Original Persian Text

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

Her nefes k’ez ḥālet-i hicrān-ı to yād āverem
Ez-derūn-ı dil çü ney ṣad gūne feryād āverem
Ger be-tīġ-i cevr mā-rā mī-küşed her dem ġamet
Ān niyem k’ez dest-i to feryād-ı bī-dād āverem
Ez-viṣāl-i dil-küşāyet mī-konem taḳrīr bāz
Ger hemī ḫᵛāhem ki dil-rā ez-ġam āzād āverem
Merdüm-i çeşmem ki şod maḥbūs-ı çāh-ı īn ẕeḳan
Çün konem her dem be-ū ez-ḫūn-ı dil zād āverem
Ṭıfl-ı dil-rā ber-ser-i gül-zār-ı kūy-ı ū Münīr
Ber-temāşā-yı ḳad-i bālā-yı şimşād āverem

In English

1. Every breath with which I call to mind my state in separation from you, I raise from within my heart a hundred kinds of cries, like the reed flute.

2. Even if your grief kills us every moment with the sword of cruelty, I am not one to cry out "injustice" at your hand.

3. If I wish to set the heart free from grief, I tell over again your heart-opening union. ("Taḳrīr", in its dictionary sense, means to relate, to put into words.)

4. To the pupil of my eye, imprisoned in this well of the chin, I bring provisions of the heart's blood every moment.

5. O Münîr, I bring the child of the heart to the edge of the rose garden of his street, to gaze on his tall stature like a box tree.

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 fourteenth of the Persian ghazals (fg 114). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the word "āverem" (I bring); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-ād": yād, feryād, bī-dād, āzād, zād, şimşād. 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 89a) and Vienna (VY 71a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain "āverem" comes from the Persian verb "to bring", but in the ghazal it becomes part of a different idiom each time. "Yād āverden" means to remember, "feryād āverden" to cry out, "āzād āverden" to set free; in the fourth and fifth couplets, however, the verb has its literal sense of bringing something somewhere. The use of the same refrain both within idioms and in its literal sense gives the ghazal variety; this observation is our own.

In the opening couplet the lover is likened to the reed flute (ney). The ney is a hollow reed, and its moaning sound is a well-known image in divan poetry for the pain of separation; the phrase "derūn-ı dil" (the inside of the heart) matches the sound that comes from inside the reed. The second couplet expresses patience and submission. Even if grief kills the lover every moment with the sword of cruelty, he does not complain of the beloved; the word "feryād" describes the moan raised in the first couplet and, in the second, the complaint that is not made. So the same word is used in opposite senses in two couplets.

The fourth couplet builds the ghazal's most detailed image. In divan poetry the dimple of the beloved's chin is likened to a well, and this well often calls to mind the well into which Joseph (Yusuf) was thrown. The pupil of the lover's eye has fallen into this well and is held captive there; the lover carries it provisions of the heart's blood. The word "merdüm", in its dictionary sense, means both person and pupil of the eye; so "merdüm-i çeşm" can be thought of as a person imprisoned in a well. The heart's blood as provisions points to the eye shedding bloody tears; this reading is our own inference.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the heart is likened to a child. As a child is taken on an outing, it is brought to the rose garden in the beloved's street, and there it gazes on the beloved's tall stature. The beloved's stature is likened to a box tree; rose garden, box tree and gazing come together in a garden scene.

Bibliography

Online sources