Original Persian Text

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

Behr-i żabṭ-ı milket-i ḥüsn-i cemāl ey nāzenīn
La‘l-i to mühr-i Süleymān şod ḫaṭet naḳş-ı nigīn
Gözümi devr-i zamāne ḫāk ile ṭoldurmadan
Göstere mi yüzüñi bir kerre Rabbü’l-‘ālemīn
Aḫkerī şod her yekī ber-ḫırmen-i ‘ömr-i ‘azīz
Dil kocā sīr-āb gerded z’īn dü la‘l-i āteşīn
Kūşe-i ḫum-ḫānelerde zāhidā her ‘ārife
Ẓāhir olur bir ḳadeḥde ḥāṣıl-ı ṣad erba‘īn
Men ra’ā veche’l-ḥabībi ḳāle bi’l-ḳavli’l-Münīr
Āferīn ber-ṣun‘-ı pāk-i Ḫāliḳ-i cān-āferīn

In English

1. O graceful beloved, to seize the realm of beauty your ruby lip has become Solomon's seal, and the down around your lip the engraving on that seal stone.

2. Before the turning of time fills my eye with earth, that is, before I die, will the Lord of the Worlds show me your face even once? (The couplet is in Turkish.)

3. Each of your two fiery ruby lips has fallen like an ember on the harvest of precious life; how can the heart quench its thirst from these two fires?

4. O ascetic, in the corners of the taverns, to every knower of God the fruit of a hundred erba‘īn, that is, a hundred forty-day retreats, appears in a single cup. (The couplet is in Turkish.)

5. Whoever sees the beloved's face says, in luminous words (or in the words of Münîr): Praise be to the pure art of the Creator who creates souls. (The first line is in Arabic, the second in Persian.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In the edition the poem stands hundred and thirty-second among the Persian ghazals (fg 132); it is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets. The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif) and does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The rhyme is the sound "-īn": nāzenīn, nigīn, ‘ālemīn, āteşīn, erba‘īn, āferīn. Ersoy counts this ghazal among his examples of kafiye-i müreddefe (rhyme with a long vowel before the rhyme letter). The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 93b) and Vienna (VY 74b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

In his apparatus Ersoy gives the meaning of couplets 1, 3 and 5 only. A look at the text shows plainly that couplets 2 and 4 are in Turkish: the lines "Gözümi devr-i zamāne ḫāk ile ṭoldurmadan / Göstere mi yüzüñi…" and "…her ‘ārife / Ẓāhir olur bir ḳadeḥde…" are built with Turkish verbs and suffixes. The first line of the pen-name couplet (mahlas) is in Arabic. The ghazal is thus a poem of mixed language in which Persian, Turkish and Arabic couplets follow one another, that is, a mülemma‘; this observation is our own. The renderings of couplets 2 and 4 are also ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) begins with an image of sovereignty. The beloved's beauty is a realm, and this realm is seized with a seal. The lip, with its red colour and smallness, is likened to Solomon's seal; the down around the lip is the inscription cut into that seal stone. This allusion to the familiar story of Solomon ruling by his seal presents beauty as a kind of dominion.

The second couplet turns to Turkish and to a prayer. "For the eye to fill with earth", in its dictionary sense, means to die, to go into the grave. The lover asks God to see the beloved's face once before the turning of time kills him. In the third couplet fire and water are set against each other: the beloved's two lips are rubies of fire and have fallen like embers on the harvest of life; the thirsty heart's hope of quenching its thirst from this fire creates a contrast. The link between harvest and ember brings to mind how fire burns dry grain in an instant.

The fourth couplet carries the voice of the rind (the free-spirited drinker) addressing the ascetic. "Erba‘īn", in its dictionary sense, means a forty-day seclusion, a spiritual retreat. The fruit of the hundred retreats the ascetic has endured for years appears to the knower of God in a single cup in the corner of the tavern. This opposition between ascetic and knower, between retreat and cup, is an attitude of the rind often found in divan poetry.

In the pen-name couplet the word "el-Münīr" carries two meanings. In its dictionary sense it means "illuminating, bright", and it is also the poet's pen name. Ersoy understands the line as "in the words of Münîr"; since the word also forms an adjectival phrase with "el-ḳavl" (word), the reading "in luminous words" is possible as well. This double entendre (tevriye) is our own observation. With whoever sees the beloved's face praising the Creator, the poem ends by extolling beauty as an art of creation.

Bibliography

Online sources