Original Persian Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Ey bende-i mihr-i ruḫ-ı to māh-ı tamāmest
V’ey ġāliye-i zülf-i to-rā nāfe ġulāmest
Ger hem-dem-i mā yār u mey ü sāġar u cāmest
Der-meclis-i mā ‘ıṭr me-y-āmīz ki ḫāmest
Her-dem zi-ser-i zülf-i to ḫoş-būy-ı meşāmest
Ez-la‘l-i to īn ḫurde be-‘uşşāḳ çi rengest
K’ez nāzükīyeş cümle heme der-ser-i cengest
Īn dem ki zi-nāmūs me-rā ġayret ü nengest
Gūşem heme ber-ḳavl-i ney ü naġme-i çengest
Çeşmem heme ber-la‘l-i to vü gerdiş-i cāmest
Hergiz ne-şeved ber-ḳad-i to nisbet-i ‘ar‘ar
Ez-şerm-i lebet geşt nihān çeşme-i kevs̱er
Goftem be-to ey cān-ı men īn nükte mükerrer
Ez-çāşnī-i ḳand me-gū hīç zi-şekker
Z’ān rū ki merā der-leb-i şīrīn-i to kāmest
Ez-ġamze-i cādū-yı to cān der-heme bīmest
V’ez nergis-i maḫmūr-ı to bīmār u saḳīmest
Peyveste merā ‘ayş u ṣafā yār u nedīmest
Tā genc-i ġamet der-dil-i vīrāne muḳīmest
Hemvāre merā künc-i ḫarābāt maḳāmest
Her dil ki zi-çeşmet hedef-i tīr-i ḫadengest
Çün ġonca be-ū hīc tevān goft ki tengest
Der-bezmgehī-i mā ki mey ü naġme-i çengest
Ez-neng çi gūyī ki merā nām zi-nengest
V’ez nām çi porsī ki merā neng zi-nāmest
Tā dil be-ġam-ı ‘ışḳ-ı to şod hem-dem ü hem-rāz
Ser-mest-i mey-i ‘ışḳ-ı to şod gerd-i ser-āġāz
Der-devr-i leb-i la‘l-i to ey serv-i ser-efrāz
Mey-ḫāre vü ser-geşte vü rindīm ü naẓar-bāz
V’ān kes ki çü mā nīst der-īn devr kodāmest
Yā Rab be-çonīn şekl meger ṣūret-i cānī
Yā nūr-ı fer-i merdümek-i çeşm-i cihānī
Ḫᵛāhī çü Münīr er to ezīn devr emānī
Ḥāfıẓ me-nişīn bī-mey ü ma‘şūḳ zamānī
İmrūz ki rūz-ı ṭarab u ‘īd-i ṣıyāmest

In English

1. O beloved, to the sun of whose cheek the full moon is a servant, and to the fragrance of whose locks the musk pod is a slave. If our companions at the gathering are the beloved, wine, goblet and cup, do not mix perfume into our gathering, for that is a raw thing to do; every moment the scent from the tips of your locks fills our nostrils with sweetness. ("Mihr" means both sun and love, "ġāliye" is a perfume made of musk and ambergris, and "nāfe" is the musk pod. "Ḫām", in its dictionary sense, means "raw, unripe"; Ersoy understands this place as "there is no need" to mix in perfume.)

2. What kind of subtlety is this that your ruby lip shows to lovers, that because of its delicacy everyone has come to blows? Now, while honour calls on me for zeal and shame, my ear is wholly on the words of the ney and the melody of the harp (çeng), and my eye wholly on your ruby lip and the round of the cup. (The first line is uncertain; Ersoy understands it as "what has become of the colour of lovers because of your ruby lip". "Neng", in its dictionary sense, means shame, disgrace; Ersoy renders this place as "a time for zeal and shamelessness".)

3. The juniper can never be compared with your stature; the spring of Kevser hid itself for shame before your lip. O my soul, I have told you this subtle point again and again: speak not at all of the taste of sugar cane or of sugar, for my desire lies in your sweet lip. ("Kām", in its dictionary sense, means both desire and palate; set beside the words of taste, it brings both meanings to mind. "Kevs̱er" is the name of a spring in Paradise.)

4. The soul is wholly in fear of your sorcerous glance, and sick and ailing from your languid narcissus, that is, your heavy-lidded eye. Pleasure and delight have always been my friend and boon companion. Since the treasure of your sorrow came to dwell in my ruined heart, the corner of the tavern has always been my station.

5. Every heart has become the target of an arrow from your eye; can one say of it, as of the rosebud, that it is narrow? (This line is uncertain; Ersoy understands it as "no one can call your eyes narrow like a rosebud".) While our gathering has wine and the melody of the harp, why do you speak of shame; my name comes from shame. Why do you ask of name; my shame comes from my name. ("Nām" means name, fame; "neng" means shame, disgrace. The last two lines are built by exchanging the places of these two words.)

6. Since the heart became the companion and confidant of the sorrow of your love, it has been drunk with the wine of your love from the very beginning. (The words "gerd-i ser-āġāz" in this line are not clear; "gerd", in its dictionary sense, means dust, and Ersoy understands the line as "the one drunk with your love is covered in grime from head to toe".) O beloved, cypress that holds its head high, in the reign of your ruby lip we are wine-drinkers, giddy-headed, rinds (libertines of the tavern) and gazers on beauty; who is there in this age who is not like us?

7. O Lord, are you the image of a soul that has taken such a form, or the light of the gleam of the pupil of the world's eye? If you too, like Münîr, wish for safety from this age: O Hâfız, do not sit for a moment without wine and the beloved, for today is the day of joy and the feast that ends the fast. (Ersoy understands the first line as an address to the beloved. "‘Īd-i ṣıyām" is the Ramadan Feast.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a tahmis (quintain expansion). A tahmis rebuilds another poet's ghazal in five-line stanzas by adding three lines in the same metre and rhyme before each of its couplets; the resulting poem is a muhammes. Here Münîrî has made a tahmis of a Persian ghazal by Hâfız of Shiraz. In the edition it is numbered Tahmis 1 and appears under the heading "Muḫammes-i Şi‘r-i Ḥāfıẓ", that is, the muhammes of Hâfız's poem; the heading in the Vatican manuscript also contains the word muhammes. The poem has seven stanzas, thirty-five lines. In each stanza the first three lines are Münîrî's, and the last two are a couplet taken from Hâfız's ghazal. The metre is "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 60b) and Vienna (VY 43a) manuscripts. According to Ersoy it is Münîrî's only tahmis; the TDV article likewise records that the divan contains a Persian tahmis made on Hâfız. To whom and when it was written is not known.

The rhyme scheme of the tahmis depends on Hâfız's ghazal. In the first stanza Münîrî's lines too follow the ghazal's rhyme in "-ām" and its refrain (redif) "-est" (tamāmest, ġulāmest, cāmest), because this stanza is built on the opening couplet of the ghazal. In the other stanzas Münîrî's three lines share the rhyme of the first line of the Hâfız couplet that follows them: rengest / cengest / nengest and "çengest", ‘ar‘ar / kevs̱er / mükerrer and "şekker", bīmest / saḳīmest / nedīmest and "muḳīmest", ḫadengest / tengest / çengest and "nengest", hem-rāz / ser-āġāz / ser-efrāz and "naẓar-bāz", cānī / cihānī / emānī and "zamānī"; the second line of Hâfız's couplet returns in every stanza to the ghazal's rhyme "-ām-est".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Hâfız's ghazal is a rind's ghazal built on the gathering, wine, music and the beloved's beauty: the scent of the locks makes it needless to add perfume to the gathering, the ear is on the ney and the harp, the eye on the lip and the cup, the lover's station is the corner of the tavern, and on a feast day one must not sit without wine. In each stanza Münîrî's added lines serve as an introduction that prepares Hâfız's couplet. In the first stanza the beloved's cheek and locks are praised with the sun, the moon, ġāliye perfume and the musk pod, and then comes the couplet "while your locks give their scent, add no perfume to the gathering". In the third stanza, after the juniper is said to yield to the stature and Kevser to the lip, the couplet "speak not of sugar" ties this praise together as a witticism. In the fifth stanza the gathering is said to be full of harp music and wine, and then comes Hâfız's couplet built on name and shame. In the seventh stanza Münîrî places his own pen name immediately before Hâfız's pen-name couplet: Hâfız's counsel "do not sit without wine and the beloved" is spoken to one who, "like Münîr", seeks safety from this age. The pen names of the two poets thus meet in the same stanza.

Congruence of images (tenasüp) and antithesis (tezat) are prominent in the stanzas. In the first stanza the words mihr (sun), māh (moon), ġāliye and nāfe call up one another; in the fourth, the words cādū (sorcerer), nergis-i maḫmūr, bīmār and saḳīm join the image of the eye with that of sickness. In the fourth stanza "genc-i ġam" and "dil-i vīrāne" stand side by side: the treasure of sorrow lies hidden in the ruined heart. Hâfız's couplet in the fifth stanza is a play on words built by exchanging "nām" and "neng" between its two lines; name becomes shame and shame becomes name. The line "mey-ḫāre vü ser-geşte vü rindīm ü naẓar-bāz" in the sixth stanza also agrees with Münîrî's poetic persona, which Ersoy characterizes as that of a rind and a lover.

Historical Context

Ersoy cites Münîrî's scattering of Hâfız's lines among his own poems, his tahmis of this ghazal and the fact that some of his Persian ghazals are nazires (response poems) to Hâfız as evidence of how strongly the poet was influenced by Hâfız. Ersoy gives the ghazal that is expanded here with the opening line "Der-meclis-i mā ‘ıṭr me-y-āmīz ki ḫāmest". In the text of Hâfız's divan most widely read today, this couplet is not the ghazal's opening couplet. There the ghazal begins with the line "Gül der-ber u mey der-kef u ma‘şūḳ be-kām est", has eleven couplets, and the couplet in question reads "Der-meclis-i mā ‘ıṭr me-y-āmīz ki mā-rā / Her laḥẓa zi-gīsū-yı to ḫoş-būy-ı meşām est". Where the sixth stanza of the tahmis has "der-īn devr", that text reads "der-īn şehr", and where the last stanza has "imrūz ki rūz-ı ṭarab", it reads "ki eyyām-ı gül u yāsemen". Seven of Hâfız's couplets appear in the tahmis, and the other couplets of the ghazal are absent. It appears that the Hâfız text Münîrî had before him differed from today's common text in the order and readings of its couplets; which manuscript tradition of Hâfız this difference comes from is not known.

Bibliography

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