The Heart Already Known

A Persian couplet in praise of Mīr Sayyid ʿAlī Hamadānī, attributed to Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn Bukhārī.

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Bismi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm.

In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Ever-Merciful.

The speaker comes with the condition of his heart, but pauses before describing it. Why explain what the person he addresses already knows? The answer lies in the sound of the second line, where hama-dānī leads into Hamadānī.

The heart’s condition

اَحْوَالِ دِل اَیْ شَاه نَگُویَم کِه نَدَانِی

Aḥvāl-e dil ay Shāh, na-gūyam ki na-dānī;

My King, why should I tell you what my heart holds, as if you did not know?

Aḥvāl is the plural of ḥāl: conditions or states. Here it gathers everything the speaker carries within his heart. His question has a quiet turn. By saying that he need not tell the King, he has already begun to speak.

A name within the answer

بِاللّٰه هَمَه‌دَانِی کِه تُو شَاهِ هَمَدَانِی

billāh, hama-dānī ki tu Shāh-e Hamadānī.

By God, you know all things, for you are the King of Hamadan.

Billāh means “by God.” The oath gives force to the speaker’s assurance. Then comes the couplet’s play on sound: hama-dānī, “you know all,” is heard again in Hamadānī, the saint’s name of origin. English can carry the meaning, but the Persian lets the name itself complete the praise.

“King” is an honorific address to the revered saint. I read “you know all” as the speaker’s expression of trust: he feels that the state of his heart is already understood.

A note on attribution

The version shared here attributes the couplet to Sayyid Jalāl al-Dīn Bukhārī. An Urdu discussion of poetry praising Hamadānī reproduces these lines among verses it associates with Muḥarram ʿAlī Chishtī. It does not establish who first composed the couplet, so the attribution remains tentative.

The first line holds back the story of the heart. The second speaks a name. Between them is the relief of being understood before every feeling has found its words.