Mihrî Hatun, Ghazal 108: A efendiciğim

In this short ghazal with the refrain "a efendiciğim", puns on yak, yaka and Hakk'a, a lover's voice that ends in reproach, and the tone of a woman poet come to the fore.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Mefâ‘ilün Fe‘ilün

Dili yeter yıḳ a efendicigüm
Cânı yeter yaḳ a efendicigüm

Yüregüm yâresine vuṣlatuñuñ
Merheminden yaḳ a efendicigüm

Ne çeker cevrüñ ile ḫaste-dilüñ
Ḥâline bir baḳ a efendicigüm

Çoḳdan ‘aşḳuñ eline ben bende
Virmişimdür yaḳa efendicigüm

Unudursañ belâlu Mihrî'yi
Seni ḳodum Ḥaḳ'a efendicigüm

In English

1. My dear master, you have wrecked the heart enough; my dear master, you have burned the soul enough. (The couplet can be read in two ways: as a reproach, "that is enough of wrecking my heart and burning my soul"; or as surrender, "wreck the heart and burn the soul if you wish, let that be enough for you".)

2. My dear master, apply to the wound of my heart a salve of union with you. ("Yaḳmak" here means to put a dressing, that is, a salve, on a wound.)

3. What your sick-hearted lover suffers from your cruelty; my dear master, look once at her state.

4. My dear master, I, your servant, long ago handed my collar over to the hand of your love (I surrendered myself; I was caught by your love).

5. My dear master, if you forget Mihrî, who is beset by troubles, I have left you to God (I have committed my right to God).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and eighth ghazal (gazel) of the divan is a short poem of five couplets (beyit) and is written in the hafif metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Mefâ‘ilün Fe‘ilün". The short pattern gives the ghazal a quick flow close to spoken language. The redif (refrain word) is the phrase "a efendicigüm"; "a" is an exclamation of address used in Old Anatolian Turkish in the sense of "O". The rhyme rests on the sound "-ḳ" before the refrain (yıḳ, yaḳ, yaḳ, baḳ, yaḳa, Ḥaḳ'a). Arslan's edition writes these words in some places as "yaḳ a" and in others as "yaḳa", to show the difference in meaning; in Sabiha Gemici's comparative text and in the text published by Didem Havlioğlu, however, even the first couplets are read as "yaka (yaḳa) efendicigüm", without a separate exclamation "a". The ghazal appears in all four manuscripts; the differences among them amount to a few variations of suffix. Nothing is known about whom the poem was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The real skill of the ghazal lies in its rhymes. The "yaḳ" in the first couplet means to burn with fire, while the "yaḳ" in the second means to put a dressing, that is, a salve, on a wound; the "yaḳa" in the fourth couplet is the collar of a garment and, in the idiom "yaka vermek", means to surrender oneself, to be caught; in the fifth couplet the play of sound continues with the word "Ḥaḳ'a" (to God). The rhyming of identical or very similar sounds with different meanings is the art of cinas (punning on identical-sounding words). In some of these rhymes, when the exclamation "a" is read joined to the verb, it gives the same sound as the word "yaḳa"; thus the first syllable of the refrain is drawn into the rhyme as well. Beneath its short and plain appearance, the ghazal carries this kind of wordplay.

A contrast is also set up between the first two couplets. In the first couplet the beloved is the one who wrecks the heart and burns the soul; in the second, with the same verb "yaḳ", she is asked to apply salve to the wound. That the hand that opened the wound and the hand that spreads the salve are the same suits the attitude of the lover in divan poetry, who awaits both pain and remedy from the beloved. Gülşen Kaya cites the second couplet as an example when she explains that separation is an incurable wound in the lover's heart and that the only salve for this wound is union.

In the third and fourth couplets the lover calls herself "ḫaste-dil" (sick of heart) and "bende" (servant). In the last couplet the tone changes: if the beloved forgets Mihrî, the poet will leave her to God. The words "I have left you to God" are used in everyday speech as a reproach, even as a mild curse. The ghazal thus begins with entreaty and closes with reproach.

Sıtkı Nazik, in his study of Mihrî Hatun's refrains, notes that this ghazal with the redif "a efendiciğim", and some similar poems, contain expressions that point to the poet's womanhood. According to Nazik, although women and men poets in classical Turkish poetry use the same expressions, conceits and figures, one feels in such poems that Mihrî reflects her womanhood. The diminutive and affectionate suffix in the address "efendiciğim" is a manner of speech that lends itself to reading the poem from this angle.

Bibliography

Primary sources

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

Academic studies

Sıtkı Nazik, "Benzer Redifli Şiirleri Bağlamında Mihrî Hatun ve Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi'nin Karşılaştırılması", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya 2017.
Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat University Institute of Social Sciences, Elazığ 2010. openaccess.firat.edu.tr
Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral thesis, Uludağ University, Balıkesir 1990.

Other sources