Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bir ṭabîb oldı bizümle yine hem-dem bu gice
Dil-i bîmârumuza eyledi emsem bu gice
Yârelenmişdi ciger ġamzesi peykânlarıla
La‘li urdı yine ol yâreye merhem bu gice
Rûzgâruñ elemin çekmiş idük ḫayli zamân
Ḥamdü-lillah bizi yâr eyledi bî-ġam bu gice
Meclisinde ṣanemüñ râḥat olup ṣubḥa degin
Biñ ṣafâ ile geçildi hele bir dem bu gice
Furṣat el virmiş iken bûse-kinâr it yâri
Dâ’imâ girmez i Mihrî ele bu dem bu gice

In English

1. Tonight once again a physician became our companion; tonight he gave medicine to our sick heart and treated it. (The physician is the beloved; "em-sem" is a reduplication meaning medicine and treatment.)

2. Our liver had been wounded by the arrows of her glance; tonight her ruby lip again applied a salve to that wound. (The ghamze, the beloved's languid, wounding glance, is likened to arrows.)

3. For a long time we had suffered the pain of the world's turning; thanks be to God, tonight the beloved freed us from grief.

4. In the gathering of that beauty we took our ease until morning; for a while at least, tonight was spent in a thousand kinds of delight.

5. O Mihrî, now that the opportunity has offered itself, kiss and embrace the beloved; a moment like this, tonight, does not always come into one's hands.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 144th ghazal (gazel) of the divan stands in the section for the letter ha and has five couplets (beyit). It 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 "bu gice" (tonight), and the rhyme is the sound "-em" (hem-dem, emsem, merhem, bî-ġam, dem). In the last couplet the rhyme word comes as "bu dem", and combined with the refrain it yields the phrase "bu dem bu gice" (this moment, tonight). The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts (F 66b, M 94b, S 68b, Ü 60a); the manuscript variants are small, the most notable being that in the last couplet the F manuscript reads "bâri" instead of "yâri". There is no information on whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built from start to finish on a comparison of illness and cure. The beloved is the physician (ṭabîb), the lover's heart is sick (dil-i bîmâr), the liver has been wounded by the arrows of the beloved's glance, and the beloved's lip is the salve for that wound. The use of the words physician, patient, medicine, wound and salve together is a clear example of congruence of images (tenasüp). Gülşen Kaya notes that in Mihrî's divan the beloved is thought of as both the lover's affliction and his cure, and that healing for the sick heart comes from the beloved's lip; this ghazal is one of the most compact examples of that idea. What stands out here is that the one who opens the wound and the one who heals it are the same person: the beloved's glance wounds the liver, and her lip applies a salve to that wound.

In the third couplet the word "rûzgâr" is used in the sense of time, fate. The lover, who has long suffered the pain of fate, has been freed from grief tonight thanks to the beloved; an antithesis (tezat) is set up between grief (elem) and being without grief (bî-ġam). The fourth couplet describes the gathering that lasted until morning. The closing couplet is advice the poet gives herself: when the opportunity offers itself she should kiss and embrace the beloved, because such a moment does not always come to hand. The word "dem" occurs three times in the ghazal: as "hem-dem" (companion) in the opening couplet, as "bir dem" (a while) in the fourth couplet, and as "bu dem" (this moment) in the closing couplet. The repetition of the same word with different meanings gives the poem a unity of sound and sense.

Historical Context

For this ghazal, whose addressee is unknown, there is a finding on its literary source. Necâtî's ghazal with the opening couplet "Gözüñ aç itdi Ḫudâ dilberi hem-dem bu gice / Baḫt uyandı uyudı fitne-i 'âlem bu gice" is recorded in the nazire (response poem) anthology Metâli'ü'n-Neẓâ'ir as a response to a ghazal by Şeyhî rhymed "-er bu gice". Günay Tulum shows that this ghazal of Necâtî later became a model poem for poets such as Hisâlî and Mûsâ, and says that, particularly on the basis of the last couplet, Mihrî too can be included in this network of naziras. Necâtî's closing couplet reads "Dem bu demdür didügüñ demlere irdüñ şükr it / Elüñe girdi Necâtî senüñ ol dem bu gice". Mihrî's line "Dâ'imâ girmez i Mihrî ele bu dem bu gice" repeats the same expressions "ele girmek" (to come to hand) and "dem". The metre, refrain and "-em" rhyme of the two ghazals are also the same; the rhyme and refrain "hem-dem bu gice" in the opening couplets coincide exactly in the two poems.

In comparing Mihrî's ghazals with the refrain "bu gice" with those of Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi with the same refrain, Sıtkı Nazik also takes up the opening couplet of this ghazal. According to Nazik, while Mihrî mentions the beloved's lip as a cure that heals the sick heart, Cafer Çelebi ties the same idea to the breath of Jesus that raises the dead; both poets treat the happiness of being together with the beloved.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 126-127, Ghazal 144 (F 66b, M 94b, S 68b, Ü 60a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Günay Tulum, "Redifinde Gice/Gece Kelimesi Geçen Şiirler Üzerinden Bir Değerlendirme", Türk Dili ve Edebiyatı Dergisi 63/2 (2023), pp. 617-653 (pp. 627-628 and Appendix 7), doi:10.26650/TUDED2023-1255705. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/3054260
  • 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 (ghazals with the refrain "bu gice", pp. 141-142). https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/G00226/2017/2017_NAZIKS.pdf
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010 (entries on illness, tabîb and treatment). openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Online sources