Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Düşmişem derdüñe cânâ derde dermân isterem
Dostum derdüñ yeter derdüme dermân isterem
Gülsitân-ı ḥüsnüñi dûr itme çeşmümden şehâ
‘Andelîbem gül yüzüñ şevḳinde nâlân isterem
Bu dil-i şûrîdenüñ taḫtında sulṭân olmaġa
Bir senüñ gibi yüzi gül-berg-i ḫandân isterem
Dostum kûyuñda ben ḫôra hemân ‘izzet yeter
İtlerüñle bir gice kûyuñda mihmân isterem
Ġamzeñüñ tîrine Mihrî sînesin ḳıldı nişân
Ḳaşlaruñ yâsına cânâ cânı ḳurbân isterem

In English

1. O beloved, I have fallen into your pain; I want a remedy for this pain. My friend, your pain is enough; I want a remedy for my pain. (The second line can be read in two ways: "the pain you give is enough now, I want a remedy for my pain"; or "as a remedy for my pain, your pain is enough for me".)

2. O shah (beloved), do not take the rose garden of your beauty away from my sight; I am a nightingale, and I want to go on lamenting in longing for your rose face.

3. So that someone may be sultan on the throne of this distracted, frenzied heart, I want one like you, with a face like a rose petal opened and laughing.

4. My friend, for me, a worthless one, merely being in your quarter is honour enough; I want to be a guest in your quarter for one night, together with your dogs.

5. Mihrî has made her breast the target of the arrows of your glance; O beloved, I want to sacrifice my soul to your bow-like brows.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and tenth ghazal (gazel) of the divan has five couplets (beyit) and is written 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 the verb "isterem" (I want); the rhyme is built on the sound "-ân" before the refrain (dermân, nâlân, ḫandân, mihmân, ḳurbân). That every couplet ends in a wish turns the ghazal into a series of desires. The poem appears in only two of the four manuscripts used by Arslan, M and Ü. Nothing is known about whom it was written for or on what occasion.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on the repetition of the word "derd" (pain): "derdüñe", "derde", "derdüñ", "derdüme". The contrast between pain and remedy carries the couplet. In divan poetry the one who gives the lover her pain and the one who will give the remedy are both the beloved; so the words "derdüñ yeter" in the second line can be understood both as a reproach and as saying that the pain that comes from the beloved is itself to be counted a remedy. The repetition of the same word with different suffixes within one couplet creates an emphasis based on sound.

The second couplet takes up the conceit of the rose and the nightingale. The beloved's beauty is likened to a rose garden and her face to a rose, while the lover is likened to the nightingale who falls in love with this rose and laments. Gülşen Kaya notes that the comparison between rose and face is a fixed expression in divan poetry and that the cheek being a rose is considered together with the lover's heart being likened to a nightingale; she gives this couplet as an example in two different places, under the headings rose and nightingale. The interesting point of the couplet is that the lover does not wish to be freed from lamenting; she wishes to go on lamenting in longing for the rose face.

The third couplet is built on the conceit that imagines the heart as a throne and the beloved as sultan of this throne. The phrase "gül-berg-i ḫandân" means a rose petal that has opened and laughs; likening a blossoming flower to a smile is common in divan poetry. A "şûrîde" (distracted, frenzied with love) heart can be calmed only by the rule of such a laughing face.

In the fourth couplet the lover calls herself "ḫôr" (lowly, worthless) and sets this against the word "‘izzet" (honour, dignity), a contrast: for a worthless person even being in the beloved's quarter is an honour. The wish to be a guest alongside the dogs at the beloved's door is, in divan poetry, a familiar way in which a lover lowers herself in order to be near the beloved. Kaya cites this couplet when she notes that the lover is content to be a guest at the beloved's door together with her dogs. That the word "kûyuñda" occurs twice in the same couplet underlines the importance of the quarter to the lover.

In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the image of arrow and bow is completed: the beloved's glance is the arrow, her brows are the bow, and Mihrî has made her breast a target for these arrows. The words "tîr, nişân, yâ" form a tenasüp (congruence of images). In the last line the poet passes from the third person to the first: the couplet that begins "Mihrî sînesin ḳıldı" ends with "cânı ḳurbân isterem".

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 109, Ghazal 110. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat University Institute of Social Sciences, Elazığ 2010. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Other sources

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), "Ğazeliyyāt-ı Mihri-i Hāqīre", türkoloji-iran, 2007 (a different transliteration of the ghazal).

Online sources