Original Persian Text

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

Mesken-i genc-i ḫayālet dil-i vīrān-ı menest
Menzil-i miḥnet-i dil-sūz-ı ġamet cān-ı menest
Zaḫm-ı peykān ki ez-ān ġamze resed ber-dil-i men
Der-gülistān-ı dilem ġonca-i ḫandān-ı menest
Ān ki ber-kūşe-nişīnān-ı felek girye fikend
Der-şeb-i fürḳat-i to nāle vü efġān-ı menest
Men zi-cān bihter ez-ān mī-şomerem derd-i ġameş
Rāḥat-ı cān-ı dil ü māye-i dermān-ı menest
Der-reh-i sūziş-i şevḳ-ı to çonān yāft Münīr
Dūd-ı dil rūşenī-i külbe-i aḫzān-ı menest

In English

1. The dwelling of the treasure of your image is my ruined heart; the lodging of the affliction of your heart-burning grief is my soul. (In divan poetry treasure is thought to lie hidden in ruined places; the ruined heart thus becomes the treasure-place for the beloved's image.)

2. The wound of the arrowhead that reaches my heart from that sidelong glance is my laughing rosebud in the rose garden of my heart. ("Peykān" is the iron head at the tip of an arrow. The open wound is likened to a bud that has opened its mouth.)

3. What made those who have withdrawn into the corners of heaven weep is my moaning and lament in the night of separation from you. (Ersoy explains "those in retreat in the heavens" in parentheses as the angels.)

4. I count the pain of grief for him better than life; it is the ease of my soul and heart and the capital of my cure.

5. On the road of the burning of longing for you, Münîr came to such a state that the smoke of his heart is the light of my hut of sorrows. ("Külbe-i aḫzān", in its dictionary sense, means the hut of sorrows. Ersoy reads the couplet as the smoke of Münîr's heart being the light of his house, filled with sorrow like the house of the Prophet Jacob; the house in which Jacob spent his days weeping over the separation from his son Joseph is called "beytü'l-ahzân", the house of sorrows.)

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-seventh of the Persian ghazals (fg 27). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". In his list of refrains Ersoy places this ghazal among those with the refrain "est"; the part repeated in every couplet is in fact "-ı menest", that is, "is mine". The rhyme is the sound "-ān": vīrān, cān, ḫandān, efġān, dermān, aḫzān. The refrain (redif) "menest" ends each couplet on something that belongs to the lover: his ruined heart, his soul, his rosebud, his lament, his cure, his hut. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 68a) and Vienna (VY 51b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the ghazal is the pain of love making its home within the lover. In the opening couplet the ruined heart is the dwelling of the treasure of the beloved's image, and the soul is the lodging of grief. The relation between a ruin and a treasure is a familiar idea of divan poetry; thanks to it, the heart's ruin ceases to be a lack and becomes the condition for housing the treasure. The words "mesken" (dwelling) and "menzil" (lodging) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) that binds the two lines together.

In the second couplet there is a simile (teşbih) between the wound and the rosebud. The arrow from the beloved's sidelong glance opens a wound in the heart; this wound is a laughing bud in the heart's garden. The wound is bloody, the bud is red; the wound is open, and the bud too opens its mouth as it laughs. The turning of pain into beauty is a stance that spreads through the whole ghazal. In the third couplet the lover's lament in the night of separation makes even the angels withdrawn into the corners of heaven weep; this is hyperbole. The fourth couplet states the same stance openly: pain is better than life, because it is the lover's ease and cure. The contrast (tezat) between pain and cure is often worked in divan poetry; here Münîrî counts pain the capital of the cure.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes with an allusion (telmih). The hut of sorrows recalls the house in which the Prophet Jacob wept over the separation from Joseph. What lights this hut is not a lamp but the smoke rising from the lover's burning heart. Smoke giving light is a contrast and a surprising one; yet since it rises from a burning heart, it is the sign of fire. A link is also drawn between the ruined heart of the first couplet and the hut of sorrows of the last: all the lover possesses are ruined and dark places, but these places fill with the treasure and the fire of love.

Bibliography

Online sources