Original Persian Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Her zaḫm-ı tīr k’ez ṣanem-i dil-rübā resed
Ḫoşter zi-merhem-i ū be-dil-rīş-i mā resed
Ber-çeşm-i ḫūn-feşān-ı men ez-gerd-i rāh-ı to
Ḫᵛāhem berāy-ı ḥaḳḳ-ı naẓar tūtyā resed
Bī-dīden-i cemāl-i to ey yār-ı gül-‘iẕār
Goften ne-mī-tevān ki be-‘āşıḳ çihā resed
Ey dil be-seyl-i dīde-i mā ḫande mī-berī
Ġāfil me-şev ki ber-to hemīn mācerā resed
Bā-tīġ-i ġamze ger küşedem bāk ne Münīr
Ez-la‘l-i cān-fezāş kerem-i ḫūn-behā resed

In English

1. Every arrow wound that comes from that heart-stealing idol of beauty is sweeter to our wounded heart than his salve. ("Ṣanem", in its dictionary sense, means an idol; in divan poetry it describes the beautiful beloved.)

2. I wish that, as the due of gazing, collyrium from the dust of your road might reach my blood-shedding eye. ("Tūtyā" is the collyrium applied to the eye and considered a remedy for it; the dust of the beloved's road becomes collyrium for the lover's eye. "Ḥaḳḳ-ı naẓar", in its dictionary sense, means the right, the due of gazing.)

3. O rose-cheeked beloved, without seeing your beauty one cannot tell what befalls the lover.

4. O heart, you laugh at the flood of our eyes; do not be heedless, this same adventure will befall you too.

5. Münîr, if he slays me with the sword of his glance there is no fear; from his life-increasing ruby lip a favour will come as blood money. ("Ḫūn-behā" is blood money, the price of blood. "La‘l" means both a precious red stone and the lip.)

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 seventy-first of the Persian ghazals (fg 71). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the verb "resed" (reaches, comes); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-ā": dil-rübā, mā, tūtyā, çihā, mācerā, ḫūn-behā. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 78b) and Vienna (VY 62a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In every couplet of the ghazal something "reaches" the lover from the beloved: an arrow wound, collyrium, what befalls the lover, an adventure and finally blood money. The refrain gives the poem an order by tying this movement of arrival to a different object in each couplet. In the opening couplet the arrow wound the beloved inflicts is sweeter than the salve he applies; the contrast between wound and salve shows that the lover holds cruelty above kindness. The word "ṣanem" (idol) names the beloved as a being beautiful enough to be worshipped and is a metaphor often used in divan poetry.

In the second couplet the dust of the beloved's road is collyrium. Collyrium was applied to the eye and believed to heal it; the lover's eye, shedding bloody tears, also wishes to be healed by this dust. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among eye, dust, road and collyrium. The phrase "ḥaḳḳ-ı naẓar" suggests that the eye has earned a right by gazing at the beloved and asks for the due of that right from the dust of the road. The third couplet says that one who has not seen the beloved cannot understand the lover's state; a link is drawn between seeing and telling.

In the fourth couplet the poet addresses his own heart. The heart laughs at the flood of the lover's tears, but it must not be heedless, for the same adventure will befall it too. There is a contrast between weeping and laughing; the words flood and eye also build an exaggeration (mübalağa) describing the abundance of tears. The couplet rests on the general thought that one who laughs at another's pain will fall into the same pain, and it carries a tone of warning.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes the image of being slain in the language of a transaction. The beloved's glance is a sword and may kill the lover; but there is nothing to fear, for the beloved's life-increasing lip pays the blood money. That the word "la‘l" means both a precious stone and the lip creates a double entendre (tevriye): the blood money is paid from a jewel, and this jewel is at the same time the lip that will give life to the dead. The contrast between the killing sword and the life-increasing lip carries the opposition of wound and salve at the beginning of the ghazal through to its end.

Bibliography

Online sources