Original Persian Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün (the edition also gives müstef‘ilün fe‘ūlün müstef‘ilün fe‘ūlün)

Be’nger be-rūy-ı zerdem bā-eşk-i lāle-gūnem
Gülhā-yı ter şikofte ez-āteş-i derūnem
Zāhid be-ḫiffet-i ‘aḳl ṭa‘ne me-zen be-men hīc
Dīvāne’ī meger to men ḫod çonīn cünūnem
Tā der-ḫayāl-i la‘leş ġāyib şodī to ez-men
Ey dil ne-dānem aṣlā men der-kocā vü çūnem
Bī-ḫāl-i la‘l-i nābet der-fürḳat-i ruḫ-ı to
Geh der-miyān-ı āteş geh der-miyān-ı ḫūnem
Ez-dest-i dil Münīrī mā-rā me-kon şikāyet
Men ḫod zi-dest-i ān dil bedter zi-to zebūnem

In English

1. Look at my yellowed face with my tulip-coloured tears: fresh roses have bloomed from the fire within me.

2. O ascetic, do not reproach me at all for the lightness of my mind. Or is it perhaps you who are mad? I myself am madness itself. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the question implies that the ascetic himself is mad; Ersoy understands the second line as "beside my madness in love it is you who are truly mad".)

3. O heart, since you vanished from me into the dream of his ruby lip, I do not know at all where or how I am.

4. Without the mole of your lip, pure as ruby, in separation from your cheek, I am now in the midst of fire, now in the midst of blood.

5. O Münîrî, do not complain to us about the heart; because of that heart I myself am worse off, more helpless than you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; in the edition it is the hundred and eighth of the Persian ghazals (fg 108). The edition gives the metre as "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtün mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtün" and also shows the pattern "müstef‘ilün fe‘ûlün müstef‘ilün fe‘ûlün"; the two sequences name the same syllable pattern in two different ways. In Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with the refrain (redif) "-em" (I am); the rhyme is the sound "-ūn": lāle-gūn, derūn, cünūn, çūn, ḫūn, zebūn. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 87b) and Vienna (VY 69a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with a contrast of colours. The lover's face has turned yellow, while his tears are red as tulips; in divan poetry bloody tears are the best-known sign of love's suffering. The poet likens the red drops falling on the yellow face to fresh roses made to bloom by the fire within. Roses blooming from fire is a paradox and joins burning and blossoming in a single image.

The second couplet takes up the familiar quarrel in divan poetry between the ascetic (zahid) and the lover. The ascetic accuses the lover of foolishness; the lover turns the charge back and presents himself as madness itself. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "ḫiffet-i ‘aḳl" (lightness of mind), "dīvāne" (madman) and "cünūn" (madness). The madness of love is not counted a fault in this poem; it becomes a state the lover is proud of.

In the third couplet the lover addresses his heart. The heart has sunk into the dream of the beloved's lip and is lost; with it the lover too has lost himself and no longer knows where or how he is. The phrase "kocā vü çūn" (where and how) describes passing out of oneself as a loss of place and of state. In the fourth couplet "āteş" (fire) and "ḫūn" (blood) stand side by side: fire answers to the burning of the heart, blood to tears and wounds. The redness of the ruby lip also forms a congruence with this blood; the repetition "geh ... geh" (now ... now) suggests the lover swinging between two states.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) is an inner dialogue. The speaker tells the poet, that is Münîrî, not to complain of his heart, since he himself is even more helpless than him because of the same heart. This mutual address of poet and speaker, of heart and lover, adds a second exchange to the poem after the ascetic scene of the second couplet. The idiom "ez-dest-i", in its dictionary sense, means "at the hands of, because of", and it occurs twice in the couplet.

Bibliography

Online sources