Original Persian Text

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

Egerçi mī-küşed ān yār-ı bī-günāh merā
Çi ġam ki mī-koned iḥyā be-yek nigāh merā
Cefā vü ‘işve vü nāz ü sitem-gerī āmūḫt
Eger hemīşe çonīn bāşed ey dil āh merā
Çonīn ki dāmenem ez-eşk şod mey-ālūde
Meger ki mī-şeved īn āb-ı ‘öẕr-ḫᵛāh merā
Zi-luṭf-ı ‘ām-ı to luṭfī be-kon be-ḫᵛān bārī
Be-ḳaṣd-ı silk-i segān-ı to gāh gāh merā
Cüz āstān-ı to ne’bved maḳām u cāy Münīr
Hezār şükr ki ey cān şod ū penāh merā

In English

1. Even if that sinless beloved kills me, what matter; for with a single glance he brings me back to life.

2. O heart, the beloved has learned cruelty, coquetry, disdain and tyranny; if it is always to be so, woe is me. ("Āh merā" means word for word "ah to me"; Ersoy renders it as "let there be sighs for me".)

3. My skirt has become so soaked in wine from my tears that perhaps this water will become my apologist. (The couplet is not entirely clear. Ersoy understands it to mean that the poet's bloody tears are his apology and that his skirt has been stained the colour of wine by these tears. Going by the text, one may also think of the wine-stained skirt making its apology with the water of tears.)

4. Out of the kindness you show to all, at least grant me one kindness: now and then call me with the intention of adding me to the ranks of your dogs. ("Silk", in its dictionary sense, means row, line, company. In divan poetry the dog at the beloved's door is a creature the lover envies and wishes to become.)

5. For Münîr there is no station, no place but your threshold; O soul, a thousand thanks that it has become my refuge. (The text has "merā", to me; Ersoy renders it as "our".)

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 fifth of the Persian ghazals (fg 5). The metre is "mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the word "merā", "me, to me"; the rhyme is the sound "-āh": bī-günāh, nigāh, āh, ‘öẕr-ḫᵛāh, gāh, penāh. In the list of refrains in Ersoy's introduction this ghazal is shown with the redif "merā". The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 62b). According to Ersoy, the Vatican manuscript is the fullest and best-ordered copy of the divan, and the order of the edited text follows it; some Persian ghazals, like this one, are known only thanks to this manuscript. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal tells of the lover's devotion to the beloved and his taking refuge at the beloved's threshold. Because the redif returns to the lover in every couplet as "me" or "to me", the whole ghazal becomes the voice of the first person. The first couplet ties death and resurrection to the same beloved: though the beloved kills, he revives with a glance. This is a familiar image that attributes a life-giving power to the beloved's look; there is an antithesis between "küşed", kills, and "iḥyā", reviving. Calling the beloved "bī-günāh", sinless, sets up a subtle contrast with the act of killing: the one who kills the lover is still deemed innocent.

In the second couplet the words cruelty, coquetry, disdain and tyranny list together the beloved's familiar traits, and the lover's helplessness at their continuing ends in the words "āh merā"; here the rhyme word is the sigh itself. In the third couplet tear and wine meet on the same skirt: the wine stain evokes the life of the rind, the tear apology and remorse. The fourth couplet expresses the humility of the lover who asks, as a kindness, to be counted among the dogs at the beloved's door. In the pen-name couplet this humility turns into a prayer for refuge: the beloved's threshold is the poet's only station. The words "maḳām", "cāy" and "penāh" stand in congruence of images (tenasüp), linking the meanings of station, place and refuge. Ersoy considers Münîrî a rind and a lover; in this ghazal the rind appears only in the wine-stained skirt, and the weight falls on the lover's humility. The sixth Persian ghazal, which immediately follows, is written in the same metre, is found only in the Vatican manuscript, and its redif likewise turns to the first person.

Bibliography

Online sources