Original Persian Text

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

Murġ-ı cān-ı ‘āşıḳān ey dil ez-ān mī-āramīd
Ān hümā-yı sidre-menzil be-maḳām-ı ḫod resīd
Ez-berāy-ı pāy-būs-ı esb-i ān çābük-süvār
Peyk-i eşk-i reh-revān-ı mā be-her sū mī-devīd
Müjde-i vaṣleş resīd ez-hātif-i ġaybem seḥer
Dil zi-ẕevḳ-ı ān süḫan ez-telḫī-i hicrān rehīd
Sāḳīyā ber-ḫīz ü mey deh va‘de-i ḫamī me-y-ār
Devr-i gül be’gẕeşt çün ‘ahd-i ḫazān āmed bedīd
Çihre-i zerd-i men-i dil-ḫaste-rā yād āvered
Her ki şekl-i ṣūret-i ‘ālem bedīn hey’et be-dīd
Sürḫī-i reng-i rez ey dil hīc mī-dānī zi-çīst
Ġālib ez-çeşm-i felek der-hicr-i gül ḫūn mī-çekīd
Ez-hevāyeş gerçi bisyār ūfted ber-dām-ı zülf
Hīc murġī dāne-i ḫāl-i siyāhet-rā ne-çīd
Ser-nüvişt-i ‘āşıḳān-rā ser-be-ser taḳrīr kerd
Yek raḳam ber-levḥ-i ḥüsnet-rā ki ebrūyet keşīd
Ān hilāl-ebrū ki şod ḫalḳ-ı cihān müştāḳ-ı ū
Lem‘a’ī ez-pertev-i ‘aḳseş hilāl-i māh-ı ‘īd
Merdüm- çeşm-i cihān-bīn-i Münīr ü ‘ālemest
Āftāb-ı ṭal‘at-ı ruḫsār-ı Sulṭān Bāyezīd
Tā ki bāşed der-cihān devr-i gül ü ‘ahd-i ḫazān
Gül-şen-i rūy-ı to bādā tāze vü ‘ömret mezīd

In English

1. O heart, the soul-bird of lovers has found rest for this reason: that huma which lodges in the Sidra has reached its own station. ("Sidra" is the Lote Tree of the Boundary, believed to stand in the seventh heaven; "hümâ", in its dictionary sense, is the legendary bird believed to make fortunate anyone on whose head its shadow falls.)

2. To kiss the hoof of that nimble rider's horse, the couriers of our tears running on the road were racing in every direction. ("Peyk" means a courier, a messenger; the tear is likened to a courier because it flows so swiftly.)

3. At dawn the good news of union with him reached me from the voice that calls from the unseen; the heart, in the delight of those words, was freed from the bitterness of separation. ("Hātif-i ġayb", in its dictionary sense, means a voice calling from the unseen world.)

4. O cupbearer, rise, give wine, bring no raw promises; the season of the rose has passed, for the time of autumn has appeared. ("Va‘de-i ḫām", in its dictionary sense, means a raw, empty promise. Ersoy understands it as "the rose season is passing and the time of autumn is coming".)

5. Whoever sees the face of the world in this guise is reminded of the yellowed face of me, wounded at heart. (The couplet is obscure. Ersoy understands it as "whoever sees the shape of the world's face in this sky". Read together with the image of autumn in the previous couplet, the yellowed appearance of the world may be meant.)

6. O heart, do you know at all where the redness in the colour of the grape comes from; perhaps in separation from the rose blood was dripping from the eye of the heavens. ("Rez", in its dictionary sense, means the vine, the grape.)

7. Though many fell into the snare of the tresses through love of him, no bird has picked up the grain of your black mole. ("Hevā", in its dictionary sense, means both love, desire and air, sky; together with the words bird, snare and grain, both meanings are felt in the couplet.)

8. A single stroke that your brow drew on the tablet of your beauty wrote out and declared the destiny of lovers from beginning to end. ("Raḳam" means writing, a stroke; "levḥ" a tablet, a page; "ser-nüvişt" destiny, what is written on the brow.)

9. The crescent of the feast's moon is a gleam of the reflected light of that crescent-browed beauty for whom all the people of the world long.

10. The sun-like radiance of Sultan Bayezid's cheek is the pupil of the world-seeing eye of Münîr and of all the world. ("Merdüm-i çeşm" means the pupil of the eye; "merdüm" on its own also means a human being.)

11. As long as the season of the rose and the time of autumn last in the world, may the rose garden of your face be fresh and your life increase.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is an eleven-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; in the edition it is the sixty-third of the Persian ghazals (fg 63). Since the great majority of Münîrî's ghazals have five couplets, this length stands out. The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif) and does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The rhyme is the sound "-īd": ārāmīd, resīd, devīd, rehīd, bedīd, be-dīd, çekīd, çīd, keşīd, ‘īd, Bāyezīd, mezīd. Ersoy counts this ghazal among his examples of kafiye-i müreddefe (rhyme preceded by a long vowel). The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 76b) and Vienna (VY 59b) manuscripts.

Ersoy counts this ghazal among the seventeen Persian ghazals that are response poems (nazire) to Hâfız of Shiraz and gives its counterpart as page 106 of the 1290 (1873-74) Istanbul printing of Hâfız's Divan; the TDV article also records that seventeen Persian ghazals are response poems to Hâfız. The ghazal of Hâfız in the same metre and rhyme begins with the line "Ebr-i āẕārī ber-āmed bād-ı nev-rūzī vezīd" (The March cloud has risen, the New Year wind has blown), and its second line asks for wine and a minstrel. Münîrî's rhymes resīd, keşīd, dīd and çekīd also occur in Hâfız's ghazal; the words "ḫūn mī-çekīd" (blood was dripping) at the end of Hâfız's pen-name couplet appear unchanged in Münîrî's sixth couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal can be read as if in three sections. The first three couplets tell of the good news of union: the huma has reached its station, the tears have run to the hoof of the rider's horse, and at dawn the good news has come from the unseen. The congruence of images (tenasüp) between huma and Sidra places the beloved in the highest level of the heavens; likening the tear to a courier is a simile. From the fourth to the sixth couplet the season changes. Wine is asked of the cupbearer instead of raw promises, for the season of the rose has passed and autumn has come. The lover's yellowed face is identified with the world of autumn. In the sixth couplet the redness of the grape is tied to the bloody tears of the heavens weeping over separation from the rose; because a poetic cause is given for a natural fact, this couplet is a fine example of the figure of fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil). Hâfız's ghazal opens with the coming of spring; Münîrî, by contrast, treats the ending of the rose season and the coming of autumn.

From the seventh to the ninth couplet beauty is described. In the seventh couplet the senses of love and air in the word "hevā", joined with the words snare, grain and bird, create a double entendre (tevriye): many birds have fallen into the snare of the tresses, but none has reached the grain of the black mole. In the eighth couplet the brow is a stroke of writing drawn on the tablet of beauty, and the destiny of lovers is read in that stroke. In the ninth couplet the crescent of the feast is taken as a reflection of the beloved's crescent brow.

The last two couplets tie the ghazal to praise and a prayer. In the tenth couplet Sultan Bayezid's sun-bright face is the pupil of the eye of the poet and of the whole world. That "merdüm", meaning pupil, also means a human being adds a subtle association to the couplet. In the eleventh couplet the season of the rose and the time of autumn are named again; these words repeat exactly the phrases "devr-i gül" and "‘ahd-i ḫazān" of the fourth couplet. There the passing of the rose season was lamented, while here it is prayed that, as long as the seasons turn, the rose garden of the praised one's face may stay ever fresh. The rhymes "bedīd" (appeared) in the fourth couplet and "be-dīd" (saw) in the fifth are words alike in sound and different in meaning, and they form a pun (cinas).

Historical Context

Because the ghazal names him openly in the tenth couplet, it can be read as a poem presented to Bayezid II. Among the Persian ghazals in the edition, Bayezid II's name occurs in only three poems: fg 16, this ghazal and fg 145. According to Ersoy, Münîrî had been in Bayezid II's company while the latter was governor (sancakbeyi) in Amasya. Ersoy also notes that, according to a Topkapı Palace library catalogue dated 1503, a divan of Münîrî was in Bayezid II's private library. Neither the edition nor any other source gives information on the year or the occasion on which the ghazal was written, or on whether it belongs to Bayezid's years as prince or to his years as sultan.

Bibliography

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