Original Persian Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Bi-yār ey sāḳī-i meh-rū çi dārī
Ḫarābī bihterest ez-hūşyārī
Be-cüz cevr ü cefā ey dil ne-rūyed
Be-sīne toḫm-ı mihr-i ū çi kārī
Merā yek bāregī kerdī ferāmūş
Kocā şod yā Rab āḫir ḥaḳḳ-ı yārī
Berāy-ı māh-ı ‘ālem-tāb-ı rūyet
Koned mihr-i felek āyīne-dārī
Çirā der-hicr-i to cān-rā ne-dādem
Merā z’īn cürm bāşed şerm-sārī
Hemī kārem be-sīne toḫm-ı mihret
Zi-bī-mihrī ne-porsī der-çi kārī
Şehīd-i derd-i ‘ışḳ şod Münīrī
Nemāzeş-rā bi-yā ey dost bārī

In English

1. O moon-faced cupbearer, bring whatever you have; to be ruined by drunkenness is better than sobriety.

2. O heart, why do you sow the seed of love for him in your breast; nothing but cruelty and torment grows there.

3. You have forgotten me utterly at a stroke; O Lord, where in the end has the due of friendship gone?

4. For your moon face that lights the world, the sun of the sky holds up a mirror.

5. Why did I not give up my soul in separation from you; I am ashamed of this fault.

6. I keep sowing the seed of love for you in my breast; but you, in your lovelessness, do not even ask what I am doing.

7. Münîrî has become a martyr to the pain of love; O friend, at least come to his funeral prayer.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; in the edition it is the hundred and forty-seventh of the Persian ghazals (fg 147). The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains; the suffix "-ī" at the ends of the lines works like a refrain (redif). The rhyme is the sound "-ār": dārī, hūşyārī, kārī, yārī, āyīne-dārī, şerm-sārī, kārī, bārī. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 97a) and Vienna (VY 78a) manuscripts. Ersoy records two variant readings: in the Vienna manuscript "meh-veş" (moonlike) stands in place of "meh-rū" (moon-faced) in the opening couplet, and in place of "Berāy-ı" (for) at the start of the fourth couplet there is a reading built with the word "rāh" (path). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a call to the cupbearer. The lover asks the cupbearer to bring whatever he has, for the ruin that drunkenness brings is better than sobriety. "Ḫarābī" (being ruined) and "hūşyārī" (sobriety) face each other in the rhyme, and this contrast carries the essence of the rind's (the free-spirited drinker's) attitude.

The second and sixth couplets answer each other. In the second the lover warns his own heart: sowing the seed of love for the beloved in the breast is in vain, for nothing but cruelty and torment grows there. In the sixth the same person says he goes on sowing this seed and complains that the beloved pays it no heed. In these two couplets the rhyme "kārī" occurs twice: in the first it means "you sow"; in the second, by Ersoy's explanation, it is part of the question "what are you doing". The likeness of sound between "kār" (work) and "kārī" (you sow) forms a pun (cinas); this observation is our own. In the sixth couplet "toḫm-ı mihr" (seed of love) and "bī-mihrī" (lovelessness), coming from the same root, form a contrast.

In the fourth couplet the familiar relation of the heavenly bodies is turned around. The moon takes its light from the sun; here, however, the sun is a servant holding up a mirror to the beloved's moon face. What lights the world is not the sun but the beloved's face. The word "mihr", in its dictionary sense, means both sun and love; a link of double entendre (tevriye) is therefore set up between "mihr-i felek" (the sun of the sky) in the fourth couplet and "mihr" (love) in the second and sixth.

In the fifth couplet the lover blames himself for not dying in separation; love required him to die, and going on living is a fault. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) completes this thought: Münîrî has become a martyr to the pain of love. A martyr, in its dictionary sense, is one who dies in the way of God; the lover who dies on the path of love is also called by this name. The lover asks the beloved at least to come to his funeral prayer. The word "bārī" (at least) closes the ghazal with a small wish, a quiet reproach.

Bibliography

Online sources