Original Persian Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Āteş-i şevḳ-ı cemālet-rā ki sīne meskenest
‘Aks-i tāb-ı vādī-i Eymen derīncā rūşenest
Rāz-ı pinhānem ki şod rūşen zi-berḳ-ı āh-ı men
Hestī-i āteş belī peydā zi-dūd-ı revzenest
Yār-ı gendüm-gūn-ı men her cā ki zed ḫırmen zi-gül
Deste-i reyḥān u sünbül ḫūşe-çīn-i ḫırmenest
To be-kār-ı ḫīşten bāş ey ecel mā-rā besest
Çeşm-i ḫūn-rīzeş ki her dem der-pey-i cān-ı menest
Ḫüsrevā ger kūh-kenden būd ber-Ferhād kār
Kārem ez-behr-i leb-i şīrīn-i to cān kendenest

In English

1. My heart is the dwelling of the fire of longing for your beauty; the reflection of the light that shone in the valley of Ayman is plainly visible here. (There is an allusion to the story of Moses, who saw a fire in the valley of Ayman and was addressed by the divine voice. The fire of love in the lover's heart shines like a reflection of the fire in that valley.)

2. My hidden secret has come to light through the lightning of my sigh; yes, the existence of a fire is revealed by the smoke from the opening. ("Revzen", in its dictionary sense, is a window, an opening for light or smoke; Ersoy renders it as "chimney". The lover's sigh is the smoke that betrays the fire within.)

3. Wherever my wheat-coloured beloved heaps up a harvest of roses, the bunches of basil and hyacinth become gleaners of that harvest. ("Ḫūşe-çīn" is one who gathers the ears of grain left on the ground after the harvest. The rose-like beauty of the beloved is likened to a harvest heap, and basil and hyacinth to the poor who gather what is left over from it.)

4. O death, mind your own business; his blood-shedding eye, which every moment pursues my life, is enough for us. (Since the beloved's eye is enough to kill the lover, there is no further need for death.)

5. O Hüsrev, if Ferhad's task was digging mountains, my task is giving up my life for your sweet lip. ("Kūh-kenden" is "digging mountains", and "cān kenden", in its dictionary sense, is "to be in the throes of death, to give up one's life"; the verb "kenden" in the two expressions creates a pun (cinas). "Ḫüsrev" is both "king" and Hüsrev of the story of Şîrîn, and "şīrīn" is both "sweet" and the name of Şîrîn. Ersoy renders it as "O king")

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 eleventh of the Persian ghazals (fg 11). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the suffix "est"; in Ersoy's list of refrains this ghazal is shown among those with the refrain "est". The rhyme is the sound "-en": mesken, rūşen, revzen, ḫırmen, men, kenden. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 63b) and Vienna (VY 47b) manuscripts. No pen name (mahlas) is used in the ghazal. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets of the ghazal are built on fire and light. In the first couplet the lover's breast becomes the dwelling of the fire of longing for the beloved's beauty, and this fire is compared with the fire Moses saw in the valley of Ayman. Although the allusion (telmih) is voiced in the language of human love, it carries the memory of a divine manifestation. The second couplet describes how the same fire is perceived from outside: even if the fire itself is not seen, it is revealed by the smoke rising from a chimney or window, and the lover's secret has likewise been understood from the lightning of his sigh. Because this second line rests on an observation everyone knows, it has the character of a proverbial saying (irsal-i mesel).

The third couplet sets up the most striking congruence of images (tenasüp) in the ghazal. Beginning with "gendüm-gūn", "wheat-coloured", the couplet draws a scene from the fields with the words harvest heap, bunch and gleaner. The beloved heaps up a harvest of roses; basil and hyacinth, beside this harvest, are worth no more than the poor who gather the ears left on the ground. In this way the beauty of the flowers is diminished before the beauty of the beloved, and the image of the garden merges with that of the field.

In the fourth couplet the lover addresses death itself and calls on it to mind its own business, because the beloved's blood-shedding eye is already doing that work. Thinking of death as a person and addressing it is a turn of speech in which personification (teşhis) and apostrophe (nida) are used together. The description of the beloved's eye as blood-shedding also rests on the conventional image of the killing glance. The words fire, light, lightning and smoke, for their part, form a field of congruent images in the first two couplets. The last couplet is an allusion based on the story of Hüsrev and Şîrîn. The address "Ḫüsrevā" points both to a king and to Hüsrev of the story, and "leb-i şīrīn" both to a sweet lip and to Şîrîn. Ferhad dug mountains, while the lover is digging out his life; the pun (cinas) between "kūh-kenden" and "cān kenden" shows Münîrî's fondness for wordplay.

Bibliography

Online sources