Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün

Ne şâ‘ir kâmil-i ‘irfân imiş bu
Ne ḳulzüm lücce-i ‘ummân imiş bu
Libâs-ı şer‘ geymiş bâṭınında
Egerçi ẓâhiren ‘uryân imiş bu
Görinmiş ḫalḳa ḫod sûretde dervîş
Velîkin ma‘nide sulṭân imiş bu
Ḫudâyâ minnet ü elḥamdü-lillâh
İşiginde şehüñ mihmân imiş bu
Ma‘ânî gevheri ile pür olmış
İ Mihrî gûş ṭut bir kân imiş bu

In English

1. What a perfect master of mystical knowledge this poet is, what a vast sea, what a deep ocean he is. (The three words "kulzüm", "lücce" and "umman" all mean the sea or deep water; the breadth of the poet's learning and command of words is likened to the ocean.)

2. Although he looks bare outwardly, stripped of worldly goods, inwardly he is clothed in the garment of the divine law.

3. To people he appeared as a dervish in outward form, but in meaning, within, he is a sultan.

4. O God, thanks and praise be to You; this man is a guest at the threshold of the shah (the ruler). (The couplet is understood as giving thanks that the person praised has found a place at the sovereign's court, under his patronage.)

5. He is filled with the pearls of meaning; listen, O Mihrî, he is a mine.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 140th ghazal (gazel) has five couplets (beyit) and is written in the hezec metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Fa'ûlün". This short pattern reduces each line to eleven syllables and gives the poem a quick, compact delivery. The redif (refrain word) is the phrase "imiş bu", and the rhyme is built on the sound "-ân" ('irfân, 'ummân, 'uryân, sulṭân, mihmân, kân). In Arslan's edition the ghazal rests on the M manuscript alone; it is absent from Havlioğlu's electronic text, which does not use the M manuscript. It stands in the section of the divan for the letter vav.

The "imiş" in the refrain sets the tone of the ghazal. This suffix expresses something newly learned or noticed with surprise; in every couplet the poet speaks as though discovering, at that very moment, another quality of the person he praises. The ghazal is less a love poem than a eulogy for a person's poetry, learning and inner life.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet first presents the person praised as a poet and calls him "kâmil-i 'irfân", one who has reached maturity in mystical knowledge. In the second line three different words for sea follow one another: kulzüm, lücce and umman. This congruence of images (tenasüp) becomes a hyperbole for the boundlessness of his learning and eloquence. In the closing couplet the same thought continues with another comparison: the person praised is a mine full of the pearls of meaning. There is also a congruence among the words "gevher", "kân" and "pür olmak"; the pearl of the sea and the gem of the mine link the beginning of the ghazal with its end.

The second and third couplets rest on the contrast between zahir and batın, that is, outward appearance and inner reality. The person praised is outwardly "'uryân", bare and stripped of the world, yet inwardly he wears the garment of the divine law. To the people he looks like a dervish, but in meaning he is a sultan. Gülşen Kaya cites the third couplet as an example when explaining that dervishes, because they care nothing for the world, look like servants from outside but are counted as sultans in spiritual rank. There is antithesis (tezat) between libâs and 'uryân, ẓâhir and bâṭın, dervish and sultan, sûret and ma'nâ; the couplets are built on these oppositions.

The fourth couplet ties the person praised to a ruler's door. "İşiginde şehüñ mihmân", a guest at the shah's threshold, suggests that he is at the palace and close to the sovereign. The poet thanks God for this; thus the ghazal carries, besides admiration for a poet, joy at his advancement.

Historical Context

Neither the heading nor the text of the ghazal says to whom it was addressed. Gülşen Kaya notes that the ghazal is thought to have been addressed to the poet and scholar Hâtemî, and writes that Hâtemî's poetry is praised here through the contrast of sultan and dervish. This is a conjecture; no record in the edition or in the tezkire (biographical anthology of poets) tradition links the ghazal to Hâtemî.

Müeyyedzâde Abdurrahman Çelebi, who wrote poetry under the pen name (mahlas) Hâtemî, was, according to Mehmet Arslan's account, the intimate companion (has nedim) who enjoyed the highest standing at the court of Bayezid II during his years as prince in Amasya. Arslan also reports the supposition that there was a bond of affection between Mihrî and Hâtemî, and the view that the two were present at Bayezid's gatherings at the same time and grew up together. Hâtemî died in 922 (1516). The poem in which Mihrî names Hâtemî explicitly is the 130th ghazal of the divan; Kaya notes that there the poet praises Hâtemî's ghazals and calls anyone who does not rank him above Selmân ignorant. For this reason it has occurred to readers that the 140th ghazal, which stands in the same line of praise, may also have been written for Hâtemî. The words of the fourth couplet, "a guest at the ruler's threshold", suit the position of a nedim (royal companion); but this too is only a fit inferred from the text and cannot be counted as conclusive evidence.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 124, Ghazal 140 (M 88a); introduction pp. 5-6 (Hâtemî and the literary circle of Bayezid II in Amasya). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 51, 64-65. openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Enes İlhan, "Mihrî Hâtun mu Revânî mi? 'Ey Benüm Şiirüme Nazire Diyen' Kim?", Hikmet-Akademik Edebiyat Dergisi 10/20 (2024), pp. 148-170 (for Hâtemî's date of death, p. 152).

Online sources