Original Persian Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Kocāyī yā Rab ey yār-ı dil-ārām
Ki bī-rūyet ne-mī-gīred dil ārām
Der-āġāz-ı ġam-ı ‘ışḳet çonānem
Ne-mī-dānem ki çün bāşed ser-encām
Kesī k’ez neng ü gayret mī-zened dem
Miyān-ı ‘āşıḳān mī-būd bed-nām
Be-devr-i cām-ı la‘l-i cān-fezāyet
Şodem pīr-i ḫarābāt-ı mey-āşām
Münīr er ṭālib-i vaṣlī der-īn rāh
Mey-āsā yek nefes yek dem me-y-ārām

In English

1. O Lord, where are you, O beloved who gives rest to the heart; without your face the heart finds no rest.

2. I am in this state at the very beginning of the grief of your love; I do not know what the end will be.

3. Whoever speaks of shame and honour and zeal has a bad name among lovers.

4. In the round of the cup of your soul-reviving ruby lip, I have become the wine-drinking elder of the tavern. ("Devr", in its dictionary sense, means both an age, a period, and the circulation of the cup in a gathering.)

5. O Münîr, if you seek union on this path, like wine do not rest for a moment, not for a single breath.

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 eighteenth of the Persian ghazals (fg 118). The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains; the rhyme is the sound "-ām": dil-ārām, ārām, ser-encām, bed-nām, mey-āşām, me-y-ārām. 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 90a) and Vienna (VY 71b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with the question "kocāyī" (where are you) and the cry "yā Rab" (O Lord), in the voice of one searching for a lost beloved. The two lines of the opening couplet end with the same word. "Dil-ārām" in the first line is an epithet of the beloved and in its dictionary sense means one who gives rest to the heart; in the second line it is said "dil ārām ne-mī-gīred" (the heart finds no rest). The same words "dil" and "ārām" come in the two lines first as an epithet, then as a sentence; the epithet used like a name for the beloved turns into a sentence describing the heart's state in his absence. The "me-y-ārām" (do not rest) of the pen-name couplet brings the same word into the rhyme a third time. This usage is our own observation.

The second couplet is built on the contrast between beginning and end. "Āġāz" (beginning) and "ser-encām" (end) face each other: this state at the very start of love hints at how heavy the end will be. The third couplet reverses values in the world of lovers. In ordinary life concern for shame and honour is praised; among lovers, whoever voices this concern earns a bad name. Between "neng" (shame) and "bed-nām" (of bad name) there is a contrast resting on this reversed order.

In the fourth couplet the word "devr" is used in both its senses. The beloved's lip is a cup, and the "devr" of this cup means both the time of its reign and its circulation in the gathering. In this round the lover has become the elder of the tavern, that is, the most senior of the wine drinkers. Cup, ruby, wine and tavern form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the poet is advised to keep moving without pause, like wine. In divan poetry wine is thought of as something that boils and ferments in the jar; the couplet's "like wine, do not rest for a moment" seems to rest on this idea. This reading is our own inference. There is also a likeness of sound between "mey-āsā" (like wine) and "me-y-ārām" (do not rest).

Bibliography

Online sources