Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Dest-gîr ol bu ben üftâdeye ey kân-ı kerem
Ki kerîm ẕât olanuñ şânıdur iḥsân-ı kerem
Dergehüñ dâr-ı şifâ oldı çü bîmârlara
Senden irdi ḳamu derd ehline dermân-ı kerem
Dil ü cân ḫastesine luṭfuñ ile eyle ‘ilâc
Ki irür ṣıḥḥate luṭfuñla anı ân-ı kerem
‘Adlüñ âbı n'ola dil-teşnelere virse ḥayât
Ki virür mürdeye ‘Īsâ-nefesüñ cân-ı kerem
Ḥaḳḳ'a minnet ḳademüñ baṣdı yüzüm üzre bu dem
Ḥamdü-lillah ḫoş idiser yine devrân-ı kerem
Nûr ile şehr-i Amâsiyye'yi ma‘mûr idesin
Yapısar ‘adlüñ ile her dil-i vîrânı kerem
Mihrî üftâdeye raḥm it demidür luṭf eyle
Dest-gîr ol aña ‘adlüñle gel ey kân-ı kerem

In English

1. O mine of generosity, take the hand of me, who have fallen; for the distinction of one generous by nature is to give kindness and bounty.

2. Since your door has become a house of healing for the sick, remedy and generosity have reached all who suffer from you.

3. Treat the sick of heart and soul with your kindness; for a moment (a glance) of your generosity brings them to health through your kindness. ("Ān" means both "moment" and "state, grace, subtlety"; the line can also be read "the subtlety of your generosity restores them to health".)

4. Is it any wonder if the water of your justice gives life to hearts that thirst; for your generosity, with its breath like that of Jesus, gives life to the dead. (This refers to the belief that Jesus raised the dead with his breath.)

5. Thanks be to God, at this moment your foot has pressed upon my face (you have come to me, and I have touched my face to the dust of your foot); praise be to God, the age of generosity will again make all things pleasant.

6. May you make the city of Amasya flourish with light; through your justice, generosity will rebuild every ruined heart.

7. It is time to take pity on Mihrî who has fallen; show kindness. O mine of generosity, come and take her hand with your justice.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and seventh ghazal (gazel) of the divan has seven couplets (beyit) and is written in the remel metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is the word "kerem" (generosity, kindness, bounty); the rhyme is built on the sound "-ân" before the refrain (kân, iḥsân, dermân, ân, cân, devrân, vîrân, kân). The phrase "Dest-gîr ol ... ey kân-ı kerem" in the first couplet is repeated almost word for word in the last couplet; the ghazal thus acquires a ring structure, closing with the plea with which it began. The poem appears only in manuscript Ü. The forms "idiser" and "yapısar" in the fifth and sixth couplets carry the future suffix "-ısar / -iser" of Old Anatolian Turkish and mean "will do" and "will build".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is less a love poem than a poem of praise and petition. The person addressed is called "kân-ı kerem", the mine of generosity; what is expected of him is that he take the hand of one who has fallen, give healing to the sick and, through his justice, repair broken hearts. These words could be said to a beloved in divan poetry; but the wish in the sixth couplet that the city of Amasya be made to flourish suggests that the addressee is someone connected with the governance of the city.

The second and third couplets are built on the notions of the hospital and treatment. The addressee's door is likened to a "dâr-ı şifâ", that is, a hospital; the afflicted come there and remedy comes out of it. There is a strong tenasüp (congruence of images) among the words "bîmâr, derd, dermân, ‘ilâc, ṣıḥḥat, ḫaste" (patient, pain, remedy, treatment, health, sick). In the fourth couplet two different images of giving life stand side by side: the water of justice gives life to thirsty hearts, and the breath of generosity, like the breath of Jesus, raises the dead. This is an allusion to the miracle of Jesus. Gülşen Kaya gives this couplet as an example that, in the divan, water is used not only for the water of paradise but also in the sense of the "water of justice".

The phrase "ḳademüñ baṣdı yüzüm üzre" in the fifth couplet is an expression of respect, put as the addressee's foot treading on the poet's face; to rub one's face in the dust of someone's foot is, in divan poetry, a way of expressing deep devotion. The line seems to celebrate the addressee's recent arrival or some gesture of closeness toward the poet; the word "yine" (again) also hints that the age of generosity has begun anew.

In the ghazal the use of "kerem" together with "kerîm" (in the first couplet, "kerîm ẕât ... iḥsân-ı kerem") is an instance of iştikak (derivation), which brings together words derived from the same root. Between "dest-gîr" (one who takes the hand, one who helps) and "üftâde" (fallen, one in distress), tezat (contrast) and tenasüp work together: one extends a hand to the one who has fallen.

Historical Context

It is not known for certain to whom the ghazal was addressed. Mehmet Arslan writes in the introduction to his edition that of Mihrî's 17 kasides (qasidas), 10 were presented to Prince Ahmed, and that, "as far as can be understood from their content", three ghazals were also presented to this prince; but he does not say which ghazals these are. Gülşen Kaya says she supposes that the person called "Kân-ı Kerem" in this ghazal was one of the princes, and she treats the wish that Amasya be made to flourish in terms of the poet's tie to the city where she was born and lived. Given that the sanjak of Amasya was at that time a centre governed by Ottoman princes, and that Mihrî is thought to have been in Prince Ahmed's circle there, it is plausible that the addressee was a prince serving in Amasya; yet since no name appears in the poem, this remains an interpretation.

Sıtkı Nazik, in his study comparing poets who use the same redif, places this ghazal alongside a kıta (quatrain-type verse) by Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi with the redif "kerem", and notes that both poems carry echoes of the famous "kerem" kaside (qasida) that Ahmed Paşa of Bursa wrote for Fâtih Sultan Mehmed. According to Nazik, Mihrî addresses a sultan who possesses generosity, says that the distinction of one generous by nature is to bestow, and asks him to give life to thirsty hearts with the water of his justice; Cafer Çelebi, for his part, asks that the generous one cast a glance on him too, one that turns the earth to gold. The kaside that Ahmed Paşa wrote for Fâtih with the redif "kerem" is also listed among the poet's most famous kasides in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi. In this context Mihrî's ghazal joins an established manner of speech that poets close to the Ottoman court used when asking favour of a ruler or prince.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 107-108, Ghazal 107; introduction p. 6. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat University Institute of Social Sciences, Elazığ 2010, p. 77. openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Sıtkı Nazik, "Benzer Redifli Şiirleri Bağlamında Mihrî Hatun ve Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi'nin Karşılaştırılması", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya 2017.

Books

Online sources