Original Persian Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Dīdem ān muġ-beçe-rā k’āfet-i cān ḫᵛāhed şod
Der-pey-i ṣayd-ı dil-i ḫalḳ-ı cihān ḫᵛāhed şod
Müddetī ber-ḳadem-i şeyḫ şodīm īn dil-i men
Ba‘d-ez-īn der-naẓar-ı pīr-i muġān ḫᵛāhed şod
Dil giriftār-ı ġam-ı ‘ışḳ-ı to z’ān kerd merā
Fāriġ ez-ḥādis̱e-i devr-i zamān ḫᵛāhed şod
Ḫaṭ-ı jengār-ı to ber-ṣafḥa-i meh rānd raḳam
Rūşenest ān ki merā ḫaṭt-ı emān ḫᵛāhed şod
Her ḫadengeş ki revān be’gẕered ez-sīne Münīr
Der-peyeş cān-ı men-i ḫaste revān ḫᵛāhed şod

In English

1. I saw that Magian boy; he will be the bane of souls, he will go hunting the hearts of the people of the world. ("Muġ-beçe", in its dictionary sense, means a Magian boy; in divan poetry it describes the handsome youth who serves in the tavern. Ersoy understands it as "the apprentice of the fire-worshipping priest".)

2. For a while we stayed at the feet of the sheikh; from now on this heart of mine will be under the gaze of the elder of the Magi. ("Pīr-i muġān" is the elder of the tavern; Ersoy understands the second line as "my heart will not leave the sight of the elder of the Magi".)

3. The heart made me captive to the grief of your love, for in this way it will be free of the events that the turning of time brings.

4. Your verdigris-green down wrote a line on the page of your moon-face; it is plain that this writing will be a writ of safe-conduct for me. ("Ḫaṭ" means both facial down and writing; "ḫaṭṭ-ı emān" is a writ of quarter, a guarantee of safety. Ersoy explains it as "an edict showing that I am safe on every side".)

5. O Münîr, each time his arrow passes swiftly through my breast, the soul of sick me will go after it. ("Revān", in its dictionary sense, means both moving swiftly and, in Persian, the soul, the spirit; "ḫadeng" means an arrow and is here the beloved's glance.)

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-third of the Persian ghazals (fg 73). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the phrase "ḫᵛāhed şod" (will be); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain. The rhyme is the sound "-ān": cān, cihān, muġān, zamān, emān, revān. 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 79a) and Vienna (VY 62b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Ersoy counts this ghazal among the seventeen Persian ghazals that are response poems (nazire) to Hâfız of Shiraz and gives its counterpart as page 97 of the 1290 (1873-74) Istanbul printing of Hâfız's Divan; the TDV article also records that seventeen Persian ghazals are response poems to Hâfız. The ghazal of Hâfız in the same metre, rhyme and refrain begins with the opening couplet "Nefes-i bād-ı ṣabā müşk-feşān ḫᵛāhed şod / ‘Ālem-i pīr diger-bāre cevān ḫᵛāhed şod" (The breath of the morning breeze will scatter musk; the old world will grow young again). The rhymes "zamān" and "revān" of Hâfız's ghazal also occur in Münîrî; the pen-name couplets of both ghazals end with the words "revān ḫᵛāhed şod".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain of the ghazal expresses the future, and every couplet is built like a prophecy or a resolution: a handsome youth will be the bane of souls, the heart will be under the gaze of the elder of the Magi, the lover will be free of the events of time, the facial down will be a writ of safe-conduct, the soul will follow the arrow. Hâfız's ghazal announces the coming of spring and the rejuvenation of the world; Münîrî, with the same refrain, tells of the lover's own future.

The opening and second couplets describe a libertine conversion. The lover has seen the Magian boy in the tavern and understood that he will hunt the hearts of the whole world. In the second couplet he says that he has spent a while in the sheikh's service and that from now on his heart will be bound to the elder of the Magi. The contrast between the sheikh and the elder of the Magi expresses the passage from an ascetic life to a libertine one. In Hâfız's ghazal, too, the poet asks not to be reproached for going from the mosque to the tavern; Münîrî's second couplet stands close to this thought. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among Magian boy, elder of the Magi and tavern; as Ersoy notes in his introduction, Münîrî uses Sufi symbols under the influence of Hâfız.

In the third couplet captivity to the grief of love is shown as the way to be free of the events of time; there is a contrast between captivity and deliverance. In the fourth couplet the word "ḫaṭ" is used as a double entendre (tevriye): the down appearing on the beloved's moon-face is at the same time a piece of writing, and this writing is a writ of safe-conduct granted to the lover. Münîrî uses the same image, with the words "ḫaṭ-ı jengār" and "ḫaṭṭ-ı emān", in another of his response poems to Hâfız, in the fifth couplet of fg 64. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the rhyme "revān" works with two meanings: the arrow of the beloved's glance passes swiftly through the breast, and the lover's soul goes after it; that the word "revān" also means soul, spirit in Persian adds to this rhyme a congruence of images with the word "cān" (soul).

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