Original Persian Text

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

Merḥabā ey nūr-ı maḥż-ı dīde-i giryān-ı men
Şod besī müştāḳ-ı dīdāret be-küş ān cān-ı men
Der-viṣālet rūzgārem gerçi taḳṣīrī nümūd
Her şebī gerded ḫayālet tā-seḥer mihmān- men
Minnet Īzed-rā ki dīdem nār-ı mihr-i ṭal‘atet
Geşt rūşen-çeşm baḫt u dīde-i devrān-ı men
Ez-firāḳet ānçi dīdem şod heme ez-ḫāṭıram
Mihr-i ruḫsāret ki dīdem ey meh-i tābān-ı men
Āteş ender-cān-ı men zed fürḳat-i rūyeş Münīr
Āh-ı āteş-nāk-i men şod ḥüccet ü bürhān-ı men

In English

1. Welcome, O pure light of my weeping eye; my soul has greatly longed to see you; take that soul of mine.

2. Though time has fallen short, been brief, in my union with you, every night your image is my guest until dawn.

3. Thanks be to God, I have seen the fire of the sun of your face; the eye of my fortune and of my days has grown bright.

4. O my shining moon, when I saw the sun of your cheek, all I had suffered in separation from you went out of my mind.

5. O Münîr, separation from his face set fire to my soul; my fiery sigh has become my evidence and my proof. (The couplet is in Persian; Ersoy does not give its meaning, and the rendering is our own.)

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 thirtieth of the Persian ghazals (fg 130). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the phrase "-ı men" (of mine); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with the refrain "-i men". The rhyme is the sound "-ān": giryān, cān, mihmān, devrān, tābān, bürhān. 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 93a). To whom and when it was written is not known.

In his apparatus Ersoy gives the meaning of only the first four couplets; the meaning of the fifth couplet is not in the edition. This couplet too is Persian and is built with Persian verbs and particles such as "zed", "şod" and "ender". Why its meaning was not given is not known; the rendering in the In English section is our own.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a word of greeting, "merḥabā" (welcome). The beloved is the light of the lover's weeping eye; there is a link between "nūr" (light) and "dīde-i giryān" (weeping eye), resting on the idea of an eye in tears coming into light. The lover's calling on the beloved to take his soul expresses that even at the moment of union he sees death as a gift.

In the second couplet day and night face each other. The word "rūzgār" (time, fortune) contains "rūz" (day); by day union was brief, but every night the beloved's image is the lover's guest until dawn. This link between "rūzgār", "şeb" (night) and "seḥer" (dawn) is our own observation. Thinking of the image as a guest shows that dream and imagination have taken the place of real union.

The third and fourth couplets are bound together by images of sun and moon. The beloved's face is the sun; by seeing it the eye of the lover's fortune grows bright. In the fourth couplet the beloved is addressed as "meh-i tābān" (shining moon), while his cheek is likened to the sun; with the sun's rising, what was suffered in the darkness of separation is forgotten. The idiom "rūşen-çeşm" (bright-eyed), in its dictionary sense, means to be joyful.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes with the image of fire. Separation has set fire to the lover's soul, and the sigh rising from this fire is the "ḥüccet ü bürhān", the evidence and proof, of his love. These two words are terms from the language of logic and disputation; to prove his love the lover shows no document but his sigh. The word "āteş" (fire) occurring twice in the same couplet, and joining "nār" (fire) in the third couplet, shows how light and burning are interwoven in the ghazal.

Bibliography

Online sources