Original Persian Text

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

Behr-i ta‘ẓīm-i ḳudūm-ı şāhid-i ra‘nā-yı gül
Sebze mī-güsterd sebz-aṭlas be-zīr-i pāy-ı gül
Ez-gezend-i çeşm-i bed her ġonca der-vaḳt-i seḥer
Heykel-i gül-gūn be-yāred rāst ber-bālā-yı gül
Da‘vet-i bülbül be-gül-geşt-i çemen z’ān şod füzūn
Bī-gül-i ruḫsāret āteş şod be-gül-şen cāy-ı gül
Der-cihān ger her giyāhī yek gül-i sūrī buved
Bī-gül-i rūyet ne-mī-bāşed merā pervā-yı gül
Der-miyān-ı meclis-i mā rūy-ı ān meh-rū Münīr
Būd şem‘-i maḥfil ammā ūst bezm-ārā-yı gül

In English

1. To honour the coming of the rose, fairest of beauties, the meadow spreads green satin beneath the rose's feet.

2. Every rosebud, lest the evil eye should touch it, brings at dawn a red amulet to hang right on the rose's stature. ("Heykel" here means an amulet hung around the neck; Ersoy too understands it as "a red amulet".)

3. This is why the nightingale's calls to stroll among the roses in the meadow have grown many: without the rose of your cheek, the rose's place in the rose garden has turned to fire. (Ersoy understands the line as "the nightingale's invitation grew long".)

4. Even if every blade of grass in the world were a red rose, so long as the rose of your face is absent I have no care for the rose. ("Gül-i sūrī" is a kind of red rose.)

5. O Münîr, the face of that moon-faced beloved was the candle of the gathering in the midst of our gathering; but he is also the adornment of the rose's gathering.

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 ninety-fifth of the Persian ghazals (fg 95). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the word "gül" (rose); in Ersoy's list of refrains the ghazal is given with the refrain "-yı gül". The rhyme is the sound "-ā": ra‘nā, pāy, bālā, cāy, pervā, ārā. The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 84b). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal describes the rose's arrival in the garden like a ceremony. In the opening couplet the rose is a beauty whom the whole garden welcomes with respect; the meadow spreads green satin beneath her feet. Presenting the rose as a beautiful person is the figure of personification (teşhis). Likening the green meadow to satin cloth turns the greenery on the ground into a costly carpet; spreading cloth on the path of an honoured guest gives the scene the air of a welcoming ceremony.

In the second couplet the rosebuds protect the rose from the evil eye. The bud, by its shape and colour, is likened to a red amulet; every dawn it hangs this amulet on the rose's stature. Wearing an amulet against the evil eye is a well-known popular custom, and the couplet carries this custom into the garden. The bud's opening on the rose's stem, right beside it, also resembles an amulet hung around the neck. The congruence of images between amulet and evil eye, dawn and bud, brings forward the freshness of the newly opened rose at morning, a freshness in need of protection.

From the third couplet on, the ghazal moves from the garden's rose to the beloved's "rose". Without the beloved's cheek the rose's place in the garden has become fire; likening the red rose to fire takes on a bitter sense in this couplet. This is also why the nightingale insistently calls the beloved to stroll among the roses. The fourth couplet says the same thought through exaggeration (mübalağa): even if every blade of grass in the world were a red rose, the lover would not heed the rose if the rose of the beloved's face were absent. The refrain here sets the two roses side by side and holds the beloved's rose above all the roses of the garden.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) joins the gathering and the garden. The moon-faced beloved has shed light like a candle in the lovers' gathering; but he is also the adornment of the rose's gathering. The words candle, moon and gathering form one group of congruent images (tenasüp) around light; rose, bud, nightingale, meadow and rose garden form another around spring. The "gül" repeated at the end of every couplet of the ghazal becomes the word that binds these two worlds together.

Bibliography

Online sources