Original Persian Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Çün der-āmed müjde-i ‘ahd-i bahār
Sāġar-ı cān-baḫş-rā sāḳī bi-y-ār
Puḫtegān-ı āteş-i ‘ışḳ-ı to-rā
Va‘de-i ḫāmī me-kon dīger mey ār
Ger ḥisāb-ı bendegān-ı ḫod koned
Ey ‘aceb men nīz bāşem der-şumār
Ḫāne-i dil gerçi şod ez-ġam ḫarāb
Şod esās-ı ‘ışḳ-ı yārem üstüvār
Devlet-i ṣubḥ-ı viṣāl-i ū Münīr
Mī-şeved ber-‘āşıḳ-ı şeb-zinde-dār

In English

1. Now that the good news of the season of spring has come, O cupbearer, bring the life-giving cup.

2. To those who have been cooked in the fire of your love, make no more raw promises; bring wine. ("Puḫte" means cooked, ripe; "ḫām" raw.)

3. If the beloved should reckon up his slaves, I wonder whether I too would be counted among them.

4. Though the house of the heart has been laid waste by grief, the foundation of my beloved's love has stayed firm. ("Üstüvār", in its dictionary sense, means firm, unshakeable.)

5. O Münîr, the felicity of the morning of union with him falls to the lover who keeps the night awake. ("Şeb-zinde-dār", in its dictionary sense, means one who keeps the night awake, alive.)

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-seventh of the Persian ghazals (fg 77). The metre is "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 "-ār": bahār, bi-y-ār, ār, şumār, üstüvār, zinde-dār; in the first and second couplets the same verb meaning "bring" is used twice in the rhyme. 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 80a) and Vienna (VY 64a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a spring gathering. In the opening couplet the coming of spring is announced and the life-giving cup is asked of the cupbearer. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among spring, cup and cupbearer; in divan poetry the coming of spring is an occasion for setting up a drinking gathering. The second couplet carries the most striking contrast of the ghazal. Raw promises must not be made to lovers who have been cooked, that is, ripened, in the fire of love. The words cooked and raw face each other both with respect to food and with respect to human maturity; the contrast therefore carries both meanings at once. Münîrî uses the same phrase "raw promise" in the fourth couplet of fg 63 as well, when addressing the cupbearer.

The third couplet sets up the relation of master and slave between the beloved and the lover. Should the beloved reckon up his slaves, the lover wonders whether he too would enter that count. The question formed with the word "‘aceb" (I wonder) carries a hope and an anxiety together. There is a congruence of images between reckoning and count. That the lover does not think himself worthy of being counted even among the beloved's servants expresses his humility in measured language.

In the fourth couplet a comparison with a building is used. The heart is a house and has been laid waste by grief; but the foundation of love for the beloved has stayed firm. There is a contrast between ruined and firm, and a congruence of images between house and foundation. The firm foundation remaining in a ruined house shows that love endures despite every kind of destruction. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes with the contrast of night and morning. The felicity of the morning of union falls to the one who spends the night awake. The phrase "şeb-zinde-dār" also recalls those who keep the night alive with worship and adds a religious association to the couplet; the lover's sleepless waiting is thus likened to an act of worship. The good news of spring at the beginning of the ghazal turns at its end into the good news of the morning of union.

Bibliography

Online sources