Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ben umardum gele bir zülf-i perîşân bu gice
Şem‘-i ruḫsârına pervâne ḳılam cân bu gice
Nâ-gehân gird'içeri bir nice bed-rûy didüm
Bunda mı ṣaldı Süleymân dîvi yek-sân bu gice
Bir bölük aṣmalular geldi bir araya bu dem
Ḳanda bulına ‘aceb bunlara urġan bu gice
Kimi keldür kimi kördür kimi sâḳıt bularuñ
Kimlere ḳıldı muṣâḥib bizi devrân bu gice
Şeb-i yeldâ gicesi Mihrî'ye gör nitdi felek
Görmez idi getürüp eyledi mihmân bu gice

In English

1. I had hoped that tonight a beloved with scattered tresses would come, and that I would make my life a moth to the candle of her cheek. (The moth is the insect that flies to the candle's light and burns itself; the lover wishes to sacrifice herself before the beloved's face.)

2. Then suddenly a few ugly-faced people came in; I said, "Has Solomon's demon sent these all at once, here, tonight?" (An allusion to the demon that seized Solomon's seal and for a time ruled in his place.)

3. At this moment a band of men fit to be hanged gathered together; it is a wonder where enough rope for all of them could be found tonight. (The Ü manuscript reads "aṣılası" in place of "aṣmalular"; both mean deserving to be hanged.)

4. Some of them are bald, some blind, some crippled; see whom fate has made our companions tonight.

5. See what fate did to Mihrî on the longest night of the year: it brought people she had never seen and had no wish to see, and made them her guests. (The second line can also be understood as "it brought people who would not look on Mihrî's face".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 146th 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 "-ân" (perîşân, cân, yek-sân, urġan, devrân, mihmân). The ghazal is found in the F (67a), S (69a) and Ü (60b) manuscripts and is absent from the M manuscript. The manuscript variants are few; the most important is that the Ü manuscript reads "aṣılası" in place of "aṣmalular" in the third couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This ghazal is a mocking, satirical poem that departs from the usual love ghazals in Mihrî's divan. The opening couplet begins with a classical expectation: the poet hopes that tonight a beloved with scattered tresses will come, and that she will give her life like a moth to the beloved's candle-like cheek. Gülşen Kaya cites this couplet for the conception of gathering, candle and moth: the cheek of the beauty present at the gathering is the candle, and the lover's life is the moth ready to throw itself at that candle. But the expected beloved does not come; from the second couplet an unwelcome crowd of ugly-faced people fills the gathering and the mood of the poem changes at once.

In the second couplet this crowd is likened to creatures loosed by Solomon's demon. This is an allusion (telmih): according to the tradition, a demon seized the seal of Solomon, which let him command the jinn and men, and for a time sat on the throne in his place. In the third couplet the satire grows sharper; the poet sees these people as a band deserving to be hanged and asks where rope enough for all of them can be found. The link between "aṣmalu" (to be hanged) and "urġan" (rope) carries the wit of the couplet. The fourth couplet counts the guests as some bald, some blind, some crippled, and the poet laments whom fate has made her companions. Of this couplet Kaya says that the poet, waiting for the beloved she calls "zülf-i perîşân", takes no pleasure in this gathering into which bald and blind people have come.

In the closing couplet the night is said to be "şeb-i yeldâ". Şeb-i yeldâ is the longest night of the year, falling at the winter solstice. In divan poetry the night of separation is usually likened to this longest night; here what lengthens the night is the presence of unwanted guests as much as the beloved's absence. The length of the night becomes the length of the time to be spent with this crowd, and the poet closes the poem with this irony. The language of the ghazal is plain and close to speech; enumerations reminiscent of folk idiom, such as "kimi keldür kimi kördür", heighten the effect of the satire.

Historical Context

It is not known from documents for which gathering the ghazal was composed. Gülşen Kaya is of the view that in the allusion to Solomon in the second couplet Prince Süleyman is also hinted at beside the prophet Solomon, and that the "ugly-faced" people in his gathering are being needled. The divan contains kasides (qasidas) composed in the name of "Sulṭân Süleymân" and "Şeh Süleymân" and a muvaşşah ghazal, but Arslan's edition does not explain the identity of this Süleyman. In this respect the hint in the couplet remains an interpretation of Kaya's.

The literary setting of the ghazal is better known. Günay Tulum takes up two of Mihrî's ghazals within the broad network of naziras built on the rhyme and refrain "-ân bu gice", and shows that this five-couplet ghazal became a model poem for Rûhî Çelebi and Ravzî. Rûhî Çelebi's ghazal begins "Ben umardım ki gele hücreme cânân bu gice"; in the second couplet a few "eyeless ones" come in, in the third rope is sought for the jealous one "to be hanged by his throat", and in the fourth the arrivals are counted as some ignorant, some dull, some stupid. Ravzî's ghazal is also almost identical with Rûhî's. Tulum regards this resemblance as close to the kind of poetic plagiarism called "selh", that is, taking up a poem's wording almost as it stands. According to Tulum, the anthologies Câmi'ü'n-Neẓâ'ir and Pervâne Bey count Mihrî among the response poets of this chain; since Tulum notes that the other, nine-couplet "-ân bu gice" ghazal is not found in the anthologies, it is highly probable that the Mihrî nazire in the anthologies is this ghazal. Thus this small satirical ghazal of Mihrî became a poem directly taken as a model by the male poets who came after her. Tulum divides the same chain into optimistic and pessimistic groups according to the view of waiting for the beloved; this ghazal, in which the beloved does not come, is in the pessimistic group headed by Avnî.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 127-128, Ghazal 146 (F 67a, S 69a, Ü 60b). 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. 631-633 and Appendix 11), doi:10.26650/TUDED2023-1255705. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/3054260
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010 (entries on Süleymân, gathering, and candle and moth). openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Online sources