Original Persian Text

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

Rūy-ı zerd-i ḫod ki ber-kūy-ı to her cā sūdeem
La‘l geşte seng-rā ez-eşk zer-endūdeem
Ez-men-i dil-ḫaste bāḳī mānd muşt-ı üstüḫᵛān
Dūş der-mestī seg-i kūy-ı to-rā baḫşūdeem
Nīm-şeb der-kūy-ı to goftend yek ‘āşıḳ be-mord
Goftem ān şaḫṣ-ı behiştī kāşkī men būdeem
Behr-i ṭavf-ı Ka‘be-i kūy-ı to mānend-i sirişk
Tā be-ser-ḥadd-i siyāhī bādiye peymūdeem
Der-sipihr-i ḥüsn ger şod māh-ı ruḫsār-ı to bedr
Der-kemāl-i ‘āşıḳī men nīz bes efzūdeem
Şod be-devr-i la‘l-i rūḥ-efzā-yı ‘Īsī-meşrebet
Rehn-i pīr-i mey-gede delḳ-i şarāb-ālūdeem
Der-naẓar-bāzī-i mihr-i māh-rūyān ey Münīr
Fāriġ u āzādem ez-nāmūs u neng āsūdeem

In English

1. Everywhere in your street I have rubbed my yellowed face; I have gilded with gold the stone turned to ruby by my tears. (Bloody tears dye the stone red, and the yellow face colours it gold; Ersoy understands the couplet in this way too.)

2. Of me, weary at heart, a handful of bones was left; last night, drunk, I gave that too to the dog of your street.

3. At midnight they said a lover had died in your street; I said, "Would that I had been that soul bound for Paradise."

4. To circle the Kaaba of your street, like a tear I have crossed deserts to the very edge of blackness. ("Siyāhī", in its dictionary sense, means blackness, darkness; Ersoy understands it as "to the edge of darkness".)

5. If the moon of your cheek has grown full in the sky of beauty, I too have grown greatly in the perfection of loverhood.

6. In the reign of your soul-reviving ruby lip of Jesus-like nature, my wine-stained cloak became a pledge with the elder of the tavern. (Ersoy says "I left it in pledge with the cupbearer"; the text has "pīr-i mey-gede", the elder of the tavern.)

7. O Münîr, in the skill of gazing on the sunlike faces of the moon-faced, I have been freed and released from honour and shame, and am at ease.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; in the edition it is the hundred and twenty-first of the Persian ghazals (fg 121). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". In Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with the refrain (redif) "-īm"; the suffix at the end of the couplets, however, is "-em" (I have done): sūdeem, zer-endūdeem, baḫşūdeem, būdeem, peymūdeem, efzūdeem, ālūdeem, āsūdeem. That the form in the list may be a typesetting slip is our own observation. The rhyme is the sound "-ūde". The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 90b) and Vienna (VY 72a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is a picture made of colours. The lover rubs his yellowed face on the stones of the beloved's street; the stones have turned ruby-coloured with his bloody tears, and now take on a gilding of gold from the yellow face. Red and yellow, ruby and gold, stand side by side; the lover's suffering becomes a treasure that adorns the street.

The second and third couplets show the lover's death in two separate scenes. In the second a handful of bones is left of the lover, and that too is given to the dog in the beloved's street; the same image occurs in the opening couplet of fg 128, a little further on in the edition. In the third couplet news comes at midnight that a lover has died in the street, and the speaker wishes that the dead man had been himself. "Behiştī", in its dictionary sense, means belonging to Paradise, bound for Paradise; dying in the beloved's street is thought of as going to Paradise.

The fourth couplet uses the image of pilgrimage. The beloved's street is the Kaaba, and the lover crosses deserts like pilgrims to circle it. The comparison "mānend-i sirişk" (like a tear) ties the journey to the flow of a tear. The phrase "ser-ḥadd-i siyāhī" (the edge of blackness) can be thought of in two ways: the edge of the night's darkness, or the black of the eye from which the tear comes. It may also call to mind the black covering of the Kaaba; these readings are our own inference.

In the fifth couplet the word "kemāl", in its dictionary sense, means perfection; for the moon it also describes reaching fullness. As the beloved's cheek becomes a full moon, the lover too reaches perfection in loverhood; moon and lover grow together. "Sipihr" (sky), "māh" (moon) and "bedr" (full moon) form a congruence of images (tenasüp). The sixth couplet alludes to Jesus: since Jesus is believed to have raised the dead, the beloved's lip is "‘Īsī-meşreb", Jesus-natured and life-giving. In the reign of this lip the lover has left his wine-stained cloak in pledge with the elder of the tavern; pledging the cloak for wine is a well-known sign in divan poetry of giving up asceticism. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) sun and moon stand side by side, and the lover says that in gazing on beauties he has been freed from concern for honour and shame.

Bibliography

Online sources