Original Persian Text

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

Dil ki ber-piste-dehān-ı to koned cān teslīm
Gerded ez-her süḫaneş rūḥ-ı men-i ḫaste dü-nīm
Ġam-ı ‘ışḳ-ı to ki dil ḫāne-ḫarābest ez-ū
Sālhā şod ki der-īn sīne muḳīmest muḳīm
Cān-ı men ger be-viṣāl-i leb-i to ma‘hūdest
To me-pindār ki ez-dil reved ān ‘ahd-i ḳadīm
Ġāfil ey dil me-şev ez-eşk-i men ü ez-ruḫ-ı zerd
Kes ne-dīde’st ki rāyic ne-buved yek zer ü sīm
Zīr-i zülfeş be-niger Hindūy-ı ān ḫāl Münīr
Hīc bīrūn ne-nehed pāy-ı ḫod ez-ḥadd Kelīm

In English

1. The heart surrenders its soul to your pistachio mouth; at every word of that mouth the spirit of sick me is split in two. (Ersoy understands "dü-nīm" as "bent double"; in its dictionary sense the word means split in two.)

2. The grief of your love, which has ruined the house of the heart, has for years been settled in this breast, settled to stay.

3. If my soul is pledged, vowed, in return for union with your lip, do not think that ancient covenant will ever leave the heart.

4. O heart, do not be heedless of my tears and my yellowed face; no one has ever seen gold and silver fail to pass as currency.

5. O Münîr, look at that Hindu mole beneath his curls; Kelim (Moses) too never sets his foot beyond the bound. (Ersoy understands the couplet as a comparison: "like Moses, who did not go a single step beyond the bound God had set".)

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 twentieth of the Persian ghazals (fg 120). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains; the rhyme is the sound "-īm": teslīm, dü-nīm, muḳīm, ḳadīm, sīm, Kelīm. 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 90b). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved's mouth is likened to a pistachio. In divan poetry the mouth resembles a pistachio for its smallness and closed shape. A link may be felt between the pistachio shell splitting in two when it opens and the lover's spirit being "dü-nīm", split in two; this is our own inference. Every word of the mouth splits the lover's spirit: even the beloved's speech is a wound for the lover.

In the second couplet grief is a guest who settles in the house of the heart and ruins it. "Ḫāne-ḫarāb", in its dictionary sense, means with a ruined house, wretched. The repetition "muḳīmest muḳīm" (it is settled, settled) at the end of the line stresses the permanence of grief. House, settling and ruin form a congruence of images (tenasüp). In the third couplet the lover's soul is vowed to the beloved's lip, and this vow is called "‘ahd-i ḳadīm", an ancient covenant. The idea that love rests on a pledge given in pre-eternity is widespread in divan poetry; whether the couplet calls up this idea is not certain.

The fourth couplet joins a simile with a general maxim that has the air of a proverb. The lover's yellowed face resembles gold, his tears silver; the lover tells his heart not to be heedless of them, for gold and silver pass as currency everywhere. There is also a closeness of sound between "zerd" (yellow) in the first line and "zer" (gold) in the second; this is our own observation. Stating the second line as a general truth comes close to the figure of irsal-i mesel (use of a proverb-like saying). The comparison implies that the lover's suffering has a value in the beloved's eyes.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) attention is drawn to the mole lying beneath the beloved's curls. The mole is called "Hindu" for its blackness; this is the well-known comparison for a dark mole in divan poetry. The second line alludes to Moses: "Kelîm", in its dictionary sense, means one who speaks, and it is the epithet of Moses because he spoke with God. Ersoy understands the couplet to mean that, as Moses did not overstep the bound set for him, so the mole does not leave its place beneath the curls. The couplet does not say plainly which story the allusion rests on.

Bibliography

Online sources