Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün

El virmiş idi ḫoş bize devrân geçen gice
Hem-ṣoḥbet idi dilber ü cânân geçen gice
Ẓulmet şebinde ḳalmış idüm ḫayli derd ile
Girdi elüme bir meh-i tâbân geçen gice
Bir dil-rübâ vü ḥüsn ilinüñ şâhı luṭf idüp
Olmışdı ben gedâsına mihmân geçen gice
Dilber ḫayâli şevḳi ile yandı ṣubḥa dek
Bir ayaġ üzre şem‘-i şebistân geçen gice
Zeyn itmiş idi meclisi ḥüsn-i leṭâfeti
Ol ḫaṭṭ u ḫâl ü zülf-i perîşân geçen gice
Bir ġonca-la‘l şevḳine mestâne germ olup
Çâk itmiş idi Mihrî girîbân geçen gice

In English

1. Fortune had favoured us handsomely last night; the beauty, the beloved, was our companion in conversation last night. (To "give a hand" by fortune, devrân el vermek: time or fate granting a person an opportunity.)

2. I had been left in the darkness of the night with a great deal of sorrow; last night a bright moon came into my hands. (The bright moon is the moon-faced beloved.)

3. One who steals hearts, the sovereign of the land of beauty, graciously became a guest last night in the house of me, her beggar.

4. The candle of the night chamber, out of longing for the image of the beloved, burned on one foot until morning last night. (The candle stands upright on its holder, so it burns "on one foot"; the phrase also means standing all night on one's feet, ready to serve.)

5. The gathering had been adorned last night by the delicacy of her beauty, by that down on the cheek, that beauty spot and those scattered locks.

6. Mihrî, warmed and intoxicated by longing for a beauty with a rosebud mouth and ruby-red lips, had torn open her collar last night. (Tearing the collar is a sign of being beside oneself with the ecstasy of love.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 142nd ghazal (gazel) of the divan stands in the section for the letter ha and has six couplets (beyit). It is written in the muzâri metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mef'ûlü Fâ'ilâtü Mefâ'îlü Fâ'ilün". The redif (refrain word) is the phrase "geçen gice" (last night), and the rhyme is built on the sound "-ân" (devrân, tâbân, mihmân, şebistân, perîşân, girîbân). In the opening couplet the words "devrân" and "cânân" rhyme. In the table in which Sıtkı Nazik collects the refrains in Mihrî's divan, the refrain "geçen gice" appears only in this ghazal. The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts (F 67a, M 94b, S 68b, Ü 59b). There is one interesting detail about the manuscripts: the Ankara Millî Kütüphane manuscript (M) presented by Mehmet Arslan is incomplete at the end, and the last couplet of this manuscript is the third couplet of this ghazal, "Bir dil-rübâ vü ḥüsn ilinüñ şâhı luṭf idüp / Olmışdı ben gedâsına mihmân geçen gice". There is no information on whom the poem was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal describes an unexpected visit by the beloved and frames it as the story of a night now past. Almost all the verbs are in the narrative past perfect: "el virmiş idi", "ḳalmış idüm", "olmışdı", "zeyn itmiş idi", "çâk itmiş idi". This manner of speaking gives the poem the air of a memory; the poet recalls, step by step, the happiness she lived through last night, and ties every couplet to that night with the refrain "geçen gice".

In the second couplet a clear antithesis (tezat) is set up between the dark night and the bright moon. Into a dark night spent in sorrow a moon suddenly rises; in divan poetry the moon is the most common counterpart of the beloved's face. In the third couplet the beloved is "ḥüsn ilinüñ şâhı", the sovereign of the land of beauty, and the lover is "gedâ", a beggar. A sovereign becoming the guest of a beggar's house expresses the greatness of the favour the beloved has shown; this contrast of shah and beggar is one of the oppositions divan poetry most often uses.

The fourth couplet is built on the conceit of the candle. The candle that lights the night chamber (şem'-i şebistân) burns until morning; the poet attributes this to the candle's own longing for the image of the beloved. Giving such a poetic cause to a natural event as the burning of a candle is the art of hüsn-i ta'lîl (fanciful aetiology), and the candle's longing like a human being is personification (teşhis). The phrase "bir ayaġ üzre" is also double-meaning: the candle stands on one foot on its holder, and the one who is entertaining a guest waits on his feet all night, ready to serve. The fifth couplet lists the elements of beauty that adorned the gathering: the down on the cheek (ḫaṭ), the beauty spot (ḫâl) and the scattered hair (zülf-i perîşân). Their mention together is a fine example of congruence of images (tenasüp).

In the closing couplet Mihrî says that, beside herself with longing for a beauty with a bud-like mouth and ruby lips, she tore open her collar. Tearing the collar is the best-known sign of the ecstasy of love in divan poetry. The words intoxicated (mestâne) and heated (germ olmak) suggest that the night passed as a gathering with wine. The mood of the ghazal is in the same line as the ghazals with the refrain "bu gice" that follow it directly in the divan; instead of complaint, the joy of union is foremost.

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 125-126, Ghazal 142 (F 67a, M 94b, S 68b, Ü 59b); description of the M manuscript p. 13. ekitap.ktb.gov.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, pp. 133-148 (table of refrains in Mihrî's divan: "geçen gice", G.142). https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/G00226/2017/2017_NAZIKS.pdf

Online sources