Original Persian Text

Metre: mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Kesī ki küşte-i çeşm-i to şod be-yek nāvek
Çi ḥācet-i zedeneş tīġ-rā to ber-tārek
Zi-tīr-i ġamze-i to gerçi bī-ḥisāb āyed
Derūn-ı sīne-i dil-ḫaste be’şmored yek yek
Raḳib-i cehl-i mürekkeb çi ḫāṣıyet dāred
Mis̱āl-i vāv-ı ‘Amır ne’bved ez-deret münfek
Be-defter-i dil-i men müfredāt-ı derd-i ġamet
Tümen hezār u hezārān hezār gerded lek
Be-levḥ-i dil ki cüz ez-naḳş-ı ḫaṭṭ-ı ‘ışḳ-ı to şod
Ḫayāl-i ġamze-i tīġ-i to mī-koned heme ḥak
Be-devr-i āteş-i ruḫsār u ḫaṭṭ-ı yār Münīr
Naṣīb-i men ġamu ve’l-‘ışḳ ve’l-ḥarāretü lek

In English

1. What need is there for you to strike with a sword the head of one who has died from a single arrow of your eye.

2. Though the arrows of your sidelong glance come beyond reckoning, they are counted one by one within the breast of the heartsick lover.

3. What merit has the rival, compounded in ignorance, that he never leaves your door, like the waw in the name 'Amr. (In Arabic the name 'Amr is written with an unpronounced waw added at the end to distinguish it from the name 'Umar; Ersoy too explains it as "the letter waw written but not read at the end of the word Amr". "Cehl-i mürekkeb", compound ignorance, is the ignorance of one who does not even know that he does not know.)

4. In the notebook of my heart the items of the grief of your pain become myriads, thousands and thousands upon thousands of lakhs. (Tümen means ten thousand, lek a hundred thousand. Ersoy sums up the couplet as "In the notebook of my heart the matters of your love are too many to count".)

5. The tablet of the heart, on which nothing remains but the pattern of the writing of your love, the image of your sword-like sidelong glance keeps engraving.

6. O Münîr, in the age of the beloved's fiery cheek and his down, my share is grief and love, and the heat is yours. (The final part of the second line is in Arabic; "lek" here means "yours".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet ghazal (gazel) written in Persian; its last line contains an Arabic phrase. In the edition it is the ninety-third of the Persian ghazals (fg 93). The metre is "mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif) and does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The rhyme is the sounds "-ek" and "-ak": nāvek, tārek, yek, münfek, lek, ḥak. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 84a) and Vienna (VY 67b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet says that there is no need to strike with a sword the head of one who has died from a single arrow of the beloved's eye; the deadliness of the glance, like an arrow, is exaggerated through this comparison. Most of the ghazal, however, is built in the language of numbers and accounts. In the second couplet the arrows are beyond reckoning (bī-ḥisāb), yet they are counted one by one in the lover's breast (be’şmored yek yek). In the fourth couplet the heart becomes an account book: "defter" (ledger), the "müfredāt" written item by item, then "tümen" (ten thousand), "hezār" (thousand) and "lek" (a hundred thousand). Piling the numbers one upon another is an exaggeration (mübalağa) expressing that the lover's grief cannot be measured.

The third couplet rests on an old nicety of writing. In Arabic the name "‘Amr" is written with an unpronounced waw added at the end so as to distinguish it from the name "‘Umar", which is spelled the same. This waw is joined to the word but gives no sound; the rival likewise clings to the beloved's door and is of no use there. There is also a fine mockery between "cehl-i mürekkeb" (the ignorance of one who does not know that he does not know) and a simile resting on knowledge of writing: the ignorant rival can only be likened to the superfluous letter of a spelling rule.

In the fifth couplet the heart is a tablet on which nothing remains but the writing of love; the beloved's sword-like glance engraves this tablet without pause. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words writing, pattern and tablet and "ḥak", meaning to engrave. The arrow and sword of the opening couplet continue here too in the comparison with the sword.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) sets up a complete paronomasia (tam cinas) in the rhyme. The "lek" of the fourth couplet means a hundred thousand in Persian; the "lek" of the last couplet means "yours" in Arabic. The same word entering the rhyme with two separate senses in two languages shows Münîrî joining his skill in paronomasia with his knowledge of two languages. In the couplet, in the age of the beloved's fiery cheek, grief and love fall to the lover, while the heat (ḥarāret) is left to Münîr; there is also a congruence of images between fire and heat.

Bibliography

Online sources