul, if what is in your mind is to shed my blood, by God, in this I am your helpless servant and your helper. ("Yār", in its dictionary sense, means both beloved and helper. Ersoy understands the couplet as "If your purpose in shedding my blood is for God's sake, in this I have submitted to your command".)

3. In this age, in every state and at every moment, there is nothing in my head but desire for you; for I am your devotee. ("Hevā-dār" means one in the grip of passion, a lover.)

4. In the helpless heart there was not even an image of health; be kind and kill me moaning, for I am your patient.

5. With these tears of ours flowing like a flood, alas, I long for your stature and your swaying gait. (Ersoy understands the interjection "veh" as "alas".)

6. Without the rose of the cheek-garden of your beauty, like Münîr I am the nightingale of your rose garden, left among the thorns of affliction.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; in the edition it is the hundred and fifth of the Persian ghazals (fg 105). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the word "tovem" (I am yours, I am your ...); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-ār": efgār, giriftār, yār, hevā-dār, bīmār, reftār, gül-zār. Ersoy counts this ghazal among his examples of kafiye-i müreddefe (rhyme with a long vowel before the rhyme letter). The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 86b) and Vienna (VY 70a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain, as in the ghazal on the refrain "-ı toyīm" two ghazals earlier (fg 103), states the lover's belonging to the beloved; this time the speaker is a single person, and there is "I" in place of "we". In every couplet the lover is something else of the beloved's: his wounded one, his captive, his servant and helper, his devotee, his patient, his longing one and his nightingale. Since the rhyme words carry these epithets, the ghazal turns into a kind of list of the lover's states.

The opening couplet sets the glance and the curls against each other. The arrow of the glance has wounded the heart, the chain of the curls has made the lover captive; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between arrow and wound, chain and captivity. The second couplet is the furthest point of the lover's submission. If the beloved wishes to shed the lover's blood, the lover is ready to help him in this work. The double sense of the word "yār", both beloved and helper, sets up a fine double entendre (tevriye) here: in the shedding of his own blood the lover is the beloved's both friend and helper.

The fourth couplet is built in the language of illness. Not even an image of health remains in the heart; the lover asks the beloved to be kind and kill him, for he is his patient. Asking for death as a kindness is a contrast resting on the idea that in love even pain and death are counted precious when they come from the beloved. There is also an opposition between "‘āfiyet" (health) and "bīmār" (sick).

In the fifth couplet the flood of tears and the beloved's swaying gait stand side by side. Since in divan poetry the beloved's stature is likened to a cypress rising by the water, a link resting on this image may be felt between the flood of tears and the swaying stature. The words "revān" (flowing) and "reftār" (gait) also meet around movement. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes with the motif of the rose and the nightingale. The lover is the nightingale of the beloved's rose garden, but he has fallen apart from the rose and been left among the thorns of affliction. The contrast between rose and thorn expresses the opposition of union and separation.

Bibliography

Online sources