Original Persian Text

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

Gerd-i rāh-ı to be-şāhān-ı cihān tāc-ı serīst
Çeşm-i giryān-ı dür-efşān-ı merā nūr u ferīst
Ez-to bā-kūşe-i çeşm ey ṣanem-i ‘işve-nümā
Der-heme ‘ömr murād-ı dil-i men yek naẓarīst
Ger merā ṭa‘ne koned zāhid-i ḫod-bīn çi ‘aceb
Ki zi-esrār-ı mey-i pīr-i muġān bī-ḫaberīst
Gerçi şod ḳıṣṣa-i mā der-ser-i ān zülf dırāz
Dil be-fikr-i dehenet şod süḫanem muḫtaṣarīst
Şod muḳārin be-Münīr ān meh ü bīdārī-i baḫt
Meger ez-nāle-i şeb-gīr ü zi-āh-ı seḥerīst

In English

1. The dust of your road is a crown upon the heads of the kings of the world; to my pearl-scattering, weeping eye it is light and radiance. ("Dür-efşān", pearl-scattering, is used here of the eye that sheds tears.)

2. O idol-like beauty who displays such coquetry, all my life long my heart's desire from you is a single glance from the corner of your eye. ("Ṣanem", in its dictionary sense, means idol; in divan poetry it is used of a beloved beautiful enough to be worshipped.)

3. What wonder if the self-admiring ascetic reproaches me, for he knows nothing of the secrets of the wine of the pīr-i muġān. ("Pīr-i muġān", in its dictionary sense, means the elder of the Magi; in divan poetry he appears as the keeper of the tavern and the guide of the libertines.)

4. Though our story grew long at the tip of that lock, once the heart began to think of your mouth my speech became short. (The long lock and the lengthening story are set against the small mouth and the shortening speech; Ersoy says "my words became a summary".)

5. That moon and the wakefulness of fortune became companions to Münîr; it was, it seems, from his night-long moaning and his sighs at dawn. ("Muḳārin", in its dictionary sense, means near, adjoining; in astronomy it also describes the meeting of two heavenly bodies in the same sign. Ersoy reads the couplet as the moon and the wakefulness of fortune becoming friends to Münîr because of his moaning by night and his sighs at dawn.)

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 twenty-fourth of the Persian ghazals (fg 24). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the suffix "īst"; in Ersoy's list of refrains this ghazal stands alone with the refrain "īst". The rhyme is the sound "-er": ser, fer, naẓar, ḫaber, muḫtaṣar, seḥer. In Persian the suffix "-īst" gives the sense "is a …"; each couplet thus ends on a brief judgement such as "is a crown", "is a glance", "is unaware". The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 67a) and Vienna (VY 51a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet establishes the beloved's exaltation through hyperbole. The dust of the beloved's road becomes a crown on the heads of kings; the same dust gives light to the weeping lover's eye. In divan poetry the dust of the road serving as kohl for the eye is a familiar image; here Münîrî makes the dust both crown and light, uniting king and lover before the same dust. The words tāc (crown) and ser (head), nūr (light) and çeşm (eye) form two separate congruences of images (tenasüp).

In the second couplet all the lover wishes for in a whole lifetime is a single glance from the corner of the eye; the smallness of the wish shows the lover's humility, and "all my life" shows the length of the waiting. The third couplet is a libertine comparison. The ascetic reproaches the lover, but his reproach comes from ignorance: he does not know the secret in the wine of the tavern elder. The contrast (tezat) between the ḫod-bīn, self-regarding and self-admiring, ascetic and the libertine who knows the secret is the real ground of the couplet. Ersoy assesses the poet, who he says imitates Hâfız in his ghazals, as a libertine (rind) and a lover; this couplet is a clear example of that libertine stance.

The fourth couplet is the wittiest in the ghazal. The story grows long at the tip of the lock, because the lock is long; speech becomes short when the poet thinks of the mouth, because in divan poetry the beloved's mouth is so small as to be almost non-existent. The contrast between "dırāz" (long) and "muḫtaṣar" (short) is interwoven with the contrast between lock and mouth. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the moon and wakeful fortune become the poet's companions. When the astronomical sense of the word "muḳārin" is taken together with the moon, it adds a celestial image to the couplet: the moaning and dawn sighs of the lover who does not sleep all night have brought the moon and wakeful fortune close to him. Night and dawn, wakefulness and sighs and moans are bound to one another within the couplet.

Bibliography

Online sources