Original Persian Text

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

Ṣubḥ-dem ber-gūş-ı cān ez-hātif āmed īn ṣadā
K’ey ümīd-i cān u dil ehlen vü sehlen merḥabā
Yek ḳadem ber-rūy-ı gerd-ālūd-ı çeşm-i mā be-neh
Ḫāksārān-ı reh-i ‘ışḳ-ı to-rā luṭfī nümā
‘Īd-i vuṣlat ger zi-behr-i rūze-dārān-ı ġamest
Ez-hilāl-i ebrū-yı to kūşe’ī be’nmā be-mā
Ber-fiken burḳa‘ zi-mihr-i rūy-ı ‘ālem-tāb-ı ḫod
Dil zi-müştāḳān be-cān āmed zi-hicrān-ı şomā
Bā-vücūd-ı mihreş ey dil ẕerre’ī ḫod nīstem
Āftāb-ı ‘ālemest ū men kocā vü ū kocā
Şükr-i Ḥaḳ-rā her dem ez-ser z’ān ne-mī-gīred Münīr
Rū be-mā be’nmūd ‘aksī ṣūret-i yārem besā

In English

1. At dawn this cry came to the ear of the soul from the hātif, the voice that calls from the unseen: "O hope of soul and heart, ahlan wa sahlan, welcome." ("Ahlan wa sahlan" is an Arabic phrase of welcome; in its dictionary sense it means "you have come to your own people and set foot on level ground", that is, "welcome".)

2. Set your foot even once upon our dust-stained eyes; show some kindness to those who have fallen into the dust on the road of your love. (The lover asks the beloved to tread upon his eyes. "Ḫāksār", in its dictionary sense, is one whose head is in the dust, a wretched and humble person.)

3. If the feast of union is meant for those who keep the fast of grief, show us a corner of the crescent of your eyebrow. (The month of fasting ends when the new crescent moon is sighted, and the feast begins. The lover's fast of grief will likewise end when he sees the beloved's crescent-like eyebrow.)

4. Lift the veil from the world-illuminating sun of your face; the hearts of those who long for you have had their fill of your separation. ("Be-cān āmed", in its dictionary sense, means "has had enough, is worn out"; Ersoy takes it as "has come to the point of giving up the ghost".)

5. O heart, before the being of his sun I am not even a mote; he is the sun of the world, and where am I, and where is he. ("Mihr", in its dictionary sense, means both "sun" and "love"; the line can also be read as "before his love".)

6. Münîr begins anew every moment his thanks to God, because my beloved has shown us a face; a reflection of my beloved's image is enough for us. ("Ez-ser giriften", in its dictionary sense, is "to take up from the beginning, to start again"; Ersoy renders it as "continues every moment". Ersoy explains the couplet as "whether the beloved shows his face or not"; the line itself says that the face was shown and that the reflection suffices. "Besā", in its dictionary sense, means "many, much"; Ersoy reads the word in the sense of "enough".)

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 eighth of the Persian ghazals (fg 8). 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 "-ā": ṣadā, merḥabā, nümā, mā, şomā, kocā, besā. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 63a) and Vienna (VY 47a) manuscripts. According to Ersoy's apparatus, the word "nīstem" in the fifth couplet is written with a different vowel in the Vienna manuscript; since special characters could not be printed in the edition, the exact reading of this variant cannot be recovered. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with glad tidings. At dawn a voice from the unseen announces the coming of the beloved to the lover's soul with an Arabic phrase of welcome. The words "ahlan wa sahlan marḥabā", set into a Persian poem, are an everyday phrase used to greet a guest at the door, and they turn the good news into a scene of hospitality. The couplets that follow are requests addressed to the beloved after this announcement: a foot set upon the eyes, an eyebrow shown, a veil lifted. What the lover asks for is each time a small favour; this smallness is consistent with the words "a reflection is enough" at the end of the poem.

The third couplet is the most skilfully constructed in the ghazal. The words fast, feast and crescent form a congruence of images (tenasüp). Separation is kept like a fast; union is the feast, and the crescent that announces the coming of the feast is the beloved's eyebrow. That is why the lover wishes to see only "a corner" of the eyebrow; the crescent, too, looks like a thin corner of the moon. In the fourth and fifth couplets the image of the sun comes to the fore. The beloved's face is the sun that illuminates the world, while the lover does not count even as a mote before it. The comparison of the sun with the mote of dust seen in its light is a contrast often met in divan poetry; the words "men kocā vü ū kocā", "where am I, and where is he", express this distance in an everyday turn of phrase. The fact that "mihr" means both "sun" and "love" offers the couplet a second reading.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the lover counts even seeing a reflection of the beloved's image as a reason for thanks. Ersoy explains this couplet as saying that, even if the beloved does not show his face, the reflection of his image is enough. Since the text says that the face was shown, the couplet expresses the resignation of a lover who is content with a glimpse rather than union.

Bibliography

Online sources