Original Persian Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Ger lebet ser-çeşme-i āb-ı ḥayātest ey peser
Şod ruḫet nūr-ı çerāġ-ı dīde-i ehl-i naẓar
Īn dü çeşm-i dür-feşān u cān u dil mā-rā ki hest
Her yekī-rā mī-nehem ez-behr-i to der-her memer
Cüz hevā-yı mihr-i ruḫsāret ne-şod kār-ı dilem
Der-cihān kār-ı diger hergiz ne-mī-dāned meger
Ez-berā-yı la‘l-i reng-āmīz-i to dil ḫaste şod
Gerçi mī-gūyend nāfi‘ mī-şeved gül-bā-şeker
Şod ḫayāl-i yārem imşeb mīhmān-ı mā Münīr
Çün konem der-ḫāne-i dil nīst cüz ḫūn-ı ciger

In English

1. O fair youth, if your lip is the spring of the water of immortality, your cheek has become the light of the eye of those who know how to look. ("Peser", in its dictionary sense, means son, youth. "Ehl-i naẓar" are those who know how to see beauty; Ersoy understands it as "the people of the heart".)

2. Our two pearl-scattering eyes, our soul and our heart, each of them I lay down for you on every road you pass. ("Dür-feşān" means scattering pearls; the pearls are tears.)

3. The business of my heart has been nothing but desire for the sun of your cheek; it is as if it knew no other business in the world. ("Mihr", in its dictionary sense, means both sun and love.)

4. The heart has fallen sick for the sake of your colourful ruby lip; though they say that rose conserve does the sick good. ("Gül-bā-şeker", in its dictionary sense, is a paste made of rose petals and sugar; in old medicine it was used as a remedy. Ersoy explains it as "a mixture of rose and sugar".)

5. O Münîr, tonight the image of my beloved has become our guest; what shall I do, in the house of the heart there is nothing but liver's blood. (That is, there is nothing to offer the guest. Some letters of the meaning Ersoy gives for this couplet could not be printed in the edition; the meaning reads as "because we make nothing in the house of the heart but liver's blood, the image of my beloved became our guest tonight", and builds the couplet on a relation of cause and effect.)

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-sixth of the Persian ghazals (fg 76). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif) and does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The rhyme is the sound "-er": peser, naẓar, memer, meger, şeker, ciger. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 79b) and Vienna (VY 63b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal tells of devotion to the beloved's beauty and of the price of that devotion. In the opening couplet the beloved's lip is the spring of the water of immortality, and his cheek is the light of the eye of those who know how to see beauty. The two similes, of lip and water and of cheek and light, make the two lines of the couplet balance each other. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among water of life, spring, eye and light. Addressing the beloved as "peser", youth, is a form of address often met in the Persian ghazal.

The second couplet tells how the lover lays down everything he has on the beloved's road. Eyes, soul and heart are listed; the eyes scatter pearls, that is, weep without ceasing. Likening tears to pearls is a metaphor. In the third couplet the heart, as if it knew no other business in the world, desires only the sun of the beloved's cheek. Here too the word "mihr" creates a double entendre (tevriye) with its senses of sun and love.

The fourth couplet makes a witty conceit in the language of medicine. The heart has fallen sick because of the beloved's ruby lip. Physicians say that rose conserve does the sick good; but this sickness came from the beloved's lip. Since the rose and sugar in the word rose conserve also recall the beloved's rose cheek and sugar lip, the couplet can be read as hinting that the cure for this sickness lies once again in the beloved. The couplet carries the thought that the sickness of love will not be healed by the remedies physicians know. There is a congruence of images among ruby, rose, sugar and sick.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) sets up a scene of hospitality. In the night the image of the beloved has become the lover's guest; in the house of the lover's heart, however, there is nothing to offer but liver's blood. The link among house, guest and offering expresses the lover's poverty and pain together. Liver's blood is in divan poetry the sign of deep pain; here it can also be thought of as the only wine to be served to the guest. Ersoy understands the couplet with a different connection and says that the image became a guest because there was liver's blood in the house of the heart.

Bibliography

Online sources