Original Persian Text

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

Her nefes k’ez ṭal‘at-ı mihr-i ruḫeş dem mī-zenem
Der-heme ‘ālem çü ṣubḥ-ı ṣādıḳī dil-rūşenem
Ser be-dest-i ḫod girifte ber-ser-i bāzār-ı ‘ışḳ
Ān ki mī-bāşed ḫarīdār-ı ġam-ı ‘ışḳet menem
Ger ne-dārī ḳaṣd-ı ser-bu’brīden-i bī-çāreet
Hem çü zülfeyn-i to ez-ġam ser be-zānū efkenem
Ārzū-yı gül-şen-i bāġ-ı İrem ne’bved merā
Sā‘atī ger ber-ser-i kūy-ı to başed meskenem
Ḫūn-ı bende ger hemī ḫᵛāhed ki rīzed gū Münīr
Tīġ-i ser-tīzet be-keş minnet be-neh ber-gerdenem

In English

1. Every breath with which I speak of the rising of the sun of his cheek, my heart grows bright across the whole world like the true dawn. ("Ṣubḥ-ı ṣādıḳ", in its dictionary sense, means the true dawn, that is, the real light of morning when the horizon whitens.)

2. At the head of the market of love, holding my head in my own hand, the one who buys the grief of your love is I. ("Ser be-dest", in its dictionary sense, means head in hand, that is, risking one's life.)

3. If you have no intention of cutting off the head of this helpless one, then, like your two curls, I too will bow my head upon my knee from grief.

4. If for a single hour my dwelling could be at the head of your street, I would not long for the rose garden of the garden of Iram.

5. O Münîr, if he wishes to shed the blood of his slave, tell him: "Draw your keen-edged sword and lay the favour upon my neck." (Ersoy understands the line as "draw your sharp sword and strike my neck; I shall be grateful for it".)

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 fifteenth of the Persian ghazals (fg 115). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains; the couplet endings are words ending in the first person singular suffix (-em) and meeting in the sound "-enem": mī-zenem, dil-rūşenem, menem, efkenem, meskenem, gerdenem. 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 opening couplet begins with the image of the sun and the dawn. The beloved's cheek is a sun; as the lover speaks of its rising, his heart grows bright like the true dawn. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "ṭal‘at" (rising, face), "mihr" (sun), "ṣubḥ" (morning) and "rūşen" (bright). The word "dem" in the idiom "dem zeden" (to speak of) also means breath in its dictionary sense; a link may be felt between the lover's breath and the whitening of the dawn, thought of as the morning drawing breath. This reading is our own inference.

From the second couplet to the end of the ghazal the word "ser" (head) occurs in every couplet: in the second "ser be-dest" (head in hand) and "ber-ser-i bāzār" (at the head of the market), in the third "ser bu'brīden" (to cut off the head) and "ser be-zānū efkenden" (to bow the head to the knee), in the fourth "ber-ser-i kūy" (at the head of the street), in the fifth "tīġ-i ser-tīz" (the keen-tipped sword). The word sometimes means a human head literally, sometimes the head of a place, sometimes the tip of a thing; this repetition is our own observation.

The second couplet shows love as a market. The lover stands at the head of this market, his head in his palm, as the buyer of the grief on sale; market, buyer and purchase form a congruence of images. In the third couplet the lover says that if the beloved does not cut off his head, he will bow it to his knee. Laying the head on the knee is the familiar posture of sorrowful thought; the beloved's hanging curls are likened to this bowed head. In the fourth couplet the legendary garden of Iram loses its worth beside an hour's stay in the beloved's street.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the phrase "minnet be-neh ber-gerdenem" (lay the favour upon my neck) can be understood in two directions. In Persian, laying a kindness on someone's neck as a debt means leaving him under obligation; at the same time, the neck is where the sword will fall. So the sword's falling on the neck becomes for the lover a kindness, a cause for gratitude. This double sense is our own observation; Ersoy too understands the line in the direction of gratitude for death.

Bibliography

Online sources