Original Persian Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Zi-dest-i ān ki kār-ı mā fiġān şod
Dilem ber-būd u bāz ez-men revān şod
Be-cüst ü cūy-ı ān serv-i sehī-ḳad
Be-her sū eşk-i mā seyl-i revān şod
Çi gūyem der-ḥaḳ-ı çeşm-i ġazālet
Ki ṣayd-ı lāġereş şīr-i jiyān şod
Be-sevdā-yı ser-i zencīr-i zülfet
Dilem ser-ḥalḳa-i dīvānegān şod
Be-derd-i ‘ışḳet ez-cān-ı cihān dād
Ki mī-gūyed Münīr ender-ziyān şod

In English

1. At the hands of that beloved our business has become lamentation; he snatched my heart and went off from me again.

2. From seeking that straight-statured cypress, our tears have become a flood running on every side. ("Serv-i sehī" is a straight, tall cypress; the beloved's stature is likened to the cypress tree.)

3. What shall I say of your gazelle eye, whose leanest prey has become the roaring lion. (In the Vienna manuscript "Çü", that is, "since, because", is read instead of "Çi". "Lāġar", in its dictionary sense, means thin, lean; "jiyān" roaring, furious.)

4. Through passion for the tip of the chain of your tresses, my heart has become the head of the circle of madmen. ("Ser-ḥalḳa", in its dictionary sense, means the head of a circle, of a company; "ḥalḳa" also calls to mind the link of a chain.)

5. For the pain of your love he gave up the soul of the world; who will say that Münîr has suffered loss. (The couplet can be read in two ways. "Dād", in its dictionary sense, means in Persian both "gave" and "justice". Ersoy takes "dād" in the sense of justice and understands the couplet as "because of the pain of your love I seek justice from the soul of the world; in this case who can say that Münîr is at a loss". Read as a verb, the couplet says that Münîr, who has given the soul of the world, that is, his whole being, for the pain of love, still cannot be counted at a loss.)

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-ninth of the Persian ghazals (fg 69). The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The refrain (redif) is the verb "şod" (became); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-ān": fiġān, revān, revān, jiyān, dīvānegān, ziyān. 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 78a) and Vienna (VY 61b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal describes the distress caused by the beloved in a series of tableaux: lamentation, tears turned to a flood, a gazelle hunting a lion, a heart that becomes the head of the madmen. In the opening couplet the beloved has snatched the heart and gone; nothing is left to the lover but lamentation. In the second couplet the tears are a flood running in every direction to seek the beloved. The rhyme "revān" is used in the first and second couplets with two different meanings: in the first it is the beloved's going off, in the second the running of the flood. The appearance of the same word in the rhyme with different meanings forms a pun (cinas); cypress, running water and flood also create a congruence of images (tenasüp) with the image of a garden and a riverbank.

The third couplet carries the most striking contrast of the ghazal. The gazelle is a hunted animal and is known for the beauty of its eye; the lion is a hunter. The leanest prey of the beloved's gazelle eye is the roaring lion. The reversal of the relation between hunter and prey says that beauty overcomes even the strongest. The two contrasts, between gazelle and lion and between lean and roaring, give the couplet a sharp meaning.

In the fourth couplet the tresses are again likened to a chain, and through passion for this chain the heart becomes the head of the circle of madmen. There is a congruence of images between chain and link (ḥalḳa); the word "ser" (head) in the phrase "ser-ḥalḳa" (head of the circle) is also repeated in the phrase "ser-i zencīr" (tip of the chain) in the same line. Since madmen were put in chains, the link between madman and chain is also a familiar image. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) can be read in two ways because of the two meanings of the word "dād". In Ersoy's reading the lover seeks justice because of the pain of love; in the other reading Münîr has given everything for love and, despite this sacrifice, cannot be counted at a loss. In both readings the rhyme "ziyān" (loss) at the end of the line is tied to the thought that what is lost for love is not to be counted a loss.

Bibliography

Online sources