Original Persian Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Ān Ḫüsrevī ki der-dü cihān şāh-ı serverest
Bādā mezīd salṭanat ū-rā muḳarrerest
Der-‘adl ü sāyeeş heme ḫoş-vaḳt ü ḥāletīm
Ẓıll-i Ḫudāst z’ān be-cihān sāye-güsterest
Maḳṣūd-ı her dü ‘ālem ü sulṭān-ı ins ü cān
Şeh Bāyezīd ḫān ki şeh-i heft kişverest
Ān mihr-i çarḫ-ı salṭanat u ḥaşmet ü celāl
Ẓıll-i Ḫudā vü devlet-i dīn-i peyamberest
Ez-rumḥ-ı cān-sitān-ı vey a‘dā kocā rehed
Hemçün ‘aṣā-yı ḥażret-i Mūsā ki ejderest
Ber-farḳhā-yı düşmen ü ḫaṣm u ‘adū-yı vey
Her dem zi-perçem-i ‘alemeş rūz-ı maḥşerest
Der-‘ālem-i ẓafer ki çonīn tāb mī-dehed
Ḫurşīd-i fetḥ z’ān ‘alem-i māh-peykerest
S̱ānī ne-dāred ū be-cihān der-kerem meger
Cūd u seḫā be-himmet-i ān şeh berāderest
Rūbeh-ṣıfat ‘adū-yı vey er mī-koned kinār
Ū der-miyān-ı bīşe-i dīn yek ġażanferest
Kes ne der-īn zamāne ki nāled zi-ẓulm-i dehr
Çün luṭf u himmeteş be-heme yār u yāverest
Ger ṣūret-i zamāne be-vechī ḥasen şeved
Rāy-ı münīr-i vey be-heme yār u yāverest
Fikr ü ḫayāl ü vehm kocā reh bered ‘aceb
Ḳadreş zi-ḳulle-i felek ey dil ki ber-terest
Ḫayl-i sipeh ki ān-ı veyest enderīn cihān
Z’ān her yekī zi-Rüstem-i devrān dil-āverest
Bā-leşker-i kevākib ü ḥaşmet şeh-i nücūm
Gūyā ki yek süvāre ez-ān cünd ü ‘askerest
Ebrār ḥayā bered zi-kef-i dür-feşān-ı ū
Cāy-ı ‘aceb ne ān ki kefeş kān-ı gevherest
Men der-du‘ā-yı devlet-i ān şāh-ı ‘ālemem
Der-ḫāṭır īn ġazel be-s̱enā vird ü ez-berest
Ey pertev-i cemāl-i to ḫurşīd-i enverest
V’ez āftāb-ı ḥüsn-i to ‘ālem münevverest
Der-sāye-i ḳad-i to eyā serv-i lāle-ruḫ
Bāġ-ı merā çi ḥācet-i serv ü ṣanavberest
Şāḫ-ı gül-i İrem be-naẓar der-ne-mī-reved
Şimşād-ı sāye-perver-i mā ez-ki kemterest
Dil bā-ḫayāl-i ḥüsn-i to tā key şeved melūl
Der-ḥücre-i dilem ki çonīn māh-manẓarest
Āsūde-dil kocā şevem ender-şeb-i firāḳ
Her dem zi-zülf-i pīç-i to teşvīş der-serest
Yā Rab çi porsed ez-leb-i la‘let dilem ‘aceb
Tekrār mī-şenīd ki şehd-i mükerrerest
Her ṣubḥ-dem zi-gül-şen-i kūyet güẕer koned
Z’ān-rū nesīm-i ṣubḥ çonīn rūḥ-perverest...
Mā-rā me-küş be-cevr ü me-nāz ez-kemāl-i ḥüsn
Dānend cümle ū zi-çi rūḥ-ı muṣavverest
Ān şāh-ı dīn ki leşker-i İslām ez-ān-ı ūst
Der-ḥüsn ü ḫulḳ Aḥmed ü der-ceng Ḥaydarest
‘Avn-i Ḫudā vü Ḫüsrev-i lev-lāk bā-veyest
Ber-her kocā ki ‘azm koned bes muẓafferest
Ān sed Sikenderī ki be-Ye’cūc mī-nihād
Dānend cümle ū zi-çi sedd-i Sikenderest
Ey nūr-ı çeşm ü dīde-i devrān u kāyināt
Gerd-i reh-i to tāc-ı ser-i Ẕāl ü Ḳayṣerest
Cüz-ḫuṭbe-i celāl-i to kār-ı diger ne-şod
Cibrīl-rā ki küngüre-i ‘arş minberest
Tā şāh-bāz-ı ‘adl-i to pervāz mī-nümūd
Ber-çeşm-i bāz menzil ü cāy-ı kebūterest
Ez-berḳhā-yı tīġ-i to çün mūm mī-güdāḫt
Ḳalb-i ‘adū vü düşmenet er seng ü mermerest
A‘dā be-yümn-i devlet-i to ger ne-mī-şevend
Çeşm-i bedān zi-ḥaşmet-i to dūr bihterest
Ez-mihr-i ḥüsnet er ne-şeved behre-ver ‘adū
V’īn āftāb şeb-pere-rā bes çi der-ḫorest
Der-‘ahd-i rūzgār-ı to kes ne-şikeste-dil
Ḫūnīn-ciger be-devr-i to bes cām u sāġarest
Her k’ū zi-zehr-i buġż-ı to mesmūm şod verā
Şemşīr-i āb-dār-ı to tiryāk-i ekberest
Ḳassām-ı lem-yezel be-çonīn ḥāl mī-nümūd
Her dem naṣīb-i düşmen-i to tīġ ü ḫancerest
A‘dā zi-dest-i çün to şehī key şeved ḫalāṣ
Gūyā ki leşker-i to hemān bād-ı ṣarṣarest
Gerd-i rehet ki rūşenī-i çeşm-i ‘ālemest
Ber-farḳ-ı şeh-süvār-ı felek tāc u efserest
Ez-ḳaṭrehā-yı şebnem-i luṭf-ı ‘amīm-i to
Mī-cūyemeş ki her yek ez-ān Baḥr-i Aḥḍarest
Ez-şehd-i şükr-i ni‘met-i ‘āmet koned beyān
Çün ney-şeker dehān-ı ḳalem pür-zi-şekkerest
Meddāḥ-ı to ne-mī-şeved ez-‘acz çün ḫalāṣ
Bes der-du‘ā şoden be-heme ḥāl ḫoşterest
Tā māh u encümī ki şeved der-felek Münīr
Envār tā ki lāzım-ı ḫurşīd-i enverest
Bādā kemāl mertebe-i ‘ömr-i āftāb
Ber-‘unṣurī ki her dü cihān z’ū münevverest

In English

1. May the sovereignty of that ruler who is the chief of shahs in both worlds increase; sovereignty has been given to him and has settled in him. ("Ḫüsrev" means ruler in the dictionary sense; it is also the name of ancient Persian kings.)

2. In his justice and in his shadow all of us live in good times and good state; he is the shadow of God, and so he has spread his shadow over the world. ("Ẓıll-i Ḫudā", in the dictionary sense "the shadow of God", is a title used for rulers.)

3. The aim of both worlds, the sultan of men and jinn, Shah Bayezid Han, is the shah of the seven climes. ("Heft kişver", in the dictionary sense, is the seven climes, that is, the whole world.)

4. He is the sun of the sky of sovereignty, pomp and majesty; he is the shadow of God and the fortune of the Prophet's religion.

5. Where can his enemies flee and escape from his life-taking lance, which is like the staff of Moses that turned into a dragon?

6. Over the heads of his enemy, his adversary and his rival, the fringe of his banner brings the Day of Judgement every moment.

7. The sun of conquest that sheds such light in the world of victory is his moon-shaped banner. (The couplet plays on "‘ālem" (world) and "‘alem" (banner). "Māh-peyker" means moon-shaped or moon-faced in the dictionary sense; Ersoy speaks of "a banner adorned with the moon" and explains the couplet as an unfinished sentence.)

8. In generosity he has no equal in the world; it seems that open-handedness and liberality are the brothers of that shah's high resolve.

9. Though his enemy behaves like a fox, he is a lion in the midst of the forest of religion. (The couplet can be read in two ways: Ersoy takes "kinār" in the sense of embrace and says that the enemy cunningly embraces him like a fox; since the word also means "edge, side" in the dictionary sense, it can also be understood as "though his enemy slinks off to the side like a fox".)

10. In this age no one groans at the tyranny of fortune, for his kindness and resolve are friend and helper to all.

11. If the face of the age has taken on a fair form, the reason is that his enlightened judgement is friend and helper to all. (This couplet is missing in the Vatican manuscript.)

12. O heart, it is a wonder how thought, imagination and fancy could reach him; his rank is higher than the summit of the heavens.

13. In this world every one of the soldiers in his army is braver than the Rüstem of the age. (Rüstem, in the dictionary sense, is the famous champion of the Persian epics.)

14. The shah of the stars (the sun), with his army of stars and all his pomp, is as it were one horseman among the soldiers of his army.

15. The righteous are put to shame by his pearl-scattering palm; it is no wonder that his palm is a mine of jewels. (Ersoy understands "ebrār" as "servants who have drawn near to God". In Persian "ebr" means cloud in the dictionary sense, and "pearl-scattering palm" also calls to mind the rain cloud; the text, however, reads "ebrār".)

16. I am one who prays for the fortune of that padishah of the world; this ghazal, spoken in praise, is a litany and a thing learned by heart in my mind. (Ersoy too understands it as "this ghazal of mine full of praise"; the ghazal within the kaside begins at couplet 17.)

17. O beloved, the light of whose beauty is the brightest sun, and by the sun of whose loveliness the whole world is illumined.

18. O cypress with tulip cheeks, while I am in the shadow of your stature, what need has my garden of cypress and pine? (The second line is Hâfız's.)

19. The rose branch of the garden of Irem does not even come into view; to whom is our shade-nurtured boxwood inferior? (The second line is Hâfız's. The boxwood is the slender, straight-statured beloved; Irem, in the dictionary sense, is a legendary paradise garden.)

20. While there is such a moon-faced beauty in the cell of my heart, how much longer should the heart remain sorrowful with the fancy of your beauty?

21. How can my heart be at peace on the night of separation, when from your twisting locks there is confusion in my head every moment?

22. O Lord, what does my heart ask of your ruby lip? Again and again it hears that it is twice-strained honey. ("Şehd-i mükerrer", in the dictionary sense, is twice-strained, pure honey; the words "tekrār" (repetition) and "mükerrer" (repeated) come from the same root and call each other up. Ersoy understands the second half of the couplet as a question too.)

23. Every morning the dawn breeze passes through the rose garden of your street; that is why the morning wind is so life-nourishing... (The "..." at the end of the line marks an illegible word in the edition; the missing part has not been filled in by conjecture.)

24. Do not kill us with cruelty, nor be coy in the perfection of your beauty; everyone knows that this beauty is a spirit given form.

25. That shah of religion, whose soldiers are the army of Islam, is Ahmed in beauty and character and Haydar in battle. (Ersoy explains Ahmed as the Prophet Muhammad and Haydar as Ali.)

26. The help of God and the sovereign of "Levlâk" are with him; wherever he turns, he is victorious. ("Levlâk" refers to the Prophet through the saying "Were it not for you, I would not have created the worlds"; Ersoy too explains it as the Prophet Muhammad.)

27. Everyone knows that barrier Alexander set against Gog: everyone knows why it is the barrier of Alexander. (The couplet is obscure; Ersoy's meaning too says only why the barrier is counted as Alexander's. In the context of praise, what seems to be meant is that the sultan is like Alexander's barrier against the enemy.)

28. O light of the eye of the age and of the universe, the dust of your road is a crown on the heads of Zal and the Kayser. (Zal, in the dictionary sense, is the father of Rüstem in the Shahname; Kayser is the title of the Roman emperors.)

29. Gabriel, for whom the battlements of the Throne are a pulpit, has had no other task than to recite the sermon of your majesty. (Having one's name read in the Friday sermon is, in the dictionary sense, one of the marks of sovereignty.)

30. Ever since the royal falcon of your justice took wing, the falcon's eye has become a lodging and home for the dove. (Justice has spread so far that the bird of prey shelters its quarry.)

31. Your enemy's heart, though it be stone and marble, was melting like wax at the lightning flashes of your sword.

32. If the enemies do not share in the good fortune of your state, it is better that those evil eyes keep far from your majesty. (Ersoy understands the first half of the couplet as "if they do not wish your state well". The Vatican manuscript reads "şeved" instead of "şevend".)

33. What does it matter if the enemy has no share in the sun of your beauty? How should this sun befit the bat? (The bat, in the dictionary sense, is a creature of the night that cannot come out into daylight.)

34. In your age no one's heart is broken; in your time only the wine jug and the cup have a bleeding liver. (The vessel full of red wine is likened to a lover whose liver weeps blood.)

35. For anyone poisoned by the venom of your enmity, your keen and gleaming sword is the greatest antidote.

36. The eternal Apportioner (God) has shown this state thus: the portion of your enemy is at every moment sword and dagger.

37. When can enemies escape from the hand of a shah like you? Your army is as it were a hurricane wind. ("Bād-ı ṣarṣar", in the dictionary sense, is a cold and destructive storm.)

38. The dust of your road, which is the light of the world's eye, is crown and diadem on the head of the rider of the heavens (the sun).

39. I look at the dewdrops of your all-embracing kindness: each one of them is a Bahr-i Ahdar. ("Bahr-i Ahdar" is "the Green Sea" in the dictionary sense; Ersoy renders it as the Indian Ocean.)

40. Because it tells of the honey of gratitude for your bounty that reaches all, the mouth of the pen is full of sugar like the sugar cane. (Since the pen, like the sugar cane, is made of reed, the two words call each other up.)

41. Since the one who praises you cannot escape his helplessness, it is surely better to turn to prayer.

42. O Münîr, as long as there are moon and stars in the heavens, as long as light is the inseparable quality of the brightest sun… (The couplet can be read in two ways: Ersoy takes "Münīr" as the pen name used in address; since the word means "shining, illuminating" in the dictionary sense, it can also be understood as "as long as the moon and stars shine in the heavens".)

43. … whatever perfection the sun's lifetime is to reach, may that rank be granted to the being from whom both worlds are illumined (the padishah). (Ersoy understands the couplet as a wish for long life for the sun that lights both worlds, that is, the padishah.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a forty-three-couplet Persian kaside (qasida) and carries the number Kaside 10 in the edition. The kaside is a long verse form built of couplets that keep a single rhyme, usually written in praise of a ruler or a great personage. The metre is the pattern "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". The rhyme is the sound "-er" (server, muḳarrer, güster, kişver, peyamber, ejder, maḥşer, ġażanfer, Sikender, şekker), and the redif (refrain word) is "-est", which gives the sense of the copula "is" in Persian; Ersoy refers to this kaside in his introduction as "the eulogy rhyming in -erest" and lists it among the kasides with the redif "-est". The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 18b) and Vienna (VY 26b) manuscripts; couplet 11 is missing in the Vatican manuscript. The second line of this couplet ends, like that of couplet 10, with the words "be-heme yār u yāverest"; the repetition of the same rhyme phrase in two successive couplets is noticeable. The heading in the edition, "Der-medḥ-i Sulṭān Bāyezīd Ḫān ḫalledallāhü milkehu", means "In praise of Sultan Bayezid Han; may God make his dominion everlasting".

The arrangement of the kaside differs from the other eulogies. The poem does not open with a descriptive prelude but enters straight into praise from the first couplet; the patron's name comes in couplet 3 as "Şeh Bāyezīd ḫān". Couplets 1-15 describe the sultan's justice, army and generosity. In couplet 16 the poet says "this ghazal", and in couplet 17 a separate ghazal begins within the kaside with a second opening couplet (matla) in which both lines rhyme; this eight-couplet section (17-24) addresses the beloved. Couplet 25 returns to the sultan with the words "Ān şāh-ı dīn", and the praise continues up to couplet 40. Couplet 41 is the one in which the poet confesses his helplessness in praise; the pen name (mahlas) appears in couplet 42 as "Münīr", and the kaside ends with a two-couplet prayer built on the pattern "tā … tā …" (as long as … ). Whom it was written for is clear from the heading and from couplet 3; the sources give no information on when it was presented.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The sections of praise compare the ruler with religious and epic figures. His lance is the staff of Moses that turned into a dragon (5), every one of his soldiers is braver than Rüstem (13), even the sun is a horseman in his army (14), he himself is Ahmed in beauty and Haydar in battle (25), the dust of his road is a crown on the heads of Zal and the Kayser (28), and Gabriel recites the sermon in his name on the battlements of the Throne (29). In this sequence names taken from Persian epic, from the stories of the prophets and from Islamic history are used side by side; hyperbole (mübalağa) is the basic device of the kaside. In couplet 7 there is a play on words (cinas) between "‘ālem" (world) and "‘alem" (banner). Couplet 30 expresses the theme of justice through birds of the hunt: when the sultan's justice takes wing, the falcon's eye becomes a nest for the dove. In couplet 34 the "bleeding liver" of the jug and cup full of red wine is a hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology); since no one's heart is broken in the sultan's age, blood is left only to the cup. In couplet 35 poison and antidote, in couplet 33 sun and bat are set against each other. The phrase "rāy-ı münīr" (enlightened judgement) in couplet 11 also recalls the poet's pen name; in couplet 42 too the word "Münīr" can be read both as the pen name and in the sense of "shining".

The ghazal in couplets 17-24 is the most striking section of the kaside. According to Ersoy's finding, the first lines of couplets 18 and 19 are Münîrî's and the second lines are by Hâfız of Shiraz. These two lines are the opening couplet of Hâfız's ghazal beginning "Bāġ-ı merā çi ḥācet-i serv ü ṣanavberest"; the ghazal is number 39 in the edition of Qazvini and Ghani. Münîrî split Hâfız's opening couplet in two and set a line of his own before each of its lines. In the text of Qazvini and Ghani the second line reads "şimşād-ı ḫāne-perver", whereas Münîrî's text has "şimşād-ı sāye-perver". Hâfız's ghazal is also in the same metre and ends in the sound "-erest"; of Hâfız's rhyme words, "muḳarrerest", "kişverest" (with the phrase "heft kişver"), "mükerrerest" and "şekkerest" also occur in Münîrî's kaside (couplets 1, 3, 22 and 40). Hâfız's likening, in his pen-name couplet, of his pen to a branch of sugar candy whose fruit is sweeter than honey and sugar recalls the image of the pen whose mouth is full of sugar in Münîrî's couplet 40; Ersoy does not mention this last resemblance, which is an observation drawn from comparing the texts.

The other couplets of the ghazal section also use established images addressed to the beloved: the sun-like face (17), the tulip-cheeked cypress (18), the rose branch of the garden of Irem and the boxwood (19), the night of separation and the twisting locks (21), the lip like twice-strained honey (22) and the dawn breeze passing through the beloved's street (23). In couplet 22 the words "tekrār" and "mükerrer", coming from the same root, create a play of sound and meaning. Placing a ghazal inside the kaside makes it possible to speak part of the praise in the form of an address to the beloved; in couplet 25 the poet passes from this beloved directly to the sultan.

According to Ersoy, Münîrî was influenced in his Persian kasides by Zahîr-i Fâryâbî and Selmân-ı Sâvecî, the two great kaside poets of classical Persian poetry, and also mentions them by name. This kaside is among the nazires (response poems) Ersoy names: the eulogy in the metre "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün" rhyming in "-erest" was written as a nazire both to Selmân and to Zahîr. Ersoy bases the comparison on Mansur Müşfik's edition of Selmân's Dîvân and on Zahîr's Dîvân; which kasides of the two poets served as models has not been examined separately here. The presence of Hâfız's lines in the kaside is an example showing the weight of Hâfız in Münîrî's Persian poetry; Ersoy counts these two couplets in his introduction among the evidence of Münîrî's debt to Hâfız. The English rendering rests on the Persian text and on Ersoy's meanings in the apparatus; readings that depart from Ersoy or that open up places he leaves open to two interpretations are noted under the couplets.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources