Özgün Metin

Vezin: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ûlün

Sen ḳılmadıġuñ derdüme dermânı unutma
Ben ḥasret ile virdügüm ol cânı unutma
Ḳanlu yaşum irdükçe revânlar idüben âh
Çâk itdügüm ey dost girîbânı unutma
Dilberler ile sen güle gezdükçe ḥabîbüm
Hecrüñde olan dîdesi giryânı unutma
Luṭfuñla ‘imâret ḳılıcaḳ müdde‘î göñlin
Cevrüñle yıḳılmış dil-i vîrânı unutma
Ḳılduḳça ḥamâ’il ḳolını boynuña aġyâr
Zülfüñ gibi ben göñli perîşânı unutma
Bir kerre ḳadem baṣmaġa cânâ yüzüm üzre
‘Ahd itmiş idüñ gel berü peymânı unutma
Biñ yıl ki felek devr ide ‘âşıḳ saña cânâ
Getürmeye bir Mihrî gibi ânı unutma

In English

1. Do not forget the remedy you never gave my pain; do not forget the soul I gave in longing for you. (The lover asks the beloved to remember the kindness she never showed him and the life he gave for her.)

2. My friend, when my bloody tears flow on in streams with a sigh, do not forget the collar I tore. (Girîbân is the collar of a shirt, the opening at the chest. Tearing the collar is a sign of unbearable pain and helplessness.)

3. My beloved, when you stroll and laugh with the fair ones, do not forget the one whose eye weeps in your separation.

4. When, by your kindness, you make the rival's heart flourish and rebuilt, do not forget the ruined heart that your cruelty tore down. (The müddeî is the rival who claims a share in the lover's right. Rebuilding and demolishing, kindness and cruelty, are set against each other.)

5. When strangers (rivals) wind their arms around your neck like a hamâ'il, do not forget me, whose heart is scattered like your hair. (Hamâ'il is a sword-strap worn crosswise from the shoulder, or a pouch for an amulet. A likeness is drawn between the disorder of the hair and the shattered state of the lover's heart.)

6. My soul, you once promised to set your foot on my face; come here, do not forget that pledge. (For the beloved to set a foot on the lover's face is counted a great favour; the lover is willing to spread his face beneath the beloved's foot.)

7. Beloved, even if the heavens turn for a thousand years, they will not bring you a lover like Mihrî; do not forget him.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and fifty-eighth ghazal of the divan has seven couplets (beyit) and is written in the hezec metre of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ûlün". The redif (refrain word) is "unutma" (do not forget), and the rhyme is the sound "-ânı" in the words "dermânı, cânı, girîbânı, giryânı, vîrânı, perîşânı, peymânı, ânı". The pen name (mahlas) is in the last couplet. The poem is found only in the Istanbul University (Ü) manuscript. In the table by Sıtkı Nazik showing the refrains in Mihrî's divan, the refrain "unutma" occurs only in this ghazal. There is no record of whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the couplets of the ghazal turn on the same request: the lover asks the beloved not to forget him and what he has suffered for her sake. The imperative mood of the refrain gives the poem a tone between a plea and a reproach. In each couplet the lover names something he does not want forgotten: the remedy not given, the soul given, the torn collar, the weeping eye, the ruined heart, a heart as scattered as loosened hair, a promise made, and at the end Mihrî herself.

In the first couplet "derd" (pain) and "dermân" (remedy), and "ḳılmadıġuñ" (what you did not do) and "virdügüm" (what I gave), are set against each other; the imbalance between what the beloved did not do and what the lover did thus appears in the very first couplet. The second couplet brings together tears turning to blood and flowing with the tearing of the collar. Gülşen Kaya uses this couplet to illustrate that in the divan the collar is generally imagined as belonging to the lover and torn to pieces by pain.

The third couplet is one on which Kaya especially dwells. While the beloved strolls laughing with other beauties, the lover weeps in separation. After noting that the lover's eye is called "dîdesi giryân" (weeping eye) because it is full of bloody tears, Kaya records that in this couplet the voice of Mihrî Hatun as a woman is heard. The contrast built in the fourth couplet between kindness and cruelty, and between rebuilding and demolition, is an example of antithesis (tezat); while the rival's heart flourishes through the beloved's kindness, the lover's heart is reduced to ruin by her cruelty.

In the fifth couplet the "ḥamâ’il" simile draws attention: the rival's arm is wound around the beloved's neck like a strap hung crosswise from the shoulder. Kaya cites this couplet among the examples in which the beloved's hair is imagined as scattered, like the lover's heart. The simile between the tress and the distraught heart places the rival's embrace beside the lover's disorder. In the sixth couplet the lover reminds the beloved of a promise she once gave. "‘Ahd" and "peymân" are two words of the same meaning and reinforce each other in the couplet.

The last couplet carries the ghazal's boldest claim: even if the heavens turn for a thousand years, they cannot produce a lover like Mihrî. Showing that Mihrî repeats herself in some couplets, Sabiha Gemici places this line beside the line "Biñ yıl ki felek devr ide devrânlar içinde" in the one hundred and sixty-second ghazal. The same pattern is used in both couplets; but there the heavens cannot bring a beloved of such uniqueness, and here they cannot bring the lover. This exchange shows the value Mihrî gives herself as a lover.

Bibliography

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