Original Persian Text

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

Ey zi-zülfet der-serem her ḥalḳa sevdā-yı diger
V’ey zi-çeşmet der-dilem her kūşe ġavġā-yı diger
Der-beyābān-ı ġam-ı ‘ışḳet dil-i ser-geşteem
Mī-resed der-seyr-i ḫod her dem be-ṣaḥrā-yı diger
Cüz-ḫayāl-i sūḫten ber-āteş-i şem‘-i ruḫet
Der-ser-i pervāne-i dil nīst pervā-yı diger
Bā-ḫayāl-i ḫadd ü ḫāl ü zülf ü çeşm ü ‘ārıżet
Mī-nümāyed her naẓar mā-rā temāşā-yı diger
Ger heme gird-i cihān-rā hemçü meh gerded Münīr
Cüz deret ne bendeet-rā hīc me’vā-yı diger

In English

1. O you, from every ring of whose curls there is another passion in my head, and from whose eyes there is another turmoil in every corner of my heart. ("Sevdā", in its dictionary sense, means both passionate love and, in old medicine, black bile and the madness it causes.)

2. In the desert of the grief of your love I have a giddy, wandering heart; roaming on its own, at every moment it reaches another wilderness.

3. In the head of the moth of the heart there is no care other than the dream of burning in the fire of your candle-like cheek. (The moth that throws itself into the flame and burns, together with the candle, is the emblem of the lover and the beloved.)

4. With the image of your cheek, your mole, your curls, your eye and your face, every glance shows us another spectacle.

5. Even if Münîr should circle the whole world like the moon, for your servant there is no refuge other than your door.

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 eighty-second of the Persian ghazals (fg 82). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the word "diger" (another); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with the refrain "-yı dīger". The rhyme is the sound "-ā": sevdā, ġavġā, ṣaḥrā, pervā, temāşā, me’vā. In the edition the preceding ghazal (fg 81) is also written on the refrain "diger"; the two poems stand one after the other in the divan. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 81a) and Vienna (VY 64b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the preceding ghazal the word "diger" always denies that another exists. In this ghazal, by contrast, the refrain expresses multiplicity: every ring of the curls breeds another passion, every glance of the eye another turmoil; the heart reaches another wilderness at every moment, and every glance shows another spectacle. That the same refrain is drawn in two different directions in two neighbouring ghazals is noteworthy. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas), however, the refrain returns to its sense in the preceding ghazal: even if the circuit of the world is made, there is no refuge but the beloved's door.

The opening couplet is one in which the two lines are built to match each other. Curls and eye, head and heart, ring and corner, passion and turmoil are set against one another. There is a link between the blackness of the curls and the sense of black bile in the word "sevdā"; in divan poetry the black curls driving the lover to madness rests on this link. The desert and wilderness of the second couplet recall Mecnun, who lost his mind for love and wandered into the deserts, but his name does not occur in the couplet.

The third couplet is built on the motif of the candle and the moth. The heart is likened to the moth, the beloved's cheek to the candle; the moth thinks of nothing but burning in the flame. Between "pervā" (care, desire) in the rhyme and "pervāne" (moth) in the couplet there is a paronomasia (cinas) based on likeness of sound. In the fourth couplet the parts of beauty are counted one by one: cheek, mole, curls, eye and face. This enumeration makes concrete the glance finding another spectacle in each of them.

In the pen-name couplet the poet likens himself to the moon circling the world. The moon's ceaseless roaming in the sky corresponds to the lover's roaming of the world; yet at the end of all this wandering the place to be reached is the beloved's door. The word "Münīr" means, in its dictionary sense, "bright, illuminating"; the comparison with the moon agrees with this sense as well.

Bibliography

Online sources