Original Persian Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Ān dil ki zi-şevḳ-ı mey-i la‘l-i to kebābest
Bī-ẕevḳ-ı vey ū-rā çi ser-i ‘ayş u şarābest
Yā Rab zi-çi rū māni‘-i envār-ı tecellīst
Īn sünbül-i ter ber gül-i sūrī ki niḳābest
Pīr-i reh-i mā goft be-mey tevbe ne-bāşed
Ān dem ki dem-i devr-i gül ü ‘ahd-i şebābest
Bā-ṭal‘at-ı ān ġonca-leb ü sāḳī-i gül-ruḫ
Der-ser heves-i cām-ı mey ü çeng ü rebābest
Dūşīne ki ān şem‘-i Çigil hem-dem-i mā būd
Gūyā ki hemīn vāḳı‘a-i ‘ālem-i ḫᵛābest
Sīrāb ne-şod ez-mey-i la‘let dilem ārī
Ser-tā-ḳadem ey dost cihān ‘ayn-ı serābest
Cüz sūz-ı to hemdem ne-koned cān-ı Münīrī
Goftend belī ṣoḥbet-i nā-cins ‘aẕābest

In English

1. For that heart which has turned to roast meat with longing for the wine of your ruby lip, what relish is there in eating and drinking without that delight. ("To become kebab" means to be burnt and seared; Ersoy reads the second line as a question: "Without its delight, can one find taste in eating and drinking?")

2. O Lord, why is this fresh hyacinth, which is a veil over the red rose, a barrier to the lights of divine manifestation. (The hyacinth is the beloved's hair and the red rose the cheek; the hair falling over the face covers its light. Ersoy reads the couplet as "Is it because this fresh hyacinth is a veil over the red rose that the lights are not manifested to us?")

3. The elder of our path said: while it is the season of the rose and the time of youth, there is no repenting of wine.

4. Before the face of that rosebud-lipped, rose-cheeked cupbearer, there is in my head a longing for the cup of wine, the harp and the rebab. (The çeng and the rebab are stringed instruments.)

5. Last night that candle of Çigil was our companion; it was as if what happened was a dream seen in the world of sleep. ("Çigil", in its dictionary sense, is the name of a Turkic people and its homeland famed for their beauties; Ersoy explains it as "the Çiyil beauty with cheeks as bright as a candle".)

6. My heart was not quenched by the wine of your ruby lip, yes; O friend, the world from head to foot is the very essence of a mirage. (Ersoy reads the couplet by joining its two lines: "O beloved, even if the world from end to end turned into a mirage from the wine of your ruby lips, yes, my heart was not quenched by that wine." "Sīrāb" means quenched and "serāb" mirage; the two words are close in sound.)

7. The soul of Münîrî takes no companion but the burning of your love; yes, they have said that the company of one not of one's kind is torment.

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 twenty-fifth of the Persian ghazals (fg 25). The metre is "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". The refrain (redif) is the suffix "est"; in Ersoy's list of refrains this ghazal appears among those with the refrain "est". The rhyme is the sound "-āb": kebāb, şarāb, niḳāb, şebāb, rebāb, ḫᵛāb, serāb, ‘aẕāb. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 67b) and Vienna (VY 51a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Ersoy counts this ghazal among the seventeen Persian ghazals that are response poems (nazire) to Hâfız of Shiraz and gives its counterpart by page number in the Istanbul printing of Hâfız's Divan of 1290 (1873-74); the TDV article likewise records that seventeen Persian ghazals are responses to Hâfız. The ghazal of Hâfız in the same metre, rhyme and refrain is the one opening "Mā-rā zi-ḫayāl-i to çi pervā-yı şarābest" (While we have your image, what care have we for wine).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal weaves love, wine and youth together. In the opening couplet the heart has turned to roast meat with longing for the wine of the beloved's lip; the meeting of kebab and wine in one couplet forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) of the table, but the true taste of this table is the beloved's lip. The second couplet likens the hair covering the beloved's face to a veil covering a divine light. The hyacinth means the hair and the rose the cheek; the word "tecellī" (manifestation) gives the light of the face a mystical colouring. Ersoy says that Münîrî, though not a mystical poet, used mystical symbols under the influence of Hâfız; this couplet is an example of such usage.

The third and fourth couplets are a libertine dispensation. The elder of the path says that in the season of the rose and the time of youth there is no repenting of wine; and in the lover's head there is a longing for the cup, the harp and the rebab. The fifth couplet tells that last night's company passed like a dream; the phrase "candle of Çigil" presents the beloved both as a candle for brightness and as a beauty belonging to a Turkic people famed for its beauty. In the sixth couplet the closeness in sound between "sīrāb" and "serāb" forms a paronomasia (cinas): the heart has not been quenched, because the world is a mirage. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes on a saying with the air of a proverb: the company of one not of one's kind is torment. This is a saying reported with "goftend", "they have said", and in the couplet it serves as a proverb brought in as proof (irsal-i mesel); the lover's soul wants no companion but the burning of love, because that burning is of its own kind.

Compared with Hâfız's ghazal, most of the rhyme words turn out to be shared. In Hâfız the beloved passes openly, yet his face is veiled ("niḳāb") because he sees the strangers; in Münîrî the hair is a veil over the rose. Hâfız says "cihān cümle serābest", Münîrî "cihān ‘ayn-ı serābest". The pair of instruments in Hâfız's phrase "zemzeme-i çeng ü rebāb" occurs unchanged in Münîrî's fourth couplet, while the "eyyām-ı şebāb" (days of youth) of Hâfız's last couplet is answered by the "‘ahd-i şebāb" in Münîrî's third. Hâfız says that every sweet drink without the friend is "‘ayn-ı ‘aẕāb", torment itself; Münîrî closes the ghazal on the same rhyme "‘aẕāb", saying that the company of one not of one's kind is torment.

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