Original Persian Text

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

Īn ‘aceb ne’bved ki rīzed dīdeem āb ez-müje
Seyl-i ḫūn gerded revān mānendī-i dōlāb ez-müje
Her yekeş behr-i muraṣṣa‘ sāḫten-i la‘lī buved
Ḳatrehā k’āred be-rūy-ı zerd ḫūn-āb ez-müje
Zīr-i müjgāneş ki yek reh be’ngered ber-çihreem
Ṣad der-i iḳbāl be’kşāyed be-her bāb ez-müje
Pārehā-yı dil ki gerded ber-heme müjgān-ı men
Şod be-devr-i ġamze-i to mīḫ-ı ḳaṣṣāb ez-müje
Bā-ḫayālet ḫᵛāb ne-āyed hīc ber-çeşm-i Münīr
Beste şod ber-merdümān gūyā reh-i ḫᵛāb ez-müje

In English

1. It is no wonder that my eye sheds water from my lashes; from my lashes a flood of blood runs on like the water turned by a waterwheel.

2. Each of the drops that the bloody tears bring from my lashes to my yellowed face is a ruby for setting that face with jewels.

3. If he were to look at my face just once from beneath his lashes, a hundred doors of fortune would open at every door from the lash.

4. In the reign of your sidelong glance, pieces of the heart have caught on all my lashes; my lashes have turned into butcher's hooks. (Ersoy gives the meaning of this couplet with question marks, indicating that he is not sure of it.)

5. Because of your image no sleep at all comes to Münîr's eye; it is as if the lashes had closed the road of sleep to the pupils.

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-second of the Persian ghazals (fg 142). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the phrase "ez-müje" (from the eyelash), and it is given thus in Ersoy's list of refrains too. The rhyme is the sound "-āb": āb, dōlāb, ḫūn-āb, bāb, ḳaṣṣāb, ḫᵛāb. The poem is found only in the Vienna manuscript (VY 76b); it is not in the Vatican manuscript, the fullest copy on which the edition is based. To whom and when it was written is not known.

The ghazal uses as its refrain the same word, the eyelash, as fg 141 just before it. In the previous ghazal the refrain was simply "müje"; here it is "ez-müje", and every couplet tells of something coming out of, flowing from, opening or closing at the lash.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet (matla) the flood of tears is likened to a "dōlāb". A dolap, in its dictionary sense, is a wheel that draws water from a well or stream; the wheel pouring water ceaselessly as it turns corresponds to the lover's unbroken weeping. The words "āb" (water) and "ḫūn" (blood) coming side by side show that the tears have now turned to blood.

In the second couplet the colours set up a jeweller's work. "Muraṣṣa‘", in its dictionary sense, means inlaid with jewels, adorned with precious stones. If the lover's yellowed face is thought of as gold, the red drops of blood flowing over it become rubies inlaid in this gold. This combination of yellow and red is our own observation. In the third couplet the lash changes direction: this time the subject is the beloved's lashes. Should the beloved glance once from beneath his lashes, a hundred doors would open at once to the lover's fortune. "Der" and "bāb" are two words of the same meaning (door), and coming together in the same line they form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

The fourth couplet is the hardest place in the ghazal. "Mīḫ-ı ḳaṣṣāb", in its dictionary sense, is the hook on which a butcher hangs meat. Pieces of the heart have caught on the lashes, and the lashes have therefore turned into butcher's hooks. When giving the meaning of the couplet Ersoy puts three question marks at the end, showing that he is not sure of his reading. Our rendering also rests on the dictionary senses of the words and should not be taken as certain.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the lashes are thought of like a door or a barrier. The lashes are said to have closed the road of sleep to the pupils; sleeplessness is explained by a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil) tied to the way the lashes are ranged along the eyelid. The word "merdümān", in its dictionary sense, means both "pupils" and "people".

Bibliography

Online sources