Original Persian Text

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

Ey ḳadet-rā müntehā şod ḫil‘at-i lev-lāk rāst
Menzil-i ḫāṣ u maḳām-ı ḳurb-ı ev-ednā to-rāst
Ḫāk-i pāyet tāc-ı farḳ-ı ḳudsiyān-ı mu‘teber
Gerd-i rāhet dīde-i kerrūbiyān-rā tūtyāst
Ez-hevā-yı gül-‘iẕār-ı nāzüket ṭāvūs-ı ḳuds
Der-gülistān-ı risālet bülbül-i destān-serāst
Ḳıble-gāh-ı ‘arş u kürsī āstān-ı ‘āliyet
Ẕāt-ı pāket ins ü cān-rā pīşvā vü muḳtedāst
Ān nihālī k’ez felekhā be’gẕered bālā-yı ū
Ez-hevā-yı ḳāmet-i dil-cūt der-neşv ü nemāst
Her nebī-rā gerçi şod ‘ālī maḳām u mertebe
Raḥmeneten li’l-‘ālemīn būden der-īn ḥikmet verāst
Ender-īn devr-i muḥīt u īn reh-i ṭūl ü dırāz
Ān ki aṣl-ı fer‘-i her dü ‘ālemest ū reh-nümāst
V’ān ki der-meydān-ı kāf u nūn sipeh-sālār şod
Şeh-süvār-ı tāc-dār u ejdehā-peyker livāst
Ẓāhir-i ū sāye-i ḫūrşīd-i ẕāt-ı lem-yezel
Bāṭın-ı ū maḥzen-i esrār-ı Ḥayy-ı kibriyāst
Neyyirān ez-pertev-i ruḫsār-ı ū yek lem‘aest
Nüh-felek der-baḥr-i ḳadreş yek ḥabāb-ı bī-liḳāst
Pür zi-elṭāf-ı ‘amīmeş cümle-i ‘ālem ki hest
Hem zi-bār-ı himmet-i ū ḳāmet-i gerdūn dü-tāst
Müftī-i ders-i ilāhī ‘ālim-i esrār-ı ġayb
Ḫāzin-i genc-i ḥaḳīḳat ṣūfī-i ṣaff-ı ṣafāst
Seyyid-i sādāt-ı cüz’ ü kül imām-ı ‘arş u ferş
Şehriyār-ı kāyināt u ḫᵛāce-i künc-i vefāst
Ḫāk-i pāyeş tāc-ı farḳ-ı pādşāhān mī-şeved
Her gedā k’ū bā-segān-ı çākerāneş āşnāst
Ez-heme pīş ū vü āḫir ez-heme āḫir şod ū
Faḫr-i her dü ‘ālem ū vü faḫr-i ū faḳr u fenāst
Ṭurra-i şeb şod muṭarrā ez-ser-i gīsū-yı ū
Rūz-ı rūşen z’āftāb-ı ‘aḳs-i rūyeş pür-żiyāst
Sāye[ī] gerçi ne-dāred ḳāmet-i serveş velī
Der-penāh-ı sāye-i ū cümle-i her dü serāst
Her ki rū gerdāned ez-vey hemçü zülf-i dil-berān
Cāyeş ender-āteş ü āşüfte-ḥāl ü rū-siyāst
Cān-ı men bādā fedā-yı ġamze-i dil-dūz-ı to
Dem zeden ez-zaḫm-ı tīreş ṣad çü men-rā ḫūn-behāst
Men kocā vü na‘t-ı ṣadr-ı her dü ‘ālem der-kocā
Dem zi-güstāḫī zenem z’ān-rū ki meddāḥeş Ḫudāst
Gerçi ġarḳ-ı baḥr-i cürmem nīstem nevmīd ez-ānk
Dest-gīr-i her ġanī vü müflis ü şāh-ı gedāst
Men çi gūyem der-ḥaḳ-ı ān çār yār-ı bī-naẓīr
Her yekī z’ū nūr-ı çeşm-i evliyā vü enbiyāst
Ez-güneh-kārī çü men bī-çāre-i dil-rīş-rā
Ey ṭabīb-i derd-mendān merhem-i şer‘at devāst
Key be-dest hemçü men-i dil-dāde-i müflis resed
Ḫāk-i pāy-i pey-revān-ı to ki ‘ayn-ı kīmyāst
Īn Münīr-i nā-tüvān-ı rū-siyāh üftāde-rā
Yek naẓar z’in‘ām-ı ‘ām-ı bī-girānet ilticāst

In English

1. O you (the Prophet) on whose stature the robe of "lev-lâk" was cut to fit exactly, the private dwelling of nearness to God and the station of "ev ednâ" are yours. ("Lev-lâk" points to the saying "Were it not for you, I would not have created the worlds"; "ev ednâ", in Ersoy's explanation, is the station "two bows' length apart or nearer". The rhyme word "rāst" in the first line means "exact, fitting", while "to-rāst" at the end of the second line means "is yours".)

2. The dust of your feet is a crown on the heads of the honoured angels; the earth of your path is collyrium for the eyes of the great angels (the cherubim).

3. The peacock of the holy realm, in love with the delicate beauty of your rose-like cheek, has become a nightingale singing tales in the rose garden of prophethood. (Ersoy understands "the peacock of the holy realm" as Gabriel; the original text names no one and says only "ṭāvūs-ı ḳuds".)

4. Your lofty threshold is the qibla of the Throne and the Footstool; your pure being is the leader whom humans and jinn follow. (The Throne and the Footstool, in their dictionary sense, are the divine throne above the heavens and its step.)

5. That sapling whose height passes beyond the heavens grows and shoots up out of longing for your heart-winning stature. (The couplet does not name the sapling.)

6. Every prophet, it is true, was given a lofty station and rank; but to be "a mercy to the worlds" belongs, within this wisdom, to you alone.

7. In this revolving age and on this long, long road, he who is both the root and the branch of the two worlds (the Prophet) is the guide. ("Aṣl u fer‘", in its dictionary sense, is root and branch, the origin and what grows out of it.)

8. He too is the one who became commander of the army on the field of "kâf" and "nûn" (the realm of existence); a crowned master horseman, bearer of the banner with the dragon figure. (Kâf and nûn, in their dictionary sense, are the letters of the command "kün", "Be"; Ersoy glosses them in parentheses as "existence".)

9. His outward form is the shadow of the eternal sun that never fades, that is, of God's essence; his inner being is the treasury of the secrets of the Ever-Living and Mighty God.

10. The sun and the moon are only a single gleam from the light of his cheek; the nine heavens are a bubble too small to be seen in the sea of his worth.

11. The whole world that exists is full of his favours, which reach everyone; under the weight of his high resolve the stature of the sky has been bent double. (The dome shape of the sky is read as a bent back.)

12. He is the mufti of the divine lesson, the knower of the secrets of the unseen; the keeper of the treasure of truth, the Sufi of the rank of purity. (Ersoy renders the last phrase as "the dervish of the rank of clarity"; the words ṣūfī, ṣaff and ṣafā echo one another in sound.)

13. He is the lord of the lords of the part and the whole, that is, of all existence, the leader of the Throne and of the earth; the sovereign of the universe and the master of the corner of fidelity.

14. The dust of his feet becomes a crown on the heads of kings; and every beggar acquainted with the dogs of his servants (attains this rank). (The couplet can be read in two ways: Ersoy makes two separate sentences and gives the second line as "Every beggar knows the dogs of his slaves"; the Persian can also be read with the second line continuing the first: "every beggar acquainted with the dogs of his servants becomes a crown for kings".)

15. He is the one who came before all things, and after all things he too has become the last. He is the pride of the two worlds; and his pride is poverty and passing away in God's path.

16. The forelock of night was adorned and wrapped in fragrance by the tip of his hair; the bright day was filled with light by the reflection of the sun of his face.

17. Though his cypress stature casts no shadow, the whole of the two worlds has taken refuge in his shadow. ("Dü serā" in the second line, in its dictionary sense, is "two palaces, two worlds".)

18. Whoever turns his face away from him, like the locks of beauties, finds his place in fire; his state is disordered, his face black. (Locks too fall upon the "fire" of the cheek, are dishevelled and are black; the three attributes fit both the locks and the one who turns away.)

19. May my soul be sacrificed to your heart-piercing sidelong glance; merely to speak of the wound of its arrow is the blood-price of a hundred such as I. (Ersoy says "those like me"; the original has "ṣad", the number "a hundred".)

20. Where am I, and where is praise of the one who sits in the seat of honour of the two worlds? Still, I boldly venture to speak; for the one who praises him is God.

21. Though I am drowned in a sea of sin, I am not without hope; for he is the one who takes the hand of rich and poor alike, the king of beggars.

22. What can I say of those four peerless friends? Each of them is the light of the eyes of the saints and the prophets. ("Çār yār", in its dictionary sense, is "four friends"; in divan poetry it is the established phrase for the first four caliphs.)

23. O physician of the afflicted, for one like me, helpless through sinfulness and wounded at heart, the cure is the salve of your law. (Ersoy renders "law" (şeriat) as "your path".)

24. The dust beneath the feet of those who follow your path is the very elixir; when will it reach the hand of a penniless lover like me? (The elixir, kimya, in its dictionary sense is the substance believed to turn base metal into gold. Ersoy's apparatus has "an elixir that can turn gold into stone"; the phrase appears to be inverted.)

25. For this feeble, black-faced and fallen Münîr, a single glance from your boundless bounty, which reaches everyone, is a refuge.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a Persian kaside (qasida) of twenty-five couplets and bears the number Kaside 3 in the edition. The kaside is a long verse form built of couplets that keep a single rhyme, usually written to praise a person or exalt a religious subject; both lines of the first couplet rhyme, and in the other couplets only the second lines take the rhyme. The metre is the "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün" pattern of the remel measure in aruz (quantitative metre). Every couplet ends in the sound "-āst": rāst, to-rāst, tūtyāst, serāst, muḳtedāst, Ḫudāst, kīmyāst, ilticāst. Ersoy names this sound as the rhyme and also lists the poem among the kasides in his list of redifs (refrain words) as a poem with the redif "-āst"; the "-st" at the end of the lines is the shortened form of the Persian copula, "is". The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 8a), where it bears the heading "Der-medḥü'n-nebī ‘aleyhi's-selām", "In praise of the Prophet". As Ersoy notes, the manuscripts place the poems of divine unity (tevhid) and supplication (münâcât) first and the poems in praise of the Prophet (na‘t) after them; this kaside is one of the na‘ts in the opening section of the divan. Apart from the heading, there is no information on for whom or on what occasion it was written.

The sections of the kaside are clear. The first seventeen couplets open directly with an address to the Prophet and list his station, his light and his generosity; there is no separate nesib or descriptive prelude. Couplets 18-19 follow with the fate of those who turn away from him and the lover's self-sacrifice. Couplet 20 is the couplet of humility: the poet says that venturing into praise is boldness, since the true praiser is God. In couplet 22 a brief greeting is given to the four caliphs, and the last three couplets close with a plea for intercession. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Münīr". The "[ī]" in the first line of couplet 17 is Ersoy's emendation made for metre and sense.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the images of the kaside try to express the Prophet's place in the order of existence. The phrases "lev-lâk" and "ev ednâ" in the opening couplet set out this theme from the start: the universe was created for him, and he reached the station nearest to God. Ersoy explains both phrases in parentheses in his apparatus; the rendering here also rests on his explanation. In the same couplet there is a play based on sound between the rhyme words "rāst" (fitting, exact) and "to-rāst" (is yours). Münîrî's fondness for cinas (paronomasia) is well known, and the kaside offers further examples: "destān-serā" (singer of tales) in couplet 3 and "dü serā" (two worlds) in couplet 17, the sequence "ṣūfī", "ṣaff" and "ṣafā" in couplet 12, and "in‘ām-ı ‘ām" (bounty reaching everyone) in the last couplet.

The familiar themes of the na‘t tradition are treated in turn. Couplet 6 recalls the attribute "a mercy to the worlds", couplet 15 the Prophet's being both first and last and his counting "poverty" (fakr) as his pride, and couplet 17 the belief that the cypress-statured Prophet cast no shadow; the poet works this belief through antithesis: the two worlds take refuge in the shadow of the one who has no shadow. Images of light carry the kaside from beginning to end: the sun and moon are a gleam from his face (10), night takes its fragrance from the tip of his hair and day takes its light from his face (16). In this last couplet night and day, hair and face are set against each other, so that antithesis and tenasüp (congruence of images) are built together.

Images taken from the language of the ghazal are also carried over into religious praise. The nightingale and rose garden in couplet 3, the locks in couplet 18, and the heart-piercing sidelong glance and the arrow wound in couplet 19 are words addressed to a beloved now turned to the Prophet. In couplet 18 the attributes "fire", "disorder" and "black face" fit both the locks of a beauty and the state of one who turns away from the Prophet; the comparison is built on this double reading of the three attributes. The image of "the dust of his feet as a crown on the head" in couplets 2 and 14 is repeated twice; in the first the crown is on the heads of angels, in the second on the heads of kings. The elixir comparison in couplet 24 likens the dust beneath the feet of his followers to the elixir that turns base metal into gold.

According to Ersoy, Münîrî, who followed in the footsteps of Zahîr-i Fâryâbî and Selmân-ı Sâvecî in his Persian kasides, wrote this na‘t, in the "fâ‘ilâtün" metre and with the "-āst" rhyme, as a nazire (response poem) to Selmân-ı Sâvecî. Ersoy bases the comparison on Mansur Müşfik's edition of Selmân's Dîvân; which of Selmân's kasides served as the model has not been examined separately here.

Bibliography

Online sources