Original Persian Text

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

Nīş-i müjgān-ı to ez-sīne-i dil-rīş ne-reft
Key buved rīş-i dilem bih ki ez ū nīş ne-reft
Şod be-derd-i ġam-ı ‘ışḳ-ı to çonīn ża‘f-ı dilem
Dem ne-bāşed ki dil-i ḫasteem ez-ḫᵛīş ne-reft
Meẕheb-i ‘ışḳ-ı cemāl-i to ki āyīn-i menest
Bīm-i īmān buved ān-rā ki be-īn kīş ne-reft
Yār ber-küşten-i men ḫᵛāst me-rev goft raḳīb
Lillāhi’l-ḥamd ki ber ḳavl-i bed-endīş ne-reft
Heves-i gerd-i rehet key reved ez-ḳalb-i Münīr
Fikr-i cer ey ṣanem ez-ḫāṭır-ı dervīş ne-reft

In English

1. The lancet of your eyelashes never left the breast of the one whose heart is wounded; so long as the lancet has not left it, how could the wound of my heart heal. ("Nīş", in its dictionary sense, means needle, sharp point, lancet; "rīş" means wound. Ersoy reads the eyelashes as "like a lancet".)

2. With the pain of grief for your love my heart has grown so weak that there is not a moment when my sick heart has not gone out of itself.

3. The creed of love for your beauty is my rite; fear for one's faith belongs to whoever has not entered this religion. ("Kīş", in its dictionary sense, means religion, creed. Ersoy says "Fear for one's faith is found only in those who have not entered this path".)

4. The beloved wished to kill me; the rival said to him, "Do not go." Praise be to God that he did not follow the word of the ill-wisher. (In divan poetry to die at the beloved's hand is the lover's wish; the rival's attempt to prevent it is therefore counted ill will. "Lillāhi'l-ḥamd" is Arabic for "praise belongs to God".)

5. O idol-like beauty, when will the longing for the dust of your road leave the heart of Münîr; the thought of begging never left the mind of the dervish. ("Cer", in Ersoy's explanation, is the dervish's begging with the bowl called keşkül in his hand. Ersoy reads the couplet as "Just as the thought of begging does not leave the dervish's mind, so the longing to reach the dust of your road does not leave Münîr's heart".)

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-fifth of the Persian ghazals (fg 35). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the verb "ne-reft", "did not go"; in Ersoy's list of refrains this ghazal stands alone with the refrain "ne-reft". The rhyme is the sound "-īş": rīş, nīş, ḫᵛīş, kīş, bed-endīş, dervīş. That a negative verb serves as the refrain gives the ghazal a sense of permanence: nothing ever leaves the lover. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 70a) and Vienna (VY 53a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with a paronomasia (cinas). "Rīş" (wound) and "nīş" (lancet) differ only in their first letter; each occurs twice in the couplet and creates a harmony of sound between the lines. In meaning, too, the two words are bound together: the lancet opens the wound, but as long as the lancet stays in the wound, the wound does not heal. The beloved's lancet-like lashes have never left the lover's breast; the wound's failure to heal is therefore inevitable. The likening of the eyelash to a lancet is a variant of the arrow-and-eyelash image often seen in divan poetry.

In the second couplet the pain of love has so weakened the heart that it goes out of itself at every moment. The negative form of the refrain here joins a double negative: there "is not" a moment when the heart has not gone out of itself. The third couplet uses a libertine language of religion. Love for the beloved's beauty is the lover's creed and rite; fear for faith belongs to those who have not entered this religion. The words creed, rite, faith and kīş form a congruence of images (tenasüp). The idea of the previous ghazal, "küfr-i zülf … dīn-i menest", continues here; the two ghazals follow one another in the edition and are written in the same metre.

The fourth couplet sets up a small scene. The beloved wishes to kill the lover, the rival tries to stop him; the lover, for his part, praises God that the beloved did not heed the rival's word. That death at the beloved's hand is counted a favour by the lover lends the couplet a subtle irony; though the rival seems to be doing good, in the lover's eyes he is the "bed-endīş", the one who thinks ill. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes with a comparison. Just as the thought of "cer", begging, never leaves the dervish's mind, so the longing for the dust of the beloved's road never leaves Münîr's heart. This comparison, drawn between the dervish and Münîr, begging and the dust of the road, expresses the lover's seeing himself as a beggar at the beloved's door; the words "gerd" (dust) and "cer" are also close in sound.

Bibliography

Online sources