Original Persian Text

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

Dil-rā ki rişte-i ser-i zülf-i to bend buved
Tārī ez-ān be-gerden-i cānem kemend buved
Serv-i sehī be-ḳāmet-i to dāşt nisbetī
Ḳadreş be-ṣaḥn-ı gül-şen ez-īn-rū bülend buved
Her dem fedā-yı her ser-i zülf-i to der-cihān
Cān-ı hezār ḫaste-dilī derd-mend buved
Goftī diger ki ḫūn-ı to rīzem be-ṣad cefā
Īn va‘dhā ki mī-konī ey dost çend buved
Her cā ki āteş-i ruḫ-ı ān meh ki şod Münīr
Ez-behr-i def‘-i çeşm-i bed īn dil sipend buved

In English

1. When the thread at the tip of your tresses becomes a bond for the heart, even a single strand of it becomes a lasso around the neck of my soul. ("Bend", in its dictionary sense, means a bond, a cord; Ersoy understands it as "the wound that the tip of your tresses opens in the heart becomes a bond".)

2. The straight cypress bore some likeness to your stature; for this reason its worth stood high in the midst of the rose garden. ("Ḳadr" means worth, esteem; "bülend" high, tall. The height of its worth and the tallness of the cypress meet in the same phrase.)

3. In the world, at every moment, the souls of thousands of heartsick sufferers are sacrificed to every tip of your tresses. (In the Vatican manuscript, instead of "zülf-i", there is a word whose letters could not be fully printed in the edition; this word can be read as "mūy-ı", that is, "strand of hair".)

4. Again you said, "I will shed your blood with a hundred cruelties"; O friend, how long will these promises you make go on. (Ersoy understands it as "how many have these promises of yours become, and still you have not kept your word".)

5. O Münîr, wherever the fire of that moon-faced one's cheek burns, this heart becomes rue seed there to ward off the evil eye. ("Sipend" is rue seed (wild rue); it was thrown on the fire against the evil eye. Ersoy explains it as "my heart too becomes rue seed to drive away evil eyes".)

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-second of the Persian ghazals (fg 72). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the verb "buved" (is, becomes); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-end": bend, kemend, bülend, derd-mend, çend, sipend. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 78b) and Vienna (VY 62b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built on the power of the tresses to bind, to strangle and to tie souls to themselves. In the opening couplet the tip of the tresses is a thread and becomes a bond for the heart; a single strand of the same tresses turns into a lasso thrown around the neck of the soul. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among thread, strand, bond and lasso. The lasso is the looped rope that a hunter or warrior throws to catch his prey; the curling length of the tresses gives this comparison a visual basis. The passage from heart to soul, from bond to lasso, shows the effect of the tresses growing ever heavier.

The second couplet rests on a conceit close to fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil). The cypress is held precious and lofty in the garden; the poet ties the cause of this to the cypress's resemblance to the beloved's stature. "Ḳadr" (worth) with "bülend" (high, tall) expresses both the esteem of the cypress and the tallness of its stature; since both meanings of the phrase hold in the couplet, a double entendre (tevriye) arises. The simile between the cypress and the beloved's stature is among the most common comparisons of divan poetry; here the comparison is built in reverse, and the cypress's worth is counted as borrowed from the beloved.

The third couplet sacrifices the souls of thousands of sufferers to every strand of the tresses and carries an exaggeration (mübalağa). In the fourth couplet the beloved's ever-repeated but never-kept promise of death is mentioned in a mocking tone. The lover does not fear death; what he complains of is the delay of the promise. The contrast between the words cruelty and friend strengthens the irony of the couplet.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes with an image taken from popular belief. Rue seed was thrown on the fire against the evil eye, and it was believed to ward off the evil eye as it burned. The beloved's cheek is a fire; the lover's heart becomes the rue seed thrown onto that fire and burns itself to protect the beloved from the evil eye. There is a congruence of images among fire, cheek and rue. The heart's sacrifice of itself expresses both love and protectiveness; the lasso around the neck in the opening couplet gives way, in the pen-name couplet, to the heart that burns itself for the beloved's sake.

Bibliography

Online sources