Original Persian Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Der-ezel mihr-i cemāleş mī-nümūd
Vird-i men ez-ān şod hemīşe yā Vedūd
Ū revān be’gẕeşt ey dil der-peyeş
Āh ‘ömr-i nāzenīn goften çi sūd
Vaṣf-ı ruḫsāreş dilem key mī-koned
Māndem ez-yād-ı vey ez-goft u şünūd
Cān-ı men bādā fedā-yı ġamzeet
Bāzī’ī be’nmūd dil-rā mī-rübūd
Şod hevā-dār-ı cemāl-i ū Münīr
Pīş ez-ān īn gerdiş ü devrān ne-būd

In English

1. In pre-eternity the sun of his beauty was appearing; for this reason my litany has always been "Yâ Vedûd". ("Mihr", in its dictionary sense, means both sun and love; Ersoy understands it as "the love of your beauty". "Vedûd" is one of the names of God and in its dictionary sense means the one who loves much, the beloved; "vird" is a litany never off the tongue.)

2. He flowed past and was gone; O heart, what use is it to say after him, "ah, my tender life". ("Revān", in its dictionary sense, means both at once, swiftly and flowing. "Tender life" calls to mind both the life that passes and the beloved.)

3. When can my heart describe his cheek; from remembering him I have forgotten both speaking and listening. (Ersoy understands the couplet as "while, on remembering the beloved, it can neither speak nor hear, how should my heart tell the praise of his cheek".)

4. May my soul be a sacrifice to your glance; it showed a game and carried off the heart. ("Bāzī", in its dictionary sense, means a game, a toy. Ersoy explains that the heart is likened to a child and that the glance showed it a toy and snatched it.)

5. Münîr became a lover of his beauty; before that, this turning and this cycle of time did not exist. (That is, the lover's love is older than the turning of the heavens, than the beginning of time. Ersoy understands it as "before the passing of time came to be, Münîr had fallen in love with your beauty".)

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-seventh of the Persian ghazals (fg 67). The metre is "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 "-ūd": nümūd, Vedūd, sūd, şünūd, rübūd, būd. 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 77b) and Vienna (VY 61a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens and closes with pre-eternity. In the opening couplet the beloved's beauty appeared in pre-eternity, and since that day the poet's tongue has repeated the litany "Yâ Vedûd". Vedûd is the name of God meaning "the one who loves much"; taking this name as a litany before the beloved's beauty joins human love and divine love in a single word. That the word "mihr" means both sun and love also adds a double entendre (tevriye) to the opening couplet: what appeared in pre-eternity is both the sun of beauty and love itself. As Ersoy notes, Münîrî, though not a Sufi poet, uses Sufi symbols; the first and last couplets of this ghazal are an example of that tendency.

The second couplet works on the feeling of transience. The beloved has flowed away, and sighing after him gains nothing. The phrase "tender life" opens in two directions in the couplet: it describes both the life that does not return and the beloved addressed as "my life". The word "revān" also recalls both swiftness and the flowing of water. In the third couplet the impossibility of praise is stated: remembering the beloved has so carried the lover out of himself that he can neither speak nor listen. There is a contrast within "goft u şünūd" (speaking and listening).

In the fourth couplet the glance behaves like a trickster. It sets a game, a toy before the heart and carries it off. According to Ersoy's explanation the heart is here likened to a child; like a child distracted by a toy, the heart is lost through the glance's game. The image of game and toy brings together in a single picture the lightness of the glance and the innocence of the heart. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) ties the ghazal back to the opening. Münîr's love is older than the turning of the heavens, that is, than time itself. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the words "gerdiş" and "devrān" (turning, cycle). "Pre-eternity" in the opening couplet and "before this cycle of time" in the pen-name couplet hold the same thought from its two ends and frame the short ghazal as a timeless story of love.

Bibliography

Online sources