Original Persian Text

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

Ṭavf-ı kūy-ı yār-ı men şod çün murād u kām-ı ‘īd
Z’ān buved der-mülk-i ‘ālem germter hengām-ı ‘īd
Ez-ṣafā-yı reh-revān-ı Ka‘be-i kūy-ı nigār
Şod bülend-āvāz der-‘ālem ṣadā-yı nām-ı ‘īd
Ḫurremī-i ‘īd der-yek rūz mī-gerded tamām
‘Īd-i vuṣlat-rā ne-şod pāyān-ı kār-encām-ı ‘īd
Der-ezel şod cān-ı men ḳurbān-ı ‘īd-i vaṣl-ı to
Ber-deret imrūz gerden būd ger fercām-ı ‘īd
Mest-i ‘ışḳ-ı bāde-i vaṣl-ı nigār āmed Münīr
Bāz vaḳt-i ān şod k’ey sāḳī gerded cām-ı ‘īd

In English

1. Because circling my beloved's quarter in pilgrimage became the wish and desire of the feast, the time of the feast is more fervent in the realm of the world.

2. From the joy of the travellers to the Kaaba-like quarter of the beloved, the sound of the feast's name was heard aloud in the world. ("Reh-revān", in its dictionary sense, means those who walk the road, travellers; here they are the lovers who go to the beloved's quarter like pilgrims.)

3. The joy of the feast is completed in a single day; but the business of the feast of union has come to no end. (Ersoy understands it as "the feast of union has no end".)

4. In pre-eternity my soul became the sacrifice of the feast of union with you; if today the outcome of the feast was giving my neck at your door, what of it. ("Fercām", in its dictionary sense, means end, outcome. The sacrificial animal is slaughtered at the neck; "gerden", the neck, is tied to the image of sacrifice.)

5. Münîr has come drunk with love for the wine of union with the beloved, as lovely as a painting; O cupbearer, the time has come for the cup of the feast to go round again. ("Nigār" means both a painting and a beloved as lovely as a painting.)

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 fifty-eighth of the Persian ghazals (fg 58). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the word "‘īd" (feast); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with the refrain "-ı ‘īd". The rhyme is the sound "-ām": kām, hengām, nām, encām, fercām, cām. Ersoy counts this ghazal among his examples of kafiye-i müreddefe, that is, rhyme in which a long vowel precedes the rhyme letter. The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 75a). To whom and when it was written is not known.

The ghazal is like a companion to fg 57, which immediately precedes it in the divan and is written in the same metre with the same refrain. The two poems treat the same theme of the feast with different rhymes.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the previous ghazal the sweets of the feast, the crescent and the tughra stood in the foreground; the images of this ghazal are connected with the pilgrimage and sacrifice. There is a clear congruence of images (tenasüp) among circumambulation, Kaaba, travellers, sacrifice and neck, and these words set the poem in the world of the Feast of Sacrifice. In the opening couplet, circling the beloved's quarter is the true wish of the feast. In the second couplet the beloved's quarter is named directly as the Kaaba; the lovers who go there resemble pilgrims, and their joy proclaims the feast's name to the world. Transferring the words of sacred space to the beloved's quarter is a familiar attitude of divan poetry; here Münîrî spreads this comparison across a whole ghazal.

The third couplet compares two feasts. The feast of the calendar ends in a day, while the feast of union has no end. This contrast can be seen as the axis of the ghazal's thought. The fourth couplet turns the image of sacrifice onto the lover himself. In pre-eternity, that is, before creation, the soul became the sacrifice of the feast of union with the beloved; even if today the outcome of the feast is giving one's neck at the beloved's door, there is nothing surprising in it. A contrast is drawn between pre-eternity and today (imrūz). "Gerden", the neck, is both the place where the sacrifice is slaughtered and the sign of submission.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) carries the ghazal into the gathering. Münîr has become drunk on the wine of union and tells the cupbearer that the time has come to pass the cup round again. The phrase "cup of the feast" brings the language of worship of the earlier couplets side by side with the libertine language of the gathering. There is a congruence of images among wine, cupbearer, cup and drunkenness. As the refrain is used for the last time in the words "cām-ı ‘īd", the ghazal's feast is completed along a line that runs from circumambulation to the cup.

Bibliography

Online sources