Original Persian Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Rūşenest ān ki ruḫet nūr-ı dil ü dīde-i māst
Laḳab-ı mihr-i cemāl-i to ez-ān bedr-i dücāst
Dil sūy-ı ḳadd-i bülend-i to ez-īn rūy reved
Hīc güm-reh ne-şeved kes be-cihān ez-reh-i rāst
Rūy-ı ‘āşıḳet ez-ān cānib-i kūy-ı to buved
Ḫam-ı ebrūy-ı to ‘uşşāḳ-ı to-rā ḳıble-nümāst
Dīde der-her naẓareş rūy-ı to-rā mī-bīned
Pertev-i mihr-i cemāl-i to meger nūr-ı Ḫudāst
Būse mī-ḫᵛāst Münīr ez-to cevābeş ne-resīd
Dil be-mā goft sükūtī ki buved ‘ayn-ı rıżāst

In English

1. It is plain that your cheek is the light of our heart and eyes; that is why the sun of your beauty has been given the epithet "full moon of the darknesses". ("Bedr-i dücā", in its dictionary sense, is the full moon that lights up the darknesses.)

2. For this reason the heart goes toward your tall stature; no one in the world who walks the straight road ever loses his way. ("Rāst" means both "right, true" and "straight"; since the beloved's stature is as straight as a cypress, the road to it is "the straight road". The word "rūy" in "ez-īn rūy", "for this reason", in its dictionary sense also means "face".)

3. The faces of your lovers are always turned toward your quarter, because the arch of your eyebrow shows your lovers the qibla. ("Ḳıble-nümā" means "that which shows the qibla", a compass. In divan poetry the arched eyebrow is likened to the mihrab (prayer niche); lovers turn toward the beloved's eyebrow as worshippers turn toward the qibla in prayer.)

4. The eye sees your face at every glance; the light of the sun of your beauty must, it turns out, be the light of God. (Ersoy reads the couplet as a causal clause: because the light of your beauty is the light of God, the eye sees your face at every glance. "Meger", in its dictionary sense, is also used in the sense of "or perhaps, so it seems"; the couplet can also be read as "or is it the light of God?")

5. Münîr asked you for a kiss, and no answer came; the heart said to us, "Silence is consent itself." ("‘Ayn-ı rıżā", in its dictionary sense, is "the very essence of consent". The heart interprets the beloved's failure to answer as consent.)

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 twelfth of the Persian ghazals (fg 12). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". In Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is shown among those with the refrain (redif) "est"; at the line ends this suffix attaches to the rhyme in the form "-st". The rhyme is the sound "-ā": māst, dücāst, rāst, nümāst, Ḫudāst, rıżāst. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 64a) and Vienna (VY 50a) manuscripts. Ersoy counts this ghazal among the seventeen Persian ghazals that are nazire (response poems) to Hâfız of Shiraz, and as its counterpart he points to page 48 of the Istanbul 1290 printing of Hâfız's Divan. Which of Hâfız's ghazals is meant is not stated by name in Ersoy and could not be determined with certainty here. The TDV article also records that seventeen Persian ghazals are nazire to Hâfız. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The main theme of the ghazal is the light of the beloved's face and the lovers' turning toward it. In the first couplet the cheek is counted as the light of heart and eye; the giving of the epithet "full moon" to the sun of beauty creates a congruence of images (tenasüp) that brings the sun and the moon together in one couplet. In the second couplet the word "rāst" works with both its meanings, "right" and "straight". The heart's turning toward the beloved's tall and straight stature is justified by the general maxim that one who walks the right road will not get lost; in this respect the line comes close to a proverbial saying (irsal-i mesel). The word "rūy" in "ez-īn rūy", "for this reason", in the same couplet, is used in the third couplet in its proper sense of "face"; the appearance of one word with two different meanings in two couplets suits Münîrî's fondness for wordplay.

The third and fourth couplets carry religious terms into the language of love. The eyebrow is a compass that shows the qibla, and the lovers' faces are always turned toward the beloved's quarter. In the fourth couplet the eye's seeing the beloved's face at every glance is explained by the light of his beauty being divine light. Ersoy understands the couplet as a causal clause; since the word "meger" can express a question or surprise, the couplet can also be read as feigned ignorance (tecâhül-i ârif). In either reading, a beauty seen everywhere is described in a manner that recalls the Sufi idea of divine manifestation (tecelli).

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes with a witticism. The lover asks for a kiss and the beloved does not answer; the heart interprets this silence as consent. The counting of silence as assent rests on a saying known to everyone, and the couplet contains the figure of the proverbial saying (irsal-i mesel). The wit lies in the lover's turning a refusal to his own advantage.

Bibliography

Online sources