Original Persian Text

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

Küfr-i zülf-i ṣanem-i muġ-beçegān dīn-i menest
Sūz-ı sevdā-yı bütān meẕheb ü āyīn-i menest
Hīc ne-āyed be-naẓar bī-ruḫeş īn deyr-i fenā
Rūşenem şod ki hemān çeşm-i cihān-bīn-i menest
Pīş-ez-ān dem ki ne-şod menzilem īn köhne ribāṭ
Zülf-i müşkīn-i to cāy-ı dil-i miskīn-i menest
Ḫār u ḫāşāk-i reh-i ān ser-i kū ey dil-i men
Sünbül ü yāsemen ü nergis ü nesrīn-i menest
Ān ki der-meclis-i rindān ki şeved şem‘ Münīr
Bes ġazelhā-yı ter ü nāzük ü rengīn-i menest

In English

1. The unbelief in the lock of the idol among the Magian boys is my religion; the burning of passion for idol-like beauties is my creed and my rite. ("Muġ-beçe", in its dictionary sense, means a Magian boy; in divan poetry it is used of the youth who serves in the tavern. Ersoy explains "unbelief" in parentheses as "blackness"; in its dictionary sense "küfr" means to cover, and the black lock too covers the face.)

2. Without his cheek this monastery of transience does not appear to the eye at all; it became clear to me that that cheek is the very eye with which I see the world. ("Deyr", in its dictionary sense, means monastery; "deyr-i fenā" is the transient world.)

3. Before this old caravanserai became my lodging, your musk-scented lock was the place of my wretched heart. ("Köhne ribāṭ", the old caravanserai, means the world. The couplet says that the lover's love began before he came into the world, in pre-eternity.)

4. O my heart, the thorns and straw of the road at the head of that street are my hyacinth, my jasmine, my narcissus and my nesrin. ("Nesrīn", in its dictionary sense, is a white flower of the wild-rose kind; Ersoy renders it as "jonquil".)

5. O Münîr, what serves as the candle in the gathering of libertines is enough: my fresh, delicate and colourful ghazals. (Ersoy reads the couplet as "The colourful, delicate and newly composed ghazals you have spoken are like the candle of the gathering of libertines".)

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 thirty-fourth of the Persian ghazals (fg 34). 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 "-i menest", that is, "is mine". The rhyme is the sound "-īn": dīn, āyīn, cihān-bīn, miskīn, nesrīn, rengīn. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 69b) and Vienna (VY 53a) 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 "Rūzgārīst ki sevdā-yı bütān dīn-i menest" (For ages the passion for idols has been my religion). In his introduction, moreover, Ersoy cites the fifth couplet of this ghazal when describing how assertive the poet is in his ghazals.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with a libertine reversal. The unbelief in the beloved's lock is the lover's religion, and the burning of passion for beauties his creed and rite. The words unbelief, religion, creed and rite form a congruence of images (tenasüp); between unbelief and religion there is an open contrast (tezat). The phrase "küfr-i zülf" joins the lock's covering of the face with its blackness to unbelief in its dictionary sense of covering. Hâfız's words "sevdā-yı bütān dīn-i menest" from his opening line are distributed over two lines in Münîrî: "dīn-i menest" stands at the end of the first line and "sevdā-yı bütān" within the second.

In the second couplet the beloved's cheek becomes the lover's world-seeing eye; in Hâfız's ghazal, too, the phrase "çeşm-i cihān-bīn-i menest" (is my world-seeing eye) occurs in the same rhyme position. The third couplet carries love back to pre-eternity: before the old caravanserai called the world became the lover's lodging, the place of his heart was the beloved's lock. Here there is a paronomasia (cinas) resting on a one-letter difference between "müşkīn" (musk-scented) and "miskīn" (wretched); it is a clear example of Münîrî's fondness for wordplay. The phrase "dil-i miskīn-i menest" also occurs in Hâfız's ghazal.

In the fourth couplet the thorns and straw of the road leading to the beloved's street are, for the lover, hyacinth, jasmine, narcissus and nesrin. In Hâfız's ghazal, too, the "muġaylān" thorns of the road to the "Kaaba of desire" are "gül ü nesrīn", rose and nesrin, for the poet; Münîrî uses the same image, increasing the number of flowers. The contrast between thorn and flower expresses that everything belonging to the beloved looks beautiful to the lover. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) is about the poet's own poetry. What serves as the candle in the gathering of libertines is Münîrî's fresh, delicate and colourful ghazals. Ersoy cites this couplet as an example of the poet asserting his claim by saying that his ghazals are the candle of the libertines' gathering. Poetry and speech appear in Hâfız's ghazal as well: Hâfız says that love taught him to speak and that praise of him passes on people's tongues. Münîrî, for his part, voices this claim through the image of a candle lighting the gathering.

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