Original Persian Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Der-hicr-i ḫaṭet geşt zi-dūd-ı dil-i çākem
Īn çetr-i kebūdī ki buved ber-ser-i ḫākem
Cüz ġamze-i dil-dūz-ı to feryād-resem nīst
Gerçi be-ḥaḳīḳat buved ān tīġ helākem
Ger ber-ser-i ḳabrem ne-buved şem‘ çi başed
Her dem keşed āteş ser ez-īn sīne-i çākem
Ez-devlet-i ālūdegī-i dīde-i pür-nem
Be’nger be-ġam-ı ‘ışḳ-ı merā ez-heme pākem
Der-ḥasret-i ān çeşm-i mükeḥḥal ki şodem ḫāk
Şod rūşenī-i çeşm-i cihān ẕerre-i ḫākem
Reftem zi-ḫod ez-nāvek ü ḫūn şod dil-i mecrūḥ
Z’ān rū ne-şod ez-ġamze-i dil-dūz-ı to bākem
Der-sūz u revān ḫāk şoden hemçü Münīrī
Ber-āteş-i ‘ışḳ-ı to hemān ḫurde-i tākem

In English

1. In separation from your down, this blue dome (the sky) above my dust came into being from the smoke of my torn heart. (Ersoy understands it as "the sky filled with the smoke of my wounded heart"; "ḫaṭ" in divan poetry is the fine down newly grown on the beloved's cheek.)

2. Though in truth that sword is my death, there is none to answer my cry but your heart-piercing glance.

3. What matter if there is no candle at the head of my grave; every moment fire raises its head and rises from this torn breast of mine.

4. Thanks to the soiling of my eye full of tears, look: through the grief of your love I am purer than all. (The eye is clouded with bloody tears; Ersoy too explains this clouding by blood.)

5. In longing for that kohl-lined eye I became dust; a mote of my dust became the light of the world's eye.

6. Because of the arrow I passed out of myself, and the wounded heart turned to blood; for that reason I no longer fear your heart-piercing glance.

7. In burning and turning straight to dust, like Münîrî I am a chip of vine twig on the fire of your love. ("Tāk", in its dictionary sense, means grapevine; Ersoy understands it as "I have become a vine branch".)

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 tenth of the Persian ghazals (fg 110). The metre is "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". In Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with the refrain (redif) "-em"; the rhyme is the sound "-āk": çāk, ḫāk, helāk, pāk, bāk, tāk. The rhyme word "ḫākem" (my dust) is used twice, in the first and fifth couplets. 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 88a) and Vienna (VY 157b) manuscripts. According to Ersoy's apparatus, in the Vienna manuscript the first couplet has a different form, its second line being the same as the second line of the third couplet in this text; the second couplet is missing from the Vienna manuscript. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is an example of poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). The blue colour of the sky is a natural fact; the poet instead explains this dome as smoke rising from the lover's burning heart. The idea of the sky above the grave also suggests that the lover is counted as dead and turned to dust; the rest of the poem carries on this thought of death and of becoming dust.

The second and sixth couplets are bound together by the beloved's "dil-dūz" glance. In its dictionary sense the word means heart-stitching, piercing the heart. In the second couplet this glance is both the lover's only helper and the sword that will kill him; that help and death come from the same source is a contrast. In the sixth couplet the lover has passed out of himself from the arrow and his heart has turned to blood; since he has nothing left to lose, he does not fear that glance.

The third couplet rests on the custom of lighting a candle at a grave. There is no need for a candle at the lover's grave, for fire rises without pause from his torn breast. In the fourth couplet there is a clear contrast between "ālūdegī" (soiling, clouding) and "pāk" (pure): the eye soiled with bloody tears bears witness to the purity of love. The fifth couplet joins kohl and dust. Kohl is a fine powder drawn on the eye; so the dust of the lover, who became dust in longing for the kohl-lined eye, becomes kohl for the world's eye and gives it light. This connection is our own inference.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the lover is likened to a small vine twig on the fire of the beloved's love. A dry twig's quickly burning and turning to ash on the fire accords with the phrase at the start of the couplet, "burning and turning straight to dust"; this reading is our own inference. The poet names himself "like Münîrî", and so sets a distance between the lover and the poet, between the speaker and the one named.

Bibliography

Online sources