Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün

Benefşem ḫaṭṭuñ u ḥüsnüñ bahârum
Hemân besdür baña sevgüli yârüm
Cemâlüñ bâġın idelden temâşâ
Cihân bâġına yoḳdur i‘tibârum
Ruḫuñ güldür baña ġonca dehânuñ
Ḫadüñ berg-i semendür gül-‘iẕârum
Ṭapuña bend'olaldan cân u dilden
Elüñe virmişümdür iḫtiyârum
İki ‘âlemde yârinden İlâhî
Ayırma Mihrî'yi Perverdigârum

In English

1. The down (hat) on your cheek is my violet, and your beauty is my spring; my beloved, that alone is enough for me. (The hat is the fine down that first appears on a youth's cheek; it is likened to the violet for its colour and scent.)

2. Ever since I began gazing on the garden of your beauty, I have had no regard for the garden of the world.

3. Your face is a rose to me, your mouth a rosebud; O you with cheeks like roses, your cheek is a jasmine petal.

4. Since I became a servant at your door in heart and soul, I have placed my whole will in your hands.

5. O my God, O my Lord who nurtures me, in both worlds do not separate Mihrî from her beloved.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and fourth ghazal (gazel) of the divan stands in the section of poems rhyming in the letter mîm and has five couplets (beyit). It is written in the hezec metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün"; this pattern is shorter than the four-foot patterns of most of the other ghazals and gives the lines a light, quick melody. The redif (refrain word) is the possessive suffix "-um", and the rhyme is built on the sound "-âr" (bahâr, yâr, i‘tibâr, ‘iẕâr, iḫtiyâr, Perverdigâr). The ghazal appears only in manuscripts M (81a) and Ü (52a); the edition records no variant between them. Nothing is known about whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This short ghazal is a plain expression of devotion to the beloved. The poem contains no complaint or reproach; the poet describes the beloved's beauty, says she has surrendered entirely, and ends with a prayer not to be parted. The brevity of the lines and the repetition of the sound "-ârum" in the rhyme of every couplet give the poem the flow of a song.

In the first three couplets the beloved's beauty is described as a spring garden. In the opening couplet (matla) the hat is likened to the violet and beauty to spring. Gülşen Kaya cites this couplet as an example of spring standing for youth and freshness in Mihrî's divan, and she explains the comparison of the violet with the hat, by scent, with the same couplet. In the second couplet the beloved's beauty is a garden, and for the lover who gazes on it the garden of the world has lost all value. In the third couplet the face is likened to a rose, the mouth to a bud and the cheek to a jasmine (semen) petal, and the beloved is addressed as "gül-‘iẕârum" (my rose-cheeked one). The use of violet, spring, garden, rose, bud and jasmine together is a clear example of tenasüp (congruence of images). Likening the cheek to both rose and jasmine describes the redness and the whiteness of the face together.

In the fourth couplet the relation between lover and beloved is presented as that of servant and master. The lover has become a servant at the beloved's threshold in heart and soul and has left her will in the beloved's hands. Kaya gives this couplet as an example when she notes that in the divan the beloved is called a shah and a sultan, while the lover is a servant, slave and captive at the beloved's door, who surrenders all will and life to her. The word "bend'olaldan" in the line stands for "bende olalıdan", that is, "since I became a servant".

The closing couplet (makta) is a prayer. The poet addresses God as "Perverdigârum" (my Lord who nurtures me) and asks not to be separated from her beloved in either world. That the ghazal begins with a worldly description of beauty and arrives at a wish spanning both worlds shows how large a place love holds in the poet's eyes. Praying in the makta is a common way of closing in divan poetry; Mihrî uses the prayer as the final word of her devotion to the beloved.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 106, Ghazal 104 (M 81a, Ü 52a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat University Institute of Social Sciences, Elazığ 2010 (entries on spring, hat and violet, and servant and slave). openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral thesis, Uludağ University, Balıkesir 1990 (ghazal 107 in Gemici).

Books

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ġazeliyyât-ı Mihrî-i Ḥaḳîre, OTAP electronic edition, ghazal 107 (text published on the türkoloji-iran page, 2007).

Online sources