Original Persian Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Dilī k’ez derd-i ‘ışḳ āgāh ne-bāşed
Ne-mī-dānem ki ū güm-reh ne-bāşed
Be-her ẕerre temāşā-yı cemālest
Kesī-rā k’ey dil ū ekmeh ne-bāşed
Merā goftī ki ḫūn-ı to be-rīzem
Der-ān fikrem ki vey nā-geh ne-bāşed
Be-gül-zār-ı cinān u ḥūr u ġılmān
Tesellī bī-to cüz-ebleh ne-bāşed
Be-ḥaḳḳ-ı mihr-i ruḫsāreş Münīrī
Çonān ḫurşīd-i enver meh ne-bāşed

In English

1. I cannot think that a heart which has no knowledge of the pain of love has not lost its way. (That is, a heart that does not know love has surely gone astray. "Güm-reh", in its dictionary sense, means one who has lost the way, one who has strayed.)

2. O heart, for one whose heart's eye is not blind, in every mote there is the sight of that beauty. ("Ekmeh", in its dictionary sense, means born blind. Ersoy understands it as "every mote is a means of contemplating the beloved's beauty".)

3. You told me, "I will shed your blood"; now I am anxious that it may not happen suddenly. (The couplet can be read in two ways. Ersoy understands that the lover hopes this deed, happening suddenly, will not be over at once. In its dictionary sense the line means "I am of the thought that it will not be sudden"; in this reading the lover complains that the beloved will not keep the promise at once and that death will be delayed.)

4. Without you, only a fool finds consolation in the gardens of paradise, in the houris and the youths of paradise. ("Ġılmān" are the young servants who wait in paradise.)

5. Münîrî, by the sun of his cheek, the moon cannot be like that radiant sun. ("Mihr" means both sun and love. Ersoy understands it as "by the beloved's sun-like cheek, there is no moon to match so bright a sun".)

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 sixtieth of the Persian ghazals (fg 60). The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The refrain (redif) is the phrase "ne-bāşed" (is not, let it not be); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-eh / -āh": āgāh, güm-reh, ekmeh, nā-geh, ebleh, meh. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 75b) and Vienna (VY 59a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The main idea of the ghazal is that love is a knowledge which brings a person onto the right path. The opening couplet sets this out with a negative sentence: the heart that does not know the pain of love has lost its way. The negation in the refrain carries a new judgement in every couplet. The second couplet is the Sufi centre of the ghazal. One whose heart's eye is open sees the manifestation of beauty in every mote; one who is blind cannot. As Ersoy also notes, Münîrî, though not a Sufi poet, uses Sufi symbols of this kind; in the Turkish ghazal tg 1, which he cites as an example, the beauty visible in "the motes of the world" and the contemplation of one who has eyes are expressed with a similar thought. There is a contrast between "ekmeh" (blind) and "temāşā" (contemplation).

The third couplet makes a witty turn. The beloved has said that he will shed the lover's blood; the lover is not afraid of this; his worry is that the deed will be delayed. The couplet can be understood in two ways, but in both readings it is clear that the lover counts death an awaited favour. This attitude is a familiar example in divan poetry of counting the beloved's cruelty as faithfulness.

The fourth couplet compares the blessings of paradise with the presence of the beloved. The gardens of paradise, the houris and the youths of paradise console only fools when the beloved is absent. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among paradise, houri and the youths of paradise; belittling a religious promise before the beloved carries a libertine boldness. That not even paradise counts as consolation without the beloved shows that, in the lover's eyes, everything takes its worth from the beloved. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the word "mihr" creates a double entendre (tevriye) with its senses of sun and love: the poet swears by the sun of the beloved's cheek and at the same time by the love he feels for him. Moon and sun are compared, and the moon cannot be as bright as the beloved's face; sun, moon and light form a congruence of images. The arrival of the rhyme "meh" (moon) in the last couplet closes the ghazal with the thought that everything remains dim before beauty.

Bibliography

Online sources