Navoiy’s ghazals: “Kelmadi”, “Yo‘q”, “Bo‘l”

The ghazal with the radif “Kelmadi” is ghazal 608 in “Badoye’ ul-vasat”, has seven couplets and is in the metre ramali musammani mahzuf. Its radif is Uzbek; of eight rhyme words six are Uzbek and two (“gulro‘”, “badxo‘”) are Tajik. Every couplet has at least one tazod. In the matla‘ the lover says that, because the beloved promised to come in the evening and did not, he could not sleep till dawn. In the later couplets he describes how worn out he is by waiting, that he weeps, and that blood rather than water came from his eyes: here blood and water are contrasted. The sixth couplet differs from the others: the lover complains that a sincere seeker cannot be found: otherwise anyone who set foot on the path would be met by a “first-step” beloved who walks ahead of him; this points to the pir. Such an unexpected digression is called a “stray couplet”. In the maqta‘ the word “boda” occurs twice; here it is a symbol, the intoxication of divine love, while in his prose works Navoiy wrote that alcohol is forbidden. This ghazal is sung to the melody “Munojot”. The ghazal “Jong‘a chun dermen” is ghazal 597 of “Favoyid ul-kibar”; it is in the metre ramali musammani maqsur (or mahfuz) and written wholly by question and answer. The lover says he has come to the brink of death and first asks the soul for the cause; the soul puts the blame on the body, the body on the liver, the liver on the heart, the heart on the eye; the eye says it had no choice since the beloved’s beauty suddenly appeared. In the maqta‘ the poet concludes: everyone gave his excuse, burn to the end, since the fire of love is your destined lot. The chain of questions makes the ghazal logically complete.