Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Temâşâ ideli çeşmüm o ḫadd u ḫâli bir laḥẓa
Ḫayâli dîde vü dilden degüldür ḫâlî bir laḥẓa
Dehânuñ cânım u zülfüñ benim ‘ömr-i dırâzumdur
Ölürem âh görmezsem o mîm ü dâlı bir laḥẓa
Cefâ ḫârında bülbül-veş göñül feryâd ider her dem
Cemâlüñ gülşenin göster ḫoş olsun ḥâli bir laḥẓa
Reh-i ‘aşḳuñda ‘uşşâḳuñ naẓar ḳıl ḥâline cânâ
Ne ḥâl ile geçer sensüz gör e aḥvâli bir laḥẓa
Cinân içinde her dâyim ḥabîbüm ḥulle geymişdür
Ḳapuñda yeg durur geymek ‘abâ vü şâlı bir laḥẓa
Bugün ḳorḳutma sen nâṣiḥ caḥîmüñ irte nârından
Kerem ḳıl başum aġrıtma ḳo ḳîl ü ḳâli bir laḥẓa
Cemâlüñ muṣḥafın ‘arż it begüm kim sa‘d-ı ekberdür
Açılsun Mihrî bed-baḫtuñ mübârek fâlı bir laḥẓa

In English

1. Ever since my eye gazed for a moment on that cheek and that beauty spot, her image has not been empty from my eye and heart for a single moment. (In the first line "ḫâl" is beauty spot, in the second "ḫâlî" means empty; there is a sound play between the two words.)

2. Your mouth is my life, and your tress is my long life; if I do not see that mim and that dal for a moment, ah, I shall die. (In divan poetry the small, round mouth is likened to the Arabic letter mim, and the curled hair to the letter dal.)

3. The heart, like a nightingale in the thorn of torment, cries out at every moment; show the rose garden of your beauty, that its state may be happy for a moment.

4. O beloved, on the road of your love look upon the state of your lovers; see for a moment in what condition they pass their days without you.

5. My beloved, in the gardens of paradise the robe of honour is always worn; better to wear a coarse cloak and shawl at your door for a moment. (The hulle is the precious garment worn by the people of paradise; the aba and shawl are the rough woollen garments of dervishes. The lover prefers poverty at the beloved's door to the blessing of paradise. Gülşen Kaya explains the couplet as saying that the garment of paradise is worn by the beloved, while the cloak and shawl at the door suffice for the lover.)

6. O preacher of advice, do not frighten me today with tomorrow's fire of hell; be so kind as not to give me a headache, leave the gossip for a moment. ("Ḳîl ü ḳâl", he-said-she-said, means idle talk; the preacher and adviser are among the types the lover dislikes in divan poetry.)

7. My lord, show the Mushaf of your beauty, for it is the greatest good omen; let the blessed omen of unfortunate Mihrî be opened for a moment. (This refers to the tradition of divination by opening the Qur'an at random and taking the verse that appears. "Sa'd-ı ekber", the greatest fortune, is Jupiter, held in old astrology to be the most auspicious planet.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) has seven couplets (beyit) and is written in the hezec metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün", the same foot repeated four times. The redif (refrain word) is "bir laḥẓa", that is, "for a moment", and the rhyme rests on the sound "-âl" in the words "ḫâl(i), ḫâlî, dâl(ı), ḥâl(i), aḥvâl(i), şâl(ı), ḳâl(i), fâl(ı)". In the table in which Sıtkı Nazik extracts the refrains in Mihrî's divan, the refrain "bir lahza" appears only in this ghazal. The ghazal is found in the M and Ü manuscripts. In the M manuscript the order of the couplets differs: the fourth couplet stands sixth, the fifth stands third, and the sixth stands fifth; in the first couplet it also reads "ḳılalı" in place of "ideli". There is no record of whom it was written for; the form of address "begüm" in the last couplet names the addressee of the ghazal as a bey.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The phrase "bir an" (for a moment) in the refrain is like a measure spread through the whole ghazal. The lover has seen the beloved for a moment and her image has not left the heart for a moment; she will die if the beloved's mouth and tress are not seen for a moment; if the beloved's face, like a rose garden, were visible for a moment, the heart's state would be set right. Thus a short measure of time is used to express the greatness of the expectation. The sound likeness between "ḫâl" and "ḫâlî" in the opening couplet is a pun (cinas); the words "çeşm" and "dîde", and "dîde" and "dil", also form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

The second couplet is a conceit based on letter comparisons. The mouth is likened to the letter mim and the tress to the letter dal; a link is also made between the length of the tress and "'ömr-i dırâz" (long life). In the third couplet the conceit of rose and nightingale is used. Gülşen Kaya gives this couplet among the examples in which the torment (cefâ) that the beloved gives the lover is described in the divan together with the word "ḫâr" (thorn) as wounding the heart. The likening of the heart to the nightingale, of the beloved's face to the rose garden, and the putting of the thorn in place of torment turn the couplet entirely into a garden scene.

The fifth and sixth couplets turn the idea of paradise and hell in favour of love. The lover would not exchange the robe of paradise for the dervish cloak at the beloved's door, nor does she heed the adviser's threats of the fire of hell. Kaya treats the fifth couplet among the fabrics and clothing in the divan and notes that the cloak expresses poverty and stripping oneself of worldly blessing. The contrast between "bugün" (today) and "irte" (tomorrow) is an antithesis (tezat) that sets this life against the hereafter; "ḳîl ü ḳâl" is a short way of counting the preacher's words as idle noise.

The last couplet carries the ghazal's richest congruence of images. The words "Muṣḥaf, 'arż itmek, sa'd-ı ekber, açılmak, bed-baḫt, mübârek, fâl" bring together in one couplet both the tradition of divination by the Qur'an and the old belief in fortune governed by the stars. The likening of the beloved's face to the Mushaf is a familiar simile (teşbih) in divan poetry; here the seeing of this face is tied to the opening of the poet's closed fortune. The contrast between "bed-baḫt" (ill-fated) and "sa'd-ı ekber" (greatest good omen) adds a faint smile to the close.

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