Original Persian Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Dāmen-i çeşm-i men ez-ḫūn-ı ciger pür-güherest
Her çi dārem men-i dil-ḫaste heme der-naẓarest
Leẕẕet-i bāde-i vaṣl-ı to ki şod āb-ı ḥayāt
Mest-i ‘ışḳ-ı to çi dāned ki zi-ḫod bī-ḫaberest
Bī-to dil der-ṭaraf-ı seyr-i gülistān ne-keşed
Būy-ı gül bī-gül-i rūy-ı to merā derd-i serest
Lāle ne ānk be-rūyed heme der ṭarf-ı çemen
Behr-i ruḫsār-ı gület rīḫte ḫūn-ı cigerest
Dīden-i ṭal‘at-ı mihr-i ruḫet ey bedr-i Münīr
Es̱er-i nāle-i şeb-gīr ü zi-āh-ı seḥerest

In English

1. The hem of my eye is full of jewels from the blood of my liver; whatever I, heart-sick, possess is all in plain sight. (Drops of bloody tears are likened to jewels. "Der-naẓar", in its dictionary sense, means "in sight, visible"; the lover's whole being is these bloody tears flowing from his eyes, and it lies before everyone.)

2. The delight of the wine of union with you has become the water of life; how should one drunk with your love know it, when he is unaware even of himself? (Ersoy also understands the couplet as saying that one drunk with love cannot know that delight, since he is unaware of himself.)

3. Without you the heart is not drawn to stroll in the rose garden; unless your rose-like face is there, the scent of the rose is a headache to me. ("Derd-i ser", in its dictionary sense, means "headache", and also trouble and vexation.)

4. What grows on every side of the meadow is not the tulip; it is the blood of the liver shed for your rose cheek. (The redness of the tulips is traced back to the blood that lovers shed.)

5. O full moon of Münîr, seeing the radiance of the sun of your face is the fruit of the night-long lament and the sigh of dawn. ("Münīr", in its dictionary sense, means "shining, luminous"; the address can also be read as "O shining full moon". Ersoy renders the address as "O beloved who is like a sun in brightness" and explains the couplet in the opposite direction: seeing the radiance of the face causes laments through the night and sighs at dawn. According to the wording of the line, however, seeing is the result of these laments and sighs.)

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 fifteenth of the Persian ghazals (fg 15). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". In Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal appears among those with the refrain (redif) "est". The rhyme is the sound "-er": güher, naẓar, ḫaber, ser, ciger, seḥer. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 65a) and Vienna (VY 48a) manuscripts. The pen name (mahlas) is placed within an address in the fifth couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The centre of gravity of the ghazal is the blood of the liver. In the first couplet this blood flows with the tears and fills the hem of the eye with jewels; in the fourth couplet it becomes the very tulips of the meadow. There is an echo between the two couplets: the lover's blood turns first into something as precious as a jewel, then into a flower. In the fourth couplet a poetic cause is given for the red colour of the tulip; this is the figure of fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil).

The third couplet is a comparison between the rose and the beloved's face. In a garden without the rose-like face, the scent of the rose gives no comfort and brings on a headache. The use of the word "gül", "rose", in the same line both for the flower and for the beloved's face shows that a choice is being made between the real rose and the rose of the simile. In the second couplet the wine of union is likened to the water of life, and the unawareness of one drunk with love is counted as the reason he cannot taste that delight.

In the pen-name couplet the phrase "bedr-i Münīr" is a double entendre (tevriye). Münîr is both the poet's pen name and an adjective meaning "shining"; the address is thus understood in two ways, "O full moon of Münîr" and "O shining full moon". Ersoy prefers the adjectival reading. The words full moon, sun, night and dawn form a congruence of images (tenasüp) in the couplet; the laments of the night and the sigh of dawn are linked to the seeing of the beloved's face. "Nāle-i şeb-gīr", the night-long lament, and "āh-ı seḥer", the sigh of dawn, are familiar expressions describing the lover's sleepless night; the hour before dawn is also spoken of as the time when prayers are answered. According to the wording of the line, the couplet presents the seeing of the beloved's face as the reward of the night-long supplication; in Ersoy's reading, seeing is the cause of this supplication. The phrase "der-naẓar" in the first couplet also cuts two ways: the lover's whole being is both in his own eye and laid bare before everyone's eyes.

Bibliography

Online sources