من غلام قمرم
Man Ghulam Qamaram
“I Am a Slave to the Moon”
Lyrics
Lyrics updated · July 2026English Translation
I am the moon's slave — speak of nothing but the moon Before me, speak of nothing but candle and sugar
Speak no word of suffering — speak of nothing but treasure And if you know nothing of this, don't trouble yourself: say nothing
Last night I went mad; love saw me and said: "I have come — don't shout, don't tear your clothes, say nothing"
I said: "O Love, it is something else I fear" It said: "That something else does not exist. Say nothing."
Transliteration
Man ghulame qamaram, ghaire qamar hich mago Peshe man joz sokhane sham o shakar hich mago
Dosh dewana shodam, ishq mara did o begoft: "Amadam nahra mazan, jama madar, hich mago"
Ay neshast tu darin khanaye por naqsh o khyal Khez az ein khana bero, rakht bebar, hich mago"
Goftam: "ay roy freshta ast ajab ba basharast" Goft: "ein ghaire freshta ast o bashar, hich mago"
Sokhan ranj mago, joz sokhan ganj mago War azein bekhabari ranj mabar, hich mago
Goftam: "ay ishq, man az chiz degar metarsam" Goft: "An chiz degar nest, degar hich mago
Man bagosh tu sokhanhaye nehan khawaham goft Sar bejonban ke bale, joz ke basar hich mago"
Qamare jan safte dar rah dil payda shod Dar rahe dil che lotfest safar, hich mago
Goftam: "ay dil, chi mahast ein ke esharat mekard Ke na andazaye tust ein begzar hich mago"
Goftam: "ein chist bego? zer o zabar khwaham shod" Goft: "may bash chonin, zer o zabar hich mago
Goftam: "ay dil badare kon na ke ein wasf khodast?" Goft: "ein hast, wale jand badar hich mago"
متن اصلی
من غلام قمرم غیر قمر هیچ مگو پیش من جز سخن شمع و شکر هیچ مگو
سخن رنج مگو، جز سخن گنج مگو ور از این بیخبری رنج مبر، هیچ مگو
دوش دیوانه شدم، عشق مرا دید و بگفت آمدم، نعره مزن، جامه مدر، هیچ مگو
گفتم ای عشق من از چیز دگر میترسم گفت آن چیز دگر نیست دگر، هیچ مگو
I Am the Moon's Slave — Rumi's ecstatic ghazal of surrender: speak of nothing but the moon, nothing but candle and sugar. Love arrives in the night and commands silence; the speaker obeys.
About This Recording
Man Ghulam Qamaram sets one of Rumi's most famous ghazals — the poem in which love itself appears at night and issues instructions: I have come; do not shout, do not tear your clothes, say nothing. Each couplet is a small dialogue between the terrified speaker and a love that answers every fear with the same command of silence. The 'moon' the speaker serves is no earthly beloved but the overwhelming presence that Rumi elsewhere calls Shams — the sun paradoxically figured here as moonlight, bearable only in reflection.
Zahir's recording gives the mystical text the propulsion of a live majlisi performance — the tabla drives, the audience is audible, and the refrain 'hich magu' becomes something close to a chant. It is the clearest example in his catalog of the double register his art occupied: a wedding-party crowd-pleaser that is simultaneously one of the deepest poems ever written in Persian.
Poetic Source & Adaptation
Jalal al-Din Rumi, Divan-e Shams, ghazal 2219 (Ganjoor). The 'moon' (qamar) of the poem is read in the Mevlevi tradition as Shams of Tabriz — or the divine beloved itself. The refrain 'hich magu' (say nothing) enacts the Sufi teaching that the deepest states are unsayable: the poem talks its way, couplet by couplet, into silence. One of the most beloved ghazals in the entire Persian canon.
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