Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

‘Aşḳ bâbından benümle eyledi ol yâr baḥs̱
Cân ile virdüm cevâbın itmedi tekrâr baḥs̱
Müşkilüm ḥall olmaz idi gûşe-i ders-ḫânede
İtmesem ḥüsnüñ kitâbından şehâ her bâr baḥs̱
Ey müderris çünki sen taḥṣîl-i cânân itmedüñ
Ḳîl ü ḳâl içre ḳalupsın eyleme nâ-çâr baḥs̱
Muṣḥaf-ı ḥüsnüñi zülfüñden su’âl itmiş raḳîb
Eylemek câ’iz midür Ḳur’ândan küffâr baḥs̱
‘İlm-i ‘aşḳı biz i Mihrî şöyle taḥṣîl eyledük
Şimdi her ‘âşıḳ bizümle itmege ḳorḳar baḥs̱

In English

1. That beloved debated with me on the subject of love. I answered with my very soul, and she did not take up the debate again. ("Bâb" means both a door and a chapter of a book, a subject; "baḥs̱" is the debating of a question in the madrasa. In Latîfî's tezkire the lines read "bizümle" and "virdük", that is, "with us" and "we gave".)

2. O shah, my difficulty would never have been solved in the corner of the lecture room had I not debated, every time, from the book of your beauty. (A question that cannot be settled in the madrasa is settled by reading the beloved's face.)

3. O professor, because you have not studied the beloved, have not read love, you have been left in gossip and idle talk; do not debate in helplessness. ("Kîl ü kâl" means empty words, gossip and barren argument.)

4. The rival has asked your hair about the codex of your beauty. Is it permissible for infidels to debate the Qur'an? (The face is likened to the Qur'an, and the black hair, for its darkness, to unbelief; the rival is counted an infidel.)

5. O Mihrî, we studied the science of love so well that now every lover is afraid to debate with us.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The tenth ghazal (gazel) of the divan is in the section Ḥarfü's-Sâ, which holds the poems ending in the letter se, and has five couplets (beyit). It is composed in the remel metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "baḥs̱" (debate); the rhyme rests largely on the sound "-âr": yâr, tekrâr, bâr, nâ-çâr, küffâr. The word "ḳorḳar" in the last couplet answers this sound with a short vowel. There is no other ghazal in this section; the requirement of the letter is met by making the Arabic word "bahs" the redif. The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts. It is not known to whom it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the images of the ghazal are taken from the world of the madrasa and learning: bâb (chapter), baḥs̱ (debate), müşkil (a hard problem), ders-ḫâne (lecture room), müderris (professor), taḥṣîl (study), ḳîl ü ḳâl (barren argument), câ’iz (religiously permissible) and ‘ilm (learning). Using these words together is a dense example of congruence of images (tenasüp). The poet thinks of love as a science and regards the beloved's "book of beauty" as its principal text. In the second couplet it is said that the problem that could not be solved in the madrasa is solved by debate over the beloved's face; in the third the professor is reminded that he has been left in idle talk because he has not "studied" the beloved. Kaya notes that the professor is mentioned in this couplet with the same traits as the zâhid (the pious ascetic), and that it is expressed that one who has not studied love cannot learn it by reading.

The fourth couplet shows a bold use of religious imagery. The beloved's face is likened to a muṣḥaf, a copy of the Qur'an; black hair is associated in divan poetry with unbelief (küfür) because of its dark colour. The rival has asked the hair about the meaning of this muṣḥaf, and the poet asks, "Is it permissible for infidels to debate the Qur'an?" According to Kaya, in this couplet the beloved's beauty is likened to the muṣḥaf while the rival is likened to the infidel who may not speak of the Qur'an. The relations the couplet sets up, between face and muṣḥaf, hair and unbelief, rival and infidel, form an arrangement approaching leff ü neşr, in which elements are listed in one line and their counterparts given in the other. The words "su’âl" (question) and "câ’iz" come from the language of Islamic jurisprudence and give the couplet the form of a request for a fatwa.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the poet says that she studied the science of love so well that every lover is now afraid to debate with her. The first and last couplets are thus tied together: in the first even the beloved could not repeat the debate, and in the last lovers shrink from entering one. The poet's calling herself "we" recalls the dignified speech of a person of learning.

Historical Context

The opening couplet (matla) of the ghazal appears in a source that shows how Mihrî's poetry was read in the sixteenth century. In the entry on Mihrî in his Tezkiretü'ş-Şu‘arâ, completed in 1546, Latîfî judges her poetry as follows: "Egerçi işve-i eş‘ârı zenâne ve şîve-i güftârı mü’ennesânedür ammâ cihet-i sûz u güdâzda ‘âşıkâne ve beyân-ı şevk u niyâzda merdânedür ne muhannesânedür." In present-day Turkish: "Although the charm of her poems is womanly and the manner of her speech feminine, in burning and melting she is a lover's equal, and in expressing longing and supplication she is manly, not like the manliness of an effeminate man." To prove this judgment Latîfî immediately quotes the first couplet of the ghazal, saying "Bu matla‘dan bu ma‘nâ zâhirdür" (this meaning is evident from this opening couplet).

The text Latîfî quotes differs from the edition in two words: "bizümle" in place of "benümle", and "virdük" in place of "virdüm". This plural manner of speech is also consistent with the "we" in the ghazal's pen-name couplet. That Latîfî chose this couplet shows that a woman's voice as lover, one that argues with the beloved on the subject of love and silences her, speaking in the language of the scholarly assembly, was found unusual by readers of the time. The tezkire writer's word "manly" is meant as praise; it is a judgment that measures a woman poet's poetry against the manner of male poets. Sources note that Mihrî's father Belâyî was a kadi and that the poet knew religious learning well; the ease with which the ghazal uses the language of the madrasa can be considered together with the scholarly circle in which she was raised.

Bibliography

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