Original Persian Text

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

Ger şeved kūşe-i gül-zār-ı İrem menzil-i men
Cüz hevā-yı gül-i rūyet ne-buved der-dil-i men
‘Uḳde-i zülf-i siyāhet dilem āsān pindāşt
Sālhā şod ki der-ān ḥal ne-şeved müşkil-i men
Bā-metā‘-ı dil ü cān u be-heme naḳd-i vücūd
Māye-i derd-i ġam-ı ‘ışḳ-ı to şod ḥāṣıl-ı men
Zi-mey-i ‘ışḳ-ı to yek cür‘a resīd īn çi ‘aceb
Ger şeved mest-i müdāmeş dil-i lā-ya‘ḳıl-i men
Hīc ḫālī ne-şod ez-nār-ı hevā-yı to Münīr
Mī-nümāyed ki be-sūz-ı to şod āb u gil-i men

In English

1. Even if a corner of the rose garden of Iram were my lodging, there would be nothing in my heart but longing for the rose of your face.

2. My heart thought it easy to untie the knot of your black curls; years have passed, and in the untying of that knot my difficulty is still not resolved.

3. With the goods of heart and soul and all the ready cash of my being, the profit that came into my hands was a capital of the pain of grief for your love.

4. A single sip reached me from the wine of your love; what wonder if my senseless heart becomes drunk with it for ever. ("Mest-i müdām" can be understood in two ways: "müdām", in its dictionary sense, means both lasting and wine; the phrase means both "forever drunk" and "drunk with its wine".)

5. Münîr has never been empty of the fire of desire for you; it seems that my water and clay came into being through your burning. ("Āb u gil", in its dictionary sense, means water and clay, the substance from which man was made, that is, one's very make-up.)

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 twenty-fourth of the Persian ghazals (fg 124). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the phrase "-i men" (of mine); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-il": menzil, dil, müşkil, ḥāṣıl, lā-ya‘ḳıl, gil. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 91b) and Vienna (VY 71b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet places the beloved's face above the garden of Iram. Even dwelling in a corner of this garden of legendary beauty cannot draw the lover's heart away from the rose of the beloved's face. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) resting on the garden image between the rose garden and the rose of the face. The garden of Iram is likewise left behind the beloved's street in the fourth couplet of fg 115, a little earlier in the edition.

The second couplet is built around the knot and its untying. The heart thought it easy to untie the knot of the curls, but though years have passed the knot is still not undone. The words "‘uḳde" (knot), "ḥal" (untying) and "müşkil" (difficulty) form a congruence of images; there is also a contrast between "āsān" (easy) and "müşkil" (hard). In its Arabic spelling the word "ḥal" lends itself to being read both as "untying" and as "state"; this double reading is our own inference. The third couplet uses the language of trade: the words metâ (goods), nakd (ready cash), mâye (capital) and hâsıl (profit) tell how the lover invested his whole being and gained in return only the pain of love.

In the fourth couplet a single sip bringing eternal drunkenness is a hyperbole. In the phrase "mest-i müdām" the word "müdām", in its dictionary sense, means both lasting and wine; the phrase thus carries both meanings at once. The word "lā-ya‘ḳıl" (senseless, beside oneself) says how this drunkenness takes away reason.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) brings the four elements together. In the old view all beings are made of fire, air, water and earth. In the couplet the words "nār" (fire), "hevā" (air; also passion, desire), "āb" (water) and "gil" (clay, earth) occur together. In the text "hevā" is used in the sense of passion, but in its sense of air it also calls up one of the four elements; this double entendre (tevriye) and the use of the four elements together are our own observation. The lover says that his very make-up, his water and his clay, came into being through the beloved's fire; so the fire of love has become part of his essence.

Bibliography

Online sources