Original Persian Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Ān dem ki cür‘a-i mey-i ‘ışḳet çeşīdeīm
Dīger ḫalāṣ-ı mestī-i ān mey ne-dīdeīm
Mest-i ḫarāb-ı sāḳī-i bezm-i ezel şodīm
Ez-fikr-i neng ü ġuṣṣa-i ġayret rehīdeīm
Dil bā-ḫayāl-i vaṣl-ı to ülfet girift tā
Z’ān dem ta‘alluḳ-ı heme ‘ālem borīdeīm
Ez-pertev-i cemāl-i to yek ẕerre’ī ne-būd
Bā-īn ṣıfat ki ṣūret-i Yūsuf şenīdeīm
Terk-i vücūd-ı her dü cihān kerdeīm mā
Faḳr u fenā vü derd-i ġamet-rā gozīdeīm
Īn tengnā-yı ‘ālem-i süflī ne cāy-ı māst
Bī-bāl ü per be-‘ālem-i ‘ulvī perīdeīm
Ez-behr-i pāy-būs-ı seg-i kūy-ı vey Münīr
Ḫūnīn-ciger çü eşk be-her sū devīdeīm

In English

1. From the moment we tasted a sip of the wine of your love, we have never again seen release from the drunkenness of that wine.

2. We became drunk and ruined from the hand of the cupbearer of the feast of pre-eternity; we were freed from the thought of shame and from the worry of jealousy. ("Ġayret", in its dictionary sense, means both jealousy and concern for honour; Ersoy understands the second line as "we were freed from care for anyone other than you".)

3. Since the heart made friends with the dream of union with you, from that moment we have cut our ties with the whole world.

4. Of the radiance of your beauty there was not a single mote in him; and yet it was with such praise, as a beauty famed everywhere, that we had heard of Joseph's face. (The couplet can be read in two ways: in our reading Joseph's famous beauty is not even a mote of the beloved's light; Ersoy understands it as "since not a mote remained before the radiance of your beauty, we heard in this sense that you are Joseph-faced".)

5. We have abandoned the existence of both worlds; we have chosen poverty, annihilation and the pain of grief for you.

6. The narrowness of this lower world is not our place; without wings or pinions we have flown to the higher world.

7. O Münîr, to kiss the foot of the dog of his street, we have run in every direction like a tear, our liver steeped in blood.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; in the edition it is the hundred and sixth of the Persian ghazals (fg 106). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". In Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with the refrain (redif) "-īm"; in Persian this ending marks the first person plural ("we have ...") and at the end of the couplets it joins "-īde" to form the sound "-īdeīm": çeşīdeīm, ne-dīdeīm, rehīdeīm, borīdeīm, şenīdeīm, gozīdeīm, perīdeīm, devīdeīm. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 87a) and Vienna (VY 70a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal speaks throughout in the voice of "we" and is built on the idea that love is a wine to be drunk. In the first two couplets there is a clear congruence of images (tenasüp) between cür‘a (sip), mey (wine), drunkenness, cupbearer and feast. The "bezm-i ezel" of the second couplet, the feast of pre-eternity, is a well-known motif of divan poetry recalling the gathering at which souls gave their pledge to God at creation; it is a way of saying that the lover's drunkenness began before he came into the world. The words "we have never seen release" in the first couplet are therefore less a complaint than a boast; this reading is our own inference.

The third and fifth couplets speak the language of renunciation. When the heart befriends the dream of union, it cuts its ties with the whole world; then the existence of both worlds is abandoned at once, and in its place "faḳr u fenā", poverty and annihilation, is chosen. In the language of Sufism these two words, in their well-known senses, describe passing away from the self and from the world. In the sixth couplet the contrast between the "süflî" (lower) and "ulvî" (higher) world is reinforced by the opposition between the "tengnā", the narrowness, of the world and the breadth of heaven. Flying without wings is a paradox and implies that the flight is made by the spirit, not the body.

The fourth couplet alludes to the prophet Joseph (Yusuf). Joseph's face, the measure of beauty in divan poetry, is not even a mote beside the light of the beloved's beauty; there is also a congruence of images between "pertev" (radiance) and "ẕerre" (the mote of dust seen in a sunbeam). Ersoy's rendering connects the couplet differently; in the In English section we have shown both readings.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) displays love at its humblest. The lover runs to kiss the foot of the dog in the beloved's street; in divan poetry the dog of the beloved's street is a creature the lover envies because it is near the beloved's door. An implicit link is made between "ḫūnīn-ciger" (with bleeding liver) and bloody tears: as the tear runs down the cheek and away, so the lover runs in every direction. "Devīden", in its dictionary sense, means to run, and it also calls to mind the flowing of a tear.

Bibliography

Online sources