Original Persian Text

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

Her ki der-‘ıḳd-ı ser-i zülf-i to şod bend-i dileş
Mī-reved ‘ömreş be-sevdā ḥal ne-bāşed müşkileş
Sālhā bāşed ki der-baḥr-i ġam-ı ‘ışḳ-ı tovem
Ne kerān-ı ū bedīd āyed merā ne sāḥileş
Vaṣf-ı kūyet-rā çi gūyem k’ez tecellī-i cemāl
Mī-koned şey’ lillāh ender-kūy-ı cennet sāyileş
Meyl-i zülf-i yār ez-ān şod ber-dehāneş her ki hest
‘Āḳıbet kūy-ı ‘adem ḫᵛāhed şod ey dil menzileş
Der-pey-i ‘ışḳ-ı to mī-bāşed dilem her dem velī
Miḥnet ü derd ü ġam-ı āvāregī şod ḥāṣıleş
Sā‘atī ḫālī ne-ḫᵛāhed şod Münīr ez-şevḳ-ı to
Şod be-sevdāyet meger āmīziş-i āb u gileş

In English

1. Whoever has his heart bound to the knot at the tip of your curls, his life passes in passion, and his difficulty is never untied.

2. For years I have been in the sea of the grief of your love; of that sea neither the shore nor the coast appears to me.

3. How shall I describe your quarter; because of the manifestation of beauty, its beggar begs "something for God's sake" in the quarter of paradise. (The couplet is hard to understand. "Şey’ lillāh" is the phrase of begging dervishes, "something for God". Ersoy understands the couplet as "If I try to say something on this matter, I shall end up like a beggar in a corner of paradise begging for God's sake".)

4. The beloved's curls have leaned towards his mouth; therefore, O heart, the halting place of everyone who exists will in the end be the quarter of non-being. (The couplet can be read in two ways. Since in divan poetry the beloved's mouth is called "non-being" for its smallness, the "quarter of non-being" may also mean the mouth. Ersoy, however, understands the couplet as "Since there are words in the mouth of everyone who exists about the desire for the beloved's hair, in the end their halting place will be the land of non-being".)

5. My heart is at every moment in pursuit of your love; yet all it has gained from it is hardship, pain and the grief of vagrancy.

6. Münîr will not be empty of longing for you for a single moment; it seems his water and clay were kneaded with passion for you. ("Āb u gil", water and clay, expresses the matter of which man was created, that is, his very nature.)

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 eighty-seventh of the Persian ghazals (fg 87). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the Persian suffix "-eş" (his, its); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with this refrain together with the preceding ghazal (fg 86). The rhyme is the sound "-il": dil, müşkil, sāḥil, sāyil, menzil, ḥāṣıl, gil. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 82b) and Vienna (VY 66a) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is woven of words for binding and knots. The heart is bound (bend) to the knot (‘ıḳd) at the tip of the curls; therefore its difficulty is not untied (ḥal). The congruence of images (tenasüp) among binding, knotting and untying expresses in a concrete image that there is no escape for the heart caught in the coils of the curls. The word "sevdā" is tied to the blackness of the curls both as passion and in its sense of black bile.

In the second couplet the grief of love is likened to a shoreless sea. "Kerān" and "sāḥil" are two words of near meaning; by saying twice that the shore never appears, the poet stresses the boundlessness of the sea. The third couplet compares the beloved's quarter with paradise. The meaning of the couplet is not certain; Ersoy understands it as the poet saying that, unable to describe this quarter, he would become a beggar begging in paradise. Whichever reading is adopted, the beloved's quarter is held above paradise, and there is a congruence of images between "beggar" and the phrase "for God's sake".

The fourth couplet can also be read in two ways. The words seem to describe the curls leaning towards the mouth; the coils of the curls falling on the face, near the mouth, are a common picture in divan poetry. Since the beloved's mouth is counted as "non-existent" because of its smallness, the place where all hearts bound to the curls will finally arrive becomes the "quarter of non-being". On this reading a contrast is set up between "everyone who exists" and "non-being". Ersoy, however, understands the couplet to mean that the desire for the curls is on everyone's tongue and that this desire will in the end lead them to non-being.

The fifth couplet counts the gains of love: hardship, pain and the grief of vagrancy. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) ties Münîr's inability to part from love for even a moment to his very creation. Water and clay are the matter of which man was made; the poet's nature has been kneaded with passion for the beloved. A link is set up between life passing in passion in the opening couplet and nature kneaded with passion at the end, and the word "sevdā" stands at both the beginning and the end of the ghazal.

Bibliography

Online sources