Original Persian Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Sāḳī biyā ki devr-i gül ü furṣat-ı meyest
Vaḳt-i ṣabūḥ u ‘ayş u dem-i nāle-i neyest
Ez-ḫaclet-i leb-i to şarāb āb-ı telḫ şod
Zemzem zi-şerm-i kevs̱er-i ān ġarḳa-i feyest
Dil der-pey-i ḫadeng-i to z’ān rū ne-mī-reved
Ber-sīne rence-i ḳadem-i ū pey-ā-peyest
Be’nger be-dür-feşānī-i īn merdüm-i dü çeşm
Z’ān her yekī be-devr-i lebet Ḥātem-i Ṭayest
Ber-la‘l-i cān-fezā-yı to ḫāl-i siyeh ki hest
Ber-rīş-i sīne vü dil-i mecrūḥ-ı mā keyest
Ber-devlet-i gedā-yı dereş key resed Münīr
Ger şevket-i Cemest ü ger ḥaşmet-i Keyest

In English

1. Come, cupbearer; it is the season of the rose, the chance for wine. It is the hour of the morning draught, of pleasure and of the moment when the reed flute laments. ("Ṣabūḥ", in its dictionary sense, is wine drunk in the morning.)

2. Ashamed before your lip, wine has turned into bitter water; and Zamzam, from shame before the Kawthar of that lip, has sunk into the shade, that is, it hides its face. (Kawthar is the river of paradise; the beloved's lip is held above both wine and the water of Zamzam. Ersoy, too, reads the couplet as withdrawing into the shade out of shame.)

3. For this reason the heart cannot follow your arrow (your glance): upon the breast the toil of its footsteps lies one after another. (The couplet is obscure. Ersoy reads it as "because the beloved's feet tread on the breast one after another"; the arrows coming one after another and lodging in the breast may also be meant. "Rence-i ḳadem", in its dictionary sense, is the toil of the foot, the weariness of coming and going.)

4. Look at the pearl-scattering of these two pupils of my eyes; each of them, in the reign of your lip, has become a Hatim of Tayy in generosity. (The pearls are tears. Hatim of Tayy is the ancient Arab chief famed for his generosity. "Merdüm" means both the pupil of the eye and a human being.)

5. That black mole upon your life-giving ruby lip is a brand pressed upon the wound of our breast and our wounded heart. ("Key", in its dictionary sense, is cauterizing a wound with hot iron; Ersoy, too, says "it is like a brand burned on".)

6. O Münîr, be it the glory of Jam or the majesty of Kay, when could it attain the good fortune of the beggar at her door. (Jam, that is Jamshid, and the Kayanid kings are legendary rulers of ancient Iran; begging at the beloved's door is held above their sovereignty.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; in the edition it is the thirty-sixth of the Persian ghazals (fg 36). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". In his list of refrains Ersoy places this ghazal among those with the refrain (redif) "est"; "est" is the Persian equivalent of "is". The rhyme is the sound "-ey": mey, ney, fey, Ṭay, key, Key. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 70a) and Vienna (VY 53b) manuscripts; according to Ersoy's apparatus the fourth and fifth couplets are absent from the Vatican manuscript, so these two couplets come from the Vienna manuscript alone. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens like a song to the cupbearer. The season of the rose, the morning draught, pleasure and the sound of the reed flute are listed together in the first couplet; the summons to a spring gathering is among the best-known openings in divan poetry. In the second couplet even the drink of this gathering loses its worth before the beloved's lip. Wine turns to bitter water from shame, and Zamzam, ashamed before the Kawthar of the lip, withdraws into the shade. The words wine, Zamzam and Kawthar form a congruence of images (tenasüp) through their link with drink and water; worldly wine and two waters held sacred are defeated in the same couplet by the beloved's lip. There is a libertine boldness in this comparison, but it stays within the bounds of the hyperbole built to praise the beloved.

The third couplet is the most obscure place in the ghazal; though the glance conceived as an arrow is clear, to whom the second line refers is open to debate. In the fourth couplet the tears are likened to pearls and the pupils of the eyes to Hatim of Tayy. The eye's ceaseless shedding of tears is presented as the generous scattering of pearls; that the word "merdüm" means both the pupil of the eye and a human being makes it easier to imagine the pupils as generous men. Between the fifth and sixth couplets Münîrî builds a paronomasia (cinas) of the kind he favoured: "key" in the fifth couplet means cauterizing, while "Key" in the sixth is the title of the Kayanid kings. The rhyme word arriving in two successive couplets with two different meanings counts as a complete paronomasia (cinas-ı tâm). Seeing the black mole on the lip as a brand pressed on a wound rests on the likeness of colour between the black mole and the dark mark left by cauterizing.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) expresses a well-known idea of divan poetry, that begging at the beloved's door is above kingship. The joint mention of Jam and Kay is an established usage in Persian poetry that evokes the splendid kingship of ancient Iran. The ghazal thus opens with the gathering and wine and closes with the exaltation of begging at love's door; the libertine voice at the beginning and the lover's humility at the end stand side by side in the same poem.

Bibliography

Online sources