Original Persian Text

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

Sālhā her ki çü mā sākin-i meyḫāne ne-şod
Vāḳıf ez-sırr-ı mey ü sāġar u peymāne ne-şod
Hem-dem-i sāḳī-i bezm-i ezel āḫir ne-şeved
Her ki ez-nergis-i maḫmūr-ı to mestāne ne-şod
Dil be-zencīr-i ser-i zülf-i siyāhet çi koned
Ger be-sevdā çü men-i dil-şode dīvāne ne-şod
Lāyıḳ-ı genc-i ḫayālet ne-buved ḫāne-i dil
Tā ki ez-dest-i ġam-ı ‘ışḳ-ı to vīrāne ne-şod
Key reved şevḳ-ı cemālet zi-dil ü cān-ı Münīr
Heves-i āteş-i şem‘ ez-ser-i pervāne ne-şod

In English

1. Whoever has not, like us, been a dweller of the tavern for years has not come to know the secret of wine, the cup and the flagon. ("Peymāne", in its dictionary sense, means a measure, a large cup; Ersoy understands it as "flagon".)

2. Whoever has not become drunk from your languid narcissus eye will not in the end become the companion of the cupbearer of the gathering of pre-eternity. (The eye is likened to the narcissus flower for its shape and languid look. "Bezm-i ezel" is the gathering in which souls made their covenant with God before creation.)

3. If the heart has not, like me, gone mad from passion, what should it do with the chain at the tip of your black tresses. (Madmen were once put in chains; the tresses, too, are likened to a chain because of their curls.)

4. Until the house of the heart has been laid waste at the hands of the grief of your love, it is not worthy of the treasure of your image. ("Genc", in its dictionary sense, means treasure.)

5. How could the longing for your beauty leave Münîr's heart and soul; the desire for the candle's fire has not left the head of the moth. (Ersoy understands the couplet as a sentence of comparison: "just as the desire for the candle's fire does not leave the moth's head".)

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 sixty-first of the Persian ghazals (fg 61). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the phrase "ne-şod" (did not become); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-āne": meyḫāne, peymāne, mestāne, dīvāne, vīrāne, pervāne. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 76a) and Vienna (VY 59a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built on the idea that love and the libertine way can be learned only by paying their price. Every couplet carries a conditional sentence: whoever has not spent years in the tavern, has not become drunk from the beloved's eye, has not gone mad from passion, has not been laid waste by grief, cannot reach the desired rank. The "ne-şod" of the refrain repeats this negative condition in every couplet and gives the ghazal an order that offers counsel.

The opening couplet names the tavern as a place of knowledge. The "secret" of wine, cup and flagon opens only to the one who dwells in the tavern; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among tavern, wine, cup and flagon. As Ersoy notes in his introduction, Münîrî describes himself as a wine-drinking libertine (rind) and uses Sufi symbols under the influence of Hâfız; in this couplet, too, the phrase "the secret of the tavern" carries both a libertine and a Sufi association. In the second couplet the beloved's languid eye is tied to the gathering of pre-eternity. Likening the eye to the narcissus is a metaphor; becoming drunk from that eye is presented as the condition for drawing near to the cupbearer of the wine of love drunk in pre-eternity.

In the third couplet a simile is drawn between tresses and chain, and a congruence of images between chain and madman. Chains are put on madmen; unless the heart goes mad from passion, what need is there for the chain of the tresses. That the word "sevdā", in its dictionary sense, means both the passion of love and the black bile that in old medicine led to madness adds a second meaning to the couplet. The fourth couplet rests on a thought often met in divan poetry: treasures are hidden in ruins. Unless the house of the heart is torn down by the grief of love, it cannot shelter a treasure such as the image of the beloved. House, ruin and treasure complete one another; destruction becomes the condition of a gain.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) uses the image of the candle and the moth. The moth throws itself into the candle's fire and does not give up burning; the longing in Münîr's heart likewise does not part from the beloved's beauty. Because the poet supports his own state with the familiar behaviour of the moth, the couplet contains a comparison and a proof together. The dweller of the tavern in the opening couplet and the moth bound to the fire in the pen-name couplet carry the same idea of fidelity at the beginning and the end of the ghazal.

Bibliography

Online sources