Original Persian Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Ḫūn-ı ciger ki bī-to mey-i ḫoş-güvār-ı māst
Der-fürḳat-i to hem-dem-i mā āh u zār-ı māst
Ez-ḥāl-i küştegān-ı to taḳrīr mī-koned
Ān ki be-ḫūn nüvişteī seng-i mezār-ı māst
Ger rind-i bāde-nūş u levendīm ü bī-nevā
Bī-ḫānmān şoden be-cihān i‘tibār-ı māst
Hergiz be-fikr-i ġayr ne-şod ‘āşıḳān-ı vey
Cüz fikr-i ‘ışḳ-ı ān ṣanem ey dil çi kār-ı māst
Ārām-ı vey ne-mī şeved ez-derhemī demī
Gūyā ki kākül-i to dil-i bī-ḳarār-ı māst
Şem‘-i cemāl-i pertev-i māh-ı Münīr-i men
Çeşm ü çerāġ-ı dīde-i gevher-nis̱ār-ı māst

In English

1. Without you, the blood of the liver is our pleasant-tasting wine; in your separation our companions are our sighs and laments.

2. What you have written in blood is our gravestone; it tells the state of those you have slain. (Ersoy explains the couplet as "your writing our gravestone in blood declares the state of those who died of your love".)

3. If we are wine-drinking libertines (rind), carefree and destitute, then to be homeless in the world is our honour. ("Levend", in its dictionary sense, is one who is footloose and carefree, who lives as he pleases; Ersoy renders it as "idle" and explains the couplet by adding the words "do not reproach us". "Bī-ḫānmān", in its dictionary sense, means without hearth or home.)

4. His lovers have never thought of another; O heart, what business have we but thinking of the love of that idol? ("Ṣanem" means idol; in divan poetry it is used in the sense of the beautiful beloved.)

5. It has not a moment's rest from its disorder; your forelock is, as it were, our restless heart. ("Derhemī", in its dictionary sense, means dishevelment, disarray. The dishevelled forelock and the restless heart are likened to each other.)

6. The candle of beauty of the light of my shining moon is the light and lamp of our jewel-scattering eye. ("Münīr-i men" can be understood both as "my shining (moon)" and as "my Münîr"; here the pen name also works as an attribute of the beloved. "Çeşm ü çerāġ", eye and lamp, is a set phrase meaning the light of one's eyes, a dearly loved person. "Gevher-nis̱ār", jewel-scattering, describes the eye that sheds tears.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; in the edition it is the twentieth of the Persian ghazals (fg 20). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is "māst", "is ours"; in Ersoy's list of refrains the twentieth and twenty-first Persian ghazals are shown with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-ār": ḫoş-güvār, zār, mezār, i‘tibār, kār, bī-ḳarār, gevher-nis̱ār. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 66a) and Vienna (VY 49b) manuscripts. According to Ersoy's apparatus, the conjunction "ü" in "levendīm ü" in the third couplet is missing in the Vienna manuscript. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The key couplet of the ghazal is the third. Ersoy cites this couplet as an example when describing how Münîrî defines himself as a wine-drinking rind and counts living homeless in the world as an honour. The couplet states plainly the libertine's attitude toward the world: being wine-drinking, carefree and poor is not counted a fault, and being homeless is counted as honour itself. On the same page Ersoy assesses Münîrî as a poet who imitates Hâfız in his ghazals, a rind and a lover.

The refrain "māst" gives the whole ghazal the voice of the first person plural. The common condition of lovers is described: the blood of the liver is their wine, sighs and laments are their companions, and the gravestone the beloved has written in blood is their gravestone. The likening of wine and the blood of the liver in the first couplet joins the gravestone written in blood in the second; in the two couplets blood is the shared element of two separate images. The word "taḳrīr", telling, declaring, in the second couplet turns the gravestone into a speaking witness; the bloody inscription on the stone tells the reader the story of the lovers the beloved has slain. In the fourth couplet the use of the word "ṣanem", idol, for the beloved presents the lover as one devoted to an idol and is in keeping with the libertine tone of the ghazal.

In the fifth couplet a simile (teşbih) is drawn between the beloved's dishevelled forelock and the lover's restless heart; neither has any rest. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the words candle, moon, light, eye and lamp form a congruence of images (tenasüp). The fact that "Münīr" can be read both as the pen name and as the adjective "shining" adds a double entendre (tevriye) to the couplet. The phrase "gevher-nis̱ār", jewel-scattering, in the same couplet returns to the blood of the liver in the first couplet: the jewel the eye scatters is the bloody tear.

Bibliography

Online sources