Original Persian Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Cemālet āftāb-ı ‘ālem-efrūz
Dehānet nükte-i ġaybest mermūz
Mey-i gül-fāmuñ ey sāḳī demidür
Çün irdi nevbet-i hengām-ı nev-rūz
Ḫayāl-i kār-ı ferdā key koned dil
Ki ū hem-ṣoḥbet-i yārest imrūz
‘Ulūm-ı ‘ışḳ içinde ‘aḳl-ı kāmil
Hemān gūyā k’odur ṭıfl-ı nev-āmūz
Me-şev ġāfil Münīr ez-ḥālet-i men
Merā mī-sūzed āḫir āh-ı dil-sūz

In English

1. Your beauty is a sun that lights the world; your mouth is a subtle secret of the unseen realm, hidden in symbols.

2. O cupbearer, it is the very time for your rose-coloured wine, for the turn of the season of Nevruz has come. (This couplet is in Turkish; Nevruz is the new day held to mark the beginning of spring.)

3. Why should the heart think of tomorrow's business, when today it is the beloved's companion in conversation.

4. In the sciences of love the perfect intellect is like a child who has just begun his lessons. (This couplet too is in Turkish.)

5. O Münîr, do not be heedless of my state; the heart-burning sigh is in the end burning me. (Ersoy understands the line as "the heart-burning fire will in the end burn me too"; the word in the text is "āh", sigh.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet ghazal (gazel); in the edition it is the eighty-third of the Persian ghazals (fg 83). The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif) and does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The rhyme is the sound "-ūz": efrūz, mermūz, nev-rūz, imrūz, nev-āmūz, dil-sūz. Ersoy counts this ghazal among his examples of kafiye-i müreddefe (rhyme with a long vowel before the rhyme letter). The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 81b) and Vienna (VY 65a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

The edition places the ghazal among the Persian ghazals, but in the apparatus Ersoy gives the meaning only of couplets 1, 3 and 5. Couplets 2 and 4, whose meaning is not given, are in Turkish: Turkish suffixes and words such as "demidür", "irdi", "içinde" and "odur" show this plainly. The ghazal is thus a mixed poem in which Persian and Turkish couplets alternate; in the older poetry such pieces, using two or more languages together, are called mülemma.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved's face is likened to the sun that lights the world. In the second line the mouth is a subtle point of the gayb, the unseen realm, hidden in symbols. In divan poetry the beloved's mouth is thought to be so small as to be almost invisible, its existence a kind of secret; the couplet rests on this shared motif. A contrast is drawn between the sun laying everything open to view and the mouth remaining hidden.

The Turkish second couplet carries the ghazal into a spring gathering. Nevruz has come, and the time for rose-coloured wine has arrived. The third couplet gives the mood of this gathering: the heart that converses with the beloved today does not think of tomorrow. There is a contrast between "ferdā" (tomorrow) and "imrūz" (today); both rhyme words "nev-rūz" and "imrūz" contain "rūz" (day), and the two couplets are linked around the notion of the day.

The fourth couplet sets intellect against love. In the sciences of love even the most perfect intellect is like a child who has just begun to take lessons. The contrast between "kâmil" (perfect, mature) and "ṭıfl-ı nev-āmūz" (a child newly learning) is the basis of the couplet; there is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) around learning and lessons among the words "ulūm", "kâmil" and "nev-āmūz". In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the speaker addresses the poet: Münîr must not be heedless of this state, for the heart-burning sigh is in the end burning the speaker. The rhyme word "dil-sūz" (heart-burning) and the verb "mī-sūzed" (burns) come from the same root; the couplet thus works the notion of burning twice.

Bibliography

Online sources