Original Persian Text

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

Eşk-i men her cā ki la‘l ü gevher-i sīrāb rīḫt
La‘l-rā ber-ḫāk ü lūlū-rā be-ḳa‘r-ı āb rīḫt
Ez-ḫayālāt-ı leb-i mey-gūn-ı to gūyā ‘ıneb
Ḥaṣıl-ı ‘ömr-i ‘azīzeş ber-del-i ‘annāb rīḫt
Eşk-i gül-gūnem revān şod behr-i dīr āmed meger
Dīde be’nmāyed ki ber-pāy-ı ḫayālet āb rīḫt
Ber-meşām-ı dehr bād-ı ṣubḥ ez-gerd-i rehet
‘Anber-efşān geşt ü ‘abher-rīz ü müşk-i nāb rīḫt
Dīde behr-i serv-ḳaddet ber-heme ‘ömr-i ‘azīz
Mī-tevān goften ki āb ez-kūze-i dolāb rīḫt
Eşk-i çeşmem-rā ki çeşmet der-penāh-ı ebrūyet
Rīḫt gūyā mest-i bī-ḫod bāde ber-miḥrāb rīḫt
Ḫancereş ber-sīne-i ḫod dīdem ü goftem Münīr
Ber-dehān-ı īn dil-i ḫaste meger cüllāb rīḫt

In English

1. Wherever my tears poured rubies and large, lustrous pearls, they poured the ruby onto the earth and the pearl to the bottom of the water. (Ersoy says "my bloody tears"; the ruby stands for red, bloody tears and the pearl for white tears. "Gevher-i sīrāb", in its dictionary sense, means a pearl of fine water, a lustrous pearl.)

2. It is as if the grape, from the image of your wine-coloured lip, poured the whole yield of its precious life into the grape-gatherer's bucket. (Ersoy renders "‘annāb" as grape-gatherer; "‘ıneb" means grape, and the two words share a root. "Del", in its dictionary sense, means bucket.)

3. My rose-coloured tears began to flow, saying "I am late"; for the eye seems to have poured water over the feet of your image. (Pouring water over the feet of an arriving guest is a sign of hospitality and service. Ersoy reads the couplet as "When the eye seemed about to pour water over the feet of your image, my rose-coloured tears began to flow, saying 'I am late'".)

4. From the dust of your road the morning wind scattered ambergris into the nostrils of the age, strewed narcissus and poured pure musk. ("‘Abher" is narcissus in Ersoy's rendering. Ambergris, narcissus and musk are known for their fragrance.)

5. For your cypress stature the eye has poured water all its precious life; one might say it poured water from the jar of a water wheel. ("Kūze-i dolāb" is the mill jar in Ersoy's rendering; in its dictionary sense it means the jars of a water-raising wheel that fill and empty without pause.)

6. Your eye, in the shelter of your brow, poured out my tears; it is as if a drunkard lost to himself poured wine upon the prayer niche. (The brow, with its arched shape, is likened to the prayer niche, the mihrab.)

7. I saw his dagger on my breast and said: O Münîr, so he has poured rose julep into the mouth of this sick heart. ("Cüllāb", in its dictionary sense, means rose water, a sweet drink; Ersoy says "rose water". The wound the dagger opens is thought of as the mouth of the heart.)

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 thirty-second of the Persian ghazals (fg 32). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the verb "rīḫt", "poured"; in Ersoy's list of refrains this ghazal stands alone with the refrain "rīḫt". The rhyme is the sound "-āb": sīrāb, āb, ‘annāb, āb, nāb, dolāb, miḥrāb, cüllāb. The word "āb" (water) serves as the rhyme twice, in the first and third couplets. The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 69a). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole ghazal is built on the verb "to pour". In every couplet something is poured: tears pour rubies and pearls, the grape pours the yield of its life into the bucket, the eye pours water over the feet of the image, the morning wind pours musk and ambergris, the eye pours water like the jar of a water wheel, the drunkard pours wine on the prayer niche, and the beloved with his dagger pours julep into the mouth of the heart. That the refrain is so concrete a verb turns the ghazal into a series of images advancing through liquids, colours and scents. Water, tears, wine and julep form a wide congruence of images (tenasüp) across the couplets.

In the opening couplet tears pour two kinds of jewel. The red ruby falls to the earth and the white pearl sinks to the bottom of the water; the link between ruby and earth, pearl and water, rests on the old notion of where jewels come from: the ruby from the earth, the pearl from the sea. In the second couplet "‘ıneb" (grape) and "‘annāb" come from the same root and give the couplet the harmony of a shared derivation. The grape pouring its whole life into the gatherer's bucket reads as if, at the image of the beloved's lip, it longed to turn into wine. In the third couplet the tear is a servant; it runs, crying "I am late", to be in time to pour water over the guest's feet. This personification lends the couplet a light wit.

The fifth couplet rests on the relation between the cypress and water. In divan poetry the cypress is imagined at the water's edge; and the eye, for the beloved's cypress stature, pours water ceaselessly all its life like the jar of a water wheel. The sixth couplet carries the boldest image of the ghazal. The brow is likened to the prayer niche; the beloved's eye, in the shelter of this niche, sheds the lover's tears. This is like a drunkard lost to himself pouring wine on the mihrab. The contrast (tezat) between the mihrab and wine, a libertine surprise, ties the sacred to the image of beauty. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the beloved's dagger wounds the breast, but the lover counts it a favour: the dagger has poured julep into the mouth of the sick heart. Counting the wound a cure closes the ghazal on a contrast in which pain turns to sweetness.

Bibliography

Online sources