Original Persian Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Zi-‘ışḳet der-serem kār-ı ‘aceb būd
Dilem tā cān ne-dād ū-rā ne-y-āsūd
Zi-tīġet ḫastegān-rā şerbetī deh
Vü ger ne nīst mā-rā rūy-ı bih-būd
Be-īn ü ān nīm fāriġ zi-vuṣlat
Murād-ı men to’ī ez-cümle maḳṣūd
Zi-āhem sūz-ı ‘ışḳet būd rūşen
Nişān-ı āteş-i sūzān buved dūd
Reg-i cān-rā ḫırāşed çeng-i ġam z’ān
Be-ḳānūn-ı diger nālīm çün ‘ūd
Be-‘īd-i vaṣl-ı to ḳurbān şod āḫir
Serencām-ı Münīret būd maḥmūd

In English

1. From your love there was a strange state in my head; my heart gave it no rest until it gave up its life. (Ersoy understands the couplet as "because of your love my head is in turmoil; therefore my heart will find no rest until it gives up its life".)

2. Give the sick a sherbet from your sword; otherwise there is no prospect of our recovery. (The sick are the lovers; the sword's sherbet is the beloved's deadly favour. In the apparatus the readings "Diger" and "Vü ger" are mentioned together for this place, and "Vü ger" is attributed to the Vienna manuscript; the text of the edition reads "Vü ger".)

3. Union with this or that does not free my heart from care; among all desires, my wish is you. ("Fāriġ", in its dictionary sense, means free of care, having withdrawn from a matter. Ersoy understands the couplet as "among all aims my wish is you; as for the others, it is all the same whether I attain them or not".)

4. The burning of your love became plain from my sighs; smoke is the sign of a blazing fire.

5. Because the harp of grief scratches the vein of the soul, we too moan like the lute in another mode. (In their dictionary senses, "çeng" means both a musical instrument, the harp, and a claw; "reg" both a vein and a string; "ḳānūn" both an instrument, the zither, and a rule, a mode; "‘ūd" both the lute and aloeswood, which gives off a fine scent when burned.)

6. In the end he became a sacrifice at the feast of union with you; the outcome of your Münîr was worthy of praise. ("Maḥmūd", in its dictionary sense, means praised, approved.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; in the edition it is the seventieth of the Persian ghazals (fg 70). The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif) and does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The rhyme is the sound "-ūd": būd, āsūd, bih-būd, maḳṣūd, dūd, ‘ūd, maḥmūd. 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 tells of a journey of love completed in death: in the opening couplet the heart can find no rest until it gives up its life, and in the pen-name couplet (mahlas) it becomes a sacrifice at the feast of union and its outcome is praised. Between these two ends the lover asks for the beloved's sword as if it were a sherbet and recognises no wish other than him. The phrase "the sword's sherbet" in the second couplet carries a contrast: sherbet is given to the sick as a cure, while the sword kills. The words sick, sherbet and recovery create a congruence of images (tenasüp) with the language of medicine and say that death is counted a cure for the lover.

The fourth couplet rests on an observation: where there is fire, smoke rises. The lover's sigh, too, is the smoke of the fire of love within him. Using a general truth as proof in a couplet is the figure called irsal-i mesel; the comparison between sigh and smoke is often met in divan poetry. There is a congruence of images among fire, blaze and smoke.

The fifth couplet carries the densest wordplay of the ghazal. The harp of grief scratches the vein of the soul; "çeng" means both a stringed instrument and a claw, "reg" both a vein and the string of an instrument. The line therefore describes both the claw of grief tearing the vein and the touching of an instrument's strings. In the second line the lover moans "in another mode"; "ḳānūn" means both an instrument and a rule, a mode. The rhyme word "‘ūd" is both the lute and aloeswood, which gives off a scent when burned; the scent and smoke that aloeswood gives off as it burns also connect with the fire and smoke of the previous couplet. When the musical congruence of harp, zither and lute joins the second meanings of the words, several double entendres (tevriye) arise.

The pen-name couplet uses the image of sacrifice. The lover has become a sacrifice at the feast of union with the beloved, and for this reason his outcome has been found worthy of praise. As the word "maḥmūd" (praised) completes the rhyme, it brings the unrest at the beginning of the ghazal to a conclusion. Feast, sacrifice and union meet in the same couplet; Münîrî can be seen to use the image of the soul sacrificed at the feast of union in fg 58 as well.

Bibliography

Online sources