Original Persian Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Mehī k’ez ‘aḳs-i ruḫsāreş dilem yābed ṣafā-yı ḫod
Pes-i ṣad perde be’nmāyed merā her dem liḳā-yı ḫod
Zi-behr-i yār eger bāşed fedā cān u cihān ey dil
Çi bāk ez-vey ki mī-yābem beḳā ender-fenā-yı ḫod
Sürūd-ı ‘ışḳ mī-verzed be-her ḥālet dil-i zārem
Ġıdā-yı rūḥ ez-ān gerded be-her naġme nevā-yı ḫod
Dilī dārem çün āyīne berāy-ı ‘aḳs-i ruḫsāret
Velī īn ṭurfe k’ez jeng-i ġamet yābed cilā-yı ḫod
Tecellī-i cemāl-i to derūn-ı ḥücre-i dil şod
Keşed z’ān rū be-cīb-i cān ki bāşed der-ṣafā-yı ḫod
Bi-ḥamdillāh Münīr āḫir ġubār-ı ḫāk-i rāhet şod
Kesī k’insān buved kāmil resed lā-büd be-cāy-ı ḫod

In English

1. He is the moon-faced one from the reflection of whose cheek my heart finds its own delight; from behind a hundred veils he shows me his own face at every moment. (Ersoy understands the couplet as "although that moon-bright beloved shows me his face every moment from behind hundreds of veils, my heart finds delight in the reflection of his cheek".)

2. O heart, if soul and world be sacrificed for the beloved, what is there to fear in that; I find permanence in my own nonexistence. ("Fenā" means nonexistence, "beḳā" permanence, immortality.)

3. My moaning heart sings the song of love in every state; therefore the food of the soul, in every melody, comes from its own voice. (Ersoy understands the couplet as "since the food of the soul is one's own melodies and harmonious words, songs of love suit my moaning heart in every state".)

4. I have a heart like a mirror for the reflection of your cheek; but the strange thing is that it finds its polish in the rust of grief for you. ("Jeng" means rust, "cilā" polishing, brightness.)

5. The manifestation of your beauty took place within the cell of the heart; therefore the soul draws it into its bosom, so that it may dwell in its own delight. ("Cīb", in its dictionary sense, means collar, bosom. Ersoy understands it as "the soul draws it to itself so that it may be its own delight".)

6. Thanks be to God, Münîr has at last become the dust of the earth of your road; whoever is a perfect human being surely reaches his own place. (Ersoy explains the words "became the earth of your road" as "died".)

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 seventy-fourth of the Persian ghazals (fg 74). The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün". The refrain (redif) is the phrase "-yı ḫod" (one's own …); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal appears under its number 74. The rhyme is the sound "-ā": ṣafā, liḳā, fenā, nevā, cilā, ṣafā, cāy. The rhyme "ṣafā" is repeated in the first and fifth couplets. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 79a) and Vienna (VY 63a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain of the ghazal is the word "own", and throughout the poem it carries the idea of something reaching its own essence, its own place: the heart finds its own delight, the beloved shows his own face, the lover finds permanence in his own nonexistence, the mirror of the heart takes its own polish from the rust of grief, the perfect human being reaches his own place. This idea and the words used give the ghazal a distinct Sufi colouring. As Ersoy notes, Münîrî, though not a Sufi poet, uses Sufi symbols under the influence of Hâfız; this ghazal is among the dense examples of that tendency.

In the opening couplet the beloved shows his face from behind a hundred veils, and the heart finds delight in the reflection of his cheek. A contrast is drawn between veil and reflection, between concealment and appearance. In the second couplet the concepts of fenâ and bekâ come side by side: soul and world are sacrificed for the beloved, but in this nonexistence the lover finds permanence. In Sufism the two concepts describe the servant's passing away from his own being and attaining permanence in God; the same opposition is treated in Münîrî's fg 59 as well. In the third couplet the heart is a musician who constantly sings the song of love; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among song, melody and voice.

The fourth couplet carries the subtlest conceit of the ghazal. The heart is a mirror and exists to reflect the beloved's cheek. Because old mirrors were made of metal, they rusted and needed polishing; the poet, however, says that the mirror of his heart takes its brightness precisely from the rust of grief for the beloved. The contrast between rust and polish carries the thought that grief brightens the heart rather than darkening it. In the fifth couplet the manifestation of beauty descends into the cell of the heart; the word "ḥücre" creates a double entendre (tevriye) with its senses of a room and of the small cell to which a dervish withdraws in seclusion.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) opens with thanksgiving. Münîr has at last become the dust of the beloved's road; Ersoy explains this as death. The words "insān … kāmil" in the second line recall the Sufi concept of insan-ı kâmil, the human being who has attained perfection, and present the lover's becoming dust as an ascent, an arrival at his own station. The line that runs from the heart finding delight in the opening couplet to the perfect human reaching his own place in the pen-name couplet holds the whole ghazal together through the word "own" in the refrain.

Bibliography

Online sources