Original Persian Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Ey nihāl-i ḳāmetet-rā serv-i bālā çākerest
Çeşme-i nūş-ı lebet-rā teşne āb-ı kevs̱erest
Merhem-i rīş-i dil ü īn sīne-i mecrūḥ-ı men
Ez-ḫayāl-i çeşm-i Türk-i ser-ḫoşet yek ḫancerest
Yār-ı mā hergiz ne-ḫᵛāhed ḫāne-i dil-rā ḫarāb
Z’ānki dāned k’ez hezārān Ka‘be yek dil bihterest
Der-miyān-ı meh-veşān ey dil murād-ı men yekīst
Çeşm ne’kşāyem be-ġayreş ger Ḫalīl-i Āẕerest
Rū me-gerdān ez-Münīr-i derdmend üftādeest
Rū nihāde āstānet-rā ki ḥacc-ı ekberest

In English

1. O beloved, to the sapling of whose stature the tall cypress is a servant, and for the sweet spring of whose lip the water of Kevser thirsts. ("Kevser", in its dictionary sense, is the name of the pool or river in Paradise.)

2. The salve for the wound of my heart and for this wounded breast of mine is a dagger that comes from the image of your drunken Turk of an eye. (Ersoy explains the dagger in parentheses as "a glance". In divan poetry the beauty's eye is likened to the Turk, proverbial for beauty and cruelty.)

3. Our beloved never wishes the house of the heart to be ruined, for he knows that one heart is better than thousands of Kaabas. (Ersoy reads the couplet as a conditional sentence: "If our beloved knew that building one heart is better than building thousands of Kaabas, he would never wish our house of the heart to be ruined"; the Persian text says "z'ānki dāned", that is, "for he knows".)

4. O heart, among the moon-faced ones my desire is a single one; even were it Abraham the Friend, son of Āzer, I would not open my eyes to look at any other. ("Ḫalīl-i Āẕer" is the Prophet Abraham; in the Qur'an his father's name is given as Āzer, and in Islamic tradition Āzer is remembered as a maker of idols.)

5. Do not turn your face from suffering, fallen Münîr; he has laid his face upon your threshold, and your threshold is the greater pilgrimage. ("Ḥacc-ı ekber", in its dictionary sense, means the greater pilgrimage. Ersoy reads it as "a fallen one who has laid his face on your threshold, which is worth a thousand greater pilgrimages".)

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-sixth of the Persian ghazals (fg 26). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". 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 "-er": çāker, kevs̱er, ḫancer, bihter, Āẕer, ekber. Two of the rhyme words, Kevser and Āzer, are proper names and carry the allusions of the couplets in which they stand; the word "ekber" (greater), joined with the pilgrimage in the pen-name couplet, completes the ghazal's image of the holy place. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 67b) and Vienna (VY 51b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with an address and praises the beloved with two hyperboles. The tall cypress is a servant to the sapling of the beloved's stature; even the water of Kevser in Paradise thirsts for the spring on the beloved's lip. Cypress and sapling, spring, water and thirst form two separate congruences of images (tenasüp). Kevser's thirst is a striking reversal, as if the very water that quenches thirst were itself left thirsty. There is a contrast (tezat) in the second couplet as well: the salve for the wounded breast is once again a dagger. The eye, likened to a drunken Turk, wounds, but the cure for the wound is also a fresh glance coming from it.

The third couplet is the weightiest of the ghazal in thought. The idea that the heart is worth more than thousands of Kaabas sets the Kaaba against the house of the heart. A congruence is set up between "ḫāne-i dil" (the house of the heart) and the Kaaba's being the "Beytullah", the House of God. Ersoy understood the couplet as a conditional sentence; the Persian text, however, says that the beloved already knows this and therefore does not wish to ruin the heart.

The fourth couplet expresses the certainty of devotion through an allusion (telmih). Among the moon-faced ones the lover's desire is one alone; even were it Abraham the Friend, he would not look at another. Here it is notable that Abraham is named as the son of Āzer. Abraham, son of Āzer the idol-maker, broke the idols and turned to the one God; the lover, too, is bound to a single beloved among the beauties. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) laying one's face on the threshold is likened to the pilgrimage. The words Kaaba, Abraham the Friend and pilgrimage form a congruence of images across the last three couplets of the ghazal; the Kaaba in the third couplet and the pilgrimage in the pen-name couplet bind the second half of the ghazal together through the image of the holy place.

Bibliography

Online sources