Original Persian Text

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

Bā-sirişk-i ḫūn ki be’nmāyed be-çeşmem rū müje
Mīl gerded āteşīn ber-merdüm ey meh-rū müje
Fī’l-mes̱el cārūb-ı cennet mī-şeved müjgān-ı men
Der-ser-i kūy-ı segānet ger buved cārū müje
Bā-ḫayāl-i ḫadd ü ruḫsāret ki pür şod dīdeem
Gūyiyā ḫār-ı gülest ez-her kenār-ı ū müje
Ḥālet-i dīger ne-bīned ġayr-ı ġarḳ-ı ḫūn şoden
Merdüm-i çeşm-i merā z’ān dem ki zed pehlū müje
Behr-i rūy-ı yār mī-gerded be-her kūşe Münīr
Murġ-ı çeşmem-rā ki şod bāl ü per ez-her sū müje

In English

1. O moon-faced one, the eyelash that appears to my eye through tears of blood becomes a fiery needle for the pupil of my eye.

2. If my eyelashes become a broom where the dogs of your quarter lie, it is as if they were the broom of Paradise.

3. My eyes have filled with the image of your cheek and face; it is as if the lashes were rose thorns at every edge of the eye.

4. Ever since the eyelash leaned against my pupil, my pupil has known no state but drowning in blood.

5. Münîr wanders every corner to see the beloved's face; the eyelash has become arm and wing on every side for my eye, which is like a bird.

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 forty-first of the Persian ghazals (fg 141). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the word "müje" (eyelash), and it is given thus in Ersoy's list of refrains too. The rhyme is the sound "-ū": rū, meh-rū, cārū, ū, pehlū, sū. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 95b) and Vienna (VY 76a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known. The ghazal that follows (fg 142) continues the same word with the refrain "ez-müje"; the two ghazals standing side by side in the divan is probably the result of the divan's arrangement by rhyme letter; this is our own inference.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole ghazal is built on the lover's own eyelashes. In divan poetry the eyelash is usually the beloved's, likened to an arrow; here, however, the subject is the lashes of the lover's weeping eye, and in each couplet they turn into something else: a needle, a broom, a thorn, a burden drowning in blood, and a wing.

The word "mīl" in the opening couplet (matla), in its dictionary sense, is a thin, long rod; both the rod used to apply kohl to the eye and the iron that was heated and drawn across the eye to blind it are called by this name. That the lash in tears of blood becomes "a needle of fire" for the pupil calls up this second sense: weeping is burning and blinding the lover's eye. The word "merdüm", in its dictionary sense, also means both "pupil of the eye" and "person"; in Persian poetry these two senses are often thought of together.

In the second couplet the lashes become a broom. To be the broom of the beloved's quarter, even of the place where his dogs lie, is as precious to the lover as being the broom of Paradise. "Fi'l-mesel", in its dictionary sense, means "for example, as if". Likening the thin, dense strands of the lashes to a broom is a simile based on appearance.

In the third couplet the eye fills with the image of the beloved's cheek and face and becomes a rose garden; the lashes are the thorns around this rose. In the fourth couplet "pehlū zeden", in its dictionary sense, means to come side by side, to lean against. Ever since the lash leaned beside the pupil, the pupil has been drowned in blood; the eye reddened from weeping is explained by thinking of the lash as something that wounds.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the eye is likened to a bird and the lashes to its wings. As Münîr wanders every corner to see the beloved's face, his eye too takes wing and flies in every direction. The lash becoming "bāl ü per" (arm and wing) is a simile resting both on appearance and on the speed of the search.

Bibliography

Online sources