Original Persian Text

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

Cüz ḫayāl-i la‘l-i to ne’bved miyān-ı cān-ı men
Der-ġarībī bīşter bāşed belī ḥubb-i vaṭan
Çeşm-i bādāmet be-ṣad ‘işve merā ger mī-küşed
Piste-i ḫāmūş-ı to yek bār ne’kşāyed dehen
Ger be-derd-i ḥasret-i ḫāl-i lebet cān mī-dehem
Bes buved ez-ḫūn-ı dāġ-ı dil nişānhā-yı kefen
Der-miyān-ı ‘andelīb-i ṭūṭī-i cān u dilem
Cüz gül-i ruḫsār u ḳand-i la‘l-i to ne’bved süḫan
Ger zi-tāb-ı ṭal‘atet pür-nūr şod çeşm-i Münīr
Şod zi-şem‘-i rūy-ı to rūşen çerāġ-ı çeşm-i men

In English

1. Within my soul there is nothing but the dream of your ruby lip; yes, in exile love of one's homeland grows greater.

2. Even if your almond eye kills me with a hundred coquetries, your silent pistachio (your mouth) does not open its mouth even once.

3. If I give up my soul in the pain of longing for the mole on your lip, the blood of the heart's brand is enough as the marking of my shroud. ("Dāġ", in its dictionary sense, means a wound from branding.)

4. Between the nightingale and the parrot of my soul and heart, there is no talk but of the rose of your cheek and the sugar of your ruby lip. (Ersoy understands the line as "between the nightingale and the parrot of my heart and soul".)

5. If Münîr's eye has filled with light from the radiance of your face, the lamp of my eye has been lit from the candle of your face.

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-seventh of the Persian ghazals (fg 127). 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) "-i men". But the word "men" (I, me) occurs only in the first line of the opening couplet and at the end of the pen-name couplet; the other couplets end with the words vaṭan, dehen, kefen, süḫan. The ghazal's true rhyme is therefore the sound "-en", and "men" also takes part in this rhyme; this is our own observation. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 92a) and Vienna (VY 74a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the lover's soul is full of the dream of the beloved's lip, and this is explained by a general observation: in exile one's love of homeland grows. The second line is stated like a maxim and is an example of irsal-i mesel (use of a proverb-like saying). The lover is far from the beloved; his lip is like a homeland to the lover, and longing grows as separation lengthens.

In the second couplet two comparisons with nuts stand side by side: the eye is likened to an almond, the mouth to a pistachio. The coquetry of the almond eye kills the lover, but the pistachio mouth is silent and never opens. This congruence of images (tenasüp) between almond and pistachio is our own observation. If one considers that the pistachio's shell parts when it ripens, the beloved's mouth, which stays like a "closed pistachio", expresses that he never speaks, does not say even a word to the lover; this reading is our own inference.

The third couplet moves to a scene of death. If the lover dies longing for the mole on the beloved's lip, his shroud needs no other marking; the blood of the brand-wound in his heart is enough. Shroud, blood and marking form a congruence of images; the traces of blood on the white shroud are thought of as a sign showing who the lover was.

The fourth couplet is an example of leff ü neşr (a figure in which items listed first are matched in order by items listed after). In the first line two birds are named: "‘andelīb" (nightingale) and "ṭūṭī" (parrot). In the second line the two things corresponding to them are listed: "gül-i ruḫsār" (the rose of the cheek) and "ḳand-i la‘l" (the sugar of the ruby lip). In divan poetry the nightingale is the lover of the rose, while the parrot feeds on sugar and speaks. The arrangement of the birds and their counterparts in the same order is a regular leff ü neşr; this observation is our own. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) ends with images of light: light, candle, lamp and "rūşen" (bright) form a congruence of images. As Ersoy explains, "Münîr" means one who gives light; this link between the eye filled with light and the pen name is our own observation.

Bibliography

Online sources