Original Persian Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Lāḥa vechü’r-rūḥ ‘an ke’si’l-müdām
Eyyühe’l-‘uşşāḳ ḳūmū li’l-merām
Sāḳīyā vaḳt-i ṣabūḥ irişdi çün
Ente rūḥī ruḥanā fe’sḳi’l-müdām
Ez-ṣafā-yı la‘l-i rūḥ-efzā-yı to
Mā şeribtü’r-rāḥa illā bi’d-devām
Zāhid-i ḫalvet-nişīne şükr kim
Şöyle pūşīde olupdur sırrı-ı cām
Ḫūn-ı men ber-la‘l-i to z’ān şod ḥelāl
Mā yerā’l-‘uşşāḳ ḥalle lā-cerām
Devr-i güldür zāhidā ‘ayb itmegil
Nūş idersem bāde-i müşkīn-ḫıtām
Cān dehed ber-bāde-i vuṣlat Münīr
Ḳıṣṣa-rā kūtāh kerdem ve’s-selām

In English

1. The face of the spirit has appeared from the cup of wine; O lovers, rise towards your desire. (The couplet is in Arabic and can be read in two ways: the verb "lāḥa", in its dictionary sense, means both to appear, to shine, and to be thirsty; Ersoy understands the first line as "the spirit thirsted for the cup full of wine".)

2. O cupbearer, since the time of the morning wine has come, you are my spirit; pour wine for our spirit. (The first line is in Turkish, the second in Arabic.)

3. Because of the delight of your soul-reviving ruby lip, I drank wine only without pause. (The second line is in Arabic.)

4. Thank God that the secret of the cup has stayed so hidden from the ascetic sitting in seclusion. (The couplet is in Turkish.)

5. For this reason my blood has become lawful to your ruby lip; without doubt this is what lovers see. (The second line is in Arabic and can be read in two ways; Ersoy understands it as "even though lovers, without doubt, do not see it so".)

6. O ascetic, it is the season of the rose; do not reproach me if I drink the wine sealed with musk. (The couplet is in Turkish.)

7. Münîr gives his soul for the wine of union; I have cut the story short, and that is all.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet ghazal (gazel); in the edition it is the hundred and eleventh of the Persian ghazals (fg 111). The edition places it among the Persian ghazals, but the poem is written in three languages. The first couplet is entirely in Arabic. In the second couplet the first line is Turkish and the second Arabic. In the third and fifth couplets the first line is Persian and the second Arabic. The fourth and sixth couplets are Turkish; endings and words such as "olupdur", "itmegil" and "idersem" show this clearly. Ersoy does not give the meaning of these two couplets. The pen-name couplet is Persian and ends with the Arabic "ve's-selām". In classical poetry such poems, in which several languages are used together, are called mülemma; in this ghazal Arabic, Persian and Turkish are used together.

The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains; the rhyme is the sound "-ām": müdām, merām, müdām, devām, cām, lā-cerām, ḫıtām, selām. Ersoy counts this ghazal among his examples of kafiye-i müreddefe (rhyme with a long vowel before the rhyme letter). The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 88a). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a poem of a morning gathering. In the opening couplet the wine cup appears and the lovers are called to rise; in the second couplet the time of "ṣabūḥ", the morning wine, has come. The words cupbearer, wine, cup, morning wine and rose season form a congruence of images (tenasüp) from start to finish. The word "müdām", in its dictionary sense, means wine and occurs twice in the rhyme of the first two couplets; "bi'd-devām" (without pause) in the Arabic line of the third couplet comes from the same root and says that the lover drinks wine continually.

The fourth and sixth couplets voice in Turkish the familiar quarrel between ascetic (zahid) and lover. The ascetic sitting in his seclusion does not know the secret of the cup; the lover is thankful for this. In the sixth couplet the lover asks not to be reproached for drinking wine in the season of the rose. The phrase "bāde-i müşkīn-ḫıtām" (wine sealed with musk) here recalls the words "ḫitāmuhū misk" (its end, or its seal, is musk, al-Mutaffifin 26) used in the Qur'an of the wine of Paradise; this allusion is our own observation. So the wine the ascetic condemns is described in words that recall the wine of Paradise.

In the fifth couplet the lover's blood being lawful to the beloved's lip is a familiar motif of divan poetry, resting on the idea that the beloved's killing of the lover is legitimate; there is also a congruence of colour between the redness of the ruby lip and blood. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) ends the ghazal with a closing formula: "I have cut the story short, and that is all." The phrase is a formula used to close letters and conversations, and it also carries the ghazal's last rhyme.

Bibliography

Online sources