Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Feʻilātün feʻilātün feʻilātün feʻilün

Çīn-i perçemine bilseñ nedir āyā bāꜤis
Ṭurra peykānıña söyle nedir āyā bāꜤis
Göricek vaṣfını meclisde göñül fehm etdiñ
Bir münevver ṣıfat-ı cānā[na] ḥayfā bāꜤis
Ḫavfım oldur ki nifāḳ itmege bezm-i gülde
Baña göstermege şāyed ola aꜤdā bā[Ꜥis]
Bāġ-ı Ꜥālemde benim aña [ki] hem-çūn bülbül
Sensin ancaḳ hele sen ey gül-i ḫamrā bāꜤis
Bī-demāġ olmasına böyle o şūḫuñ bir dem
Sen imişsin hele sen Mihrī-i şeydā bāꜤis

In English

1. If you knew, what is the reason for her curling lock, I wonder; tell me, what is the reason for the arrow-feather-sharp forelock, I wonder. ("Çîn" means a curl or twist, and also recalls the land of China, whence the fragrant musk comes.)

2. The couplet can be read in two ways: "O heart, you understood on seeing her praised in the assembly; this, alas, is the reason for being smitten with a luminous-faced beloved"; or "You understood on seeing her praised in the assembly; this is the reason it is a pity for that luminous beloved." The repairs in square brackets in the lines and the word order make it hard to fix the meaning.

3. My fear is that in the rose assembly enemies may perhaps be the reason for sowing discord and keeping the beloved from being shown to me. (The last word of the second line could not be read fully in the anthology and was restored in the article as "bâ[‘is]".)

4. In the garden of the world, the reason I have given my heart to her, like a nightingale, is only you, O red rose, only you.

5. The reason that coquette is for a moment so out of sorts and ill-humoured turns out to be you, O mad Mihrî, you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This ghazal is not found in Mihrî Hatun's divan. It appears under the pen name (mahlas) Mihrî on folio 67a of the poetry anthology numbered 43 Va 2871 in the Kütahya Vahid Paşa Provincial Public Library. Mutlu Muhammet Aktaş, who published the anthology, regards it as a strong possibility that the ghazals in it belong to Mihrî Hatun, but states openly that a firm judgment cannot be reached. The attribution of the poem is therefore uncertain.

The ghazal has five couplets (beyit) and is composed in the remel metre, in the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "Fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is the word "bâ‘is" (reason), and the rhyme (kafiye) is built on the sound "-â" (âyâ, ḥayfâ, a‘dâ, ḫamrâ, şeydâ). In the opening couplet (matla) both lines end with the same words, "nedir âyâ bâ‘is"; although exact repetition of the rhyme word is not much favoured in divan poetry, it gives the couplet the insistence of a repeated question. This folio of the anthology must be worn: there are repairs shown in square brackets in three places in the text. For this reason the meaning of the second and third couplets in particular cannot be fixed with certainty. There is no information on to whom the ghazal was addressed.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is, from beginning to end, a search for reasons. The redif "bâ‘is" in each couplet asks for, or points to, the cause of something. The first couplets ask questions, and the last two give answers: the cause of the lover's love is the beloved, and the cause of the beloved's ill humour is the lover herself. The ghazal thus gains an order that moves from question to answer.

In the opening couplet the beloved's hair is mentioned with two different words: "perçem" and "ṭurra". In the phrase "çîn-i perçem" (the curl of the lock), the word "çîn" means a curl, and also recalls China, held to be the home of the musk deer; in divan poetry the musk-like scent of hair often becomes the subject of a double entendre (tevriye) playing between these two senses. Naming the forelock with "peykân" (arrowhead) points to the sharpness of the hair's tip and to the way it wounds the lover's heart.

The third couplet voices the lover's worry. The rose assembly is the spring gathering where one meets the beloved; here the lover fears that enemies, that is, rivals, will sow discord between them. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "bezm-i gül" (rose assembly) and, in the fourth couplet, "bâġ-ı ‘âlem" (garden of the world), "bülbül" (nightingale) and "gül-i ḫamrâ" (red rose). In the fourth couplet the lover likens herself to the nightingale and the beloved to the red rose, and ties the sole cause of her love to her. The repetition "sensin ancaḳ hele sen" (it is only you, only you) in the line increases the emphasis.

The closing couplet (makta) makes the most striking turn of the ghazal. The cause of the beloved's being out of sorts, "bî-demâġ", is no one else but the lover herself. In divan poetry the beloved is mostly weary of the lover's insistence and complaining; Mihrî confesses this state in her own voice. Her calling herself "şeydâ" (driven mad by love), and the "sen" (you) of the fourth couplet being turned this time on herself, set up a correspondence between the two couplets: the cause of love is the beloved, the cause of the beloved's displeasure is the lover. The expression "Mihrî-i Şeydâ", which Aktaş mentions among the headings of the other anthology ghazals, also appears in the closing couplet of this ghazal.

Bibliography

  • Mutlu Muhammet Aktaş, "Mihrî Hatun'un Yayımlanmamış Gazelleri", Hikmet-Akademik Edebiyat Dergisi 9/18 (Spring 2023), pp. 122-123, ghazal 19 (Kütahya Vahid Paşa İl Halk Ktp. 43 Va 2871 Mecmû‘a-i Eş‘âr, f. 67a); the method followed in the text edition p. 112; discussion of attribution pp. 110-112, 124. doi:10.28981/hikmet.1200789. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2757129

Online sources