Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

Künc-i ġam vîrânesinde şimdi yârümdür nemed
Sâye-bânum maḥremüm ‘âlemde varumdur nemed
Ben gedâ ḥâline hem-derd olmadı illâ ki bu
‘İzz ü câhum hem-demüm hem şehriyârumdur nemed
Ten enîs olmışdur andan ayru olmaz bir nefes
Sevdügüm yârüm vefâ-dârum nigârumdur nemed
Ḳış güninde gâh gâh esdükçe bâd-ı zemherîr
Ḫâne-i ḫalvet-gehümde germ nârumdur nemed
Ey felek Mihrî siyeh-pûş itdüñ ise ġam mıdur
Ḳâlebe cem‘ olmadın rûḥ iḫtiyârumdur nemed

In English

1. In the ruin of the corner of sorrow, my companion now is felt. My shade, my confidant, whatever I have in the world, is felt. ("Nemed" is the thick felt made by beating wool; the coarse felt cloak worn by dervishes is also called by this name. "Sâye-bân" means a shade, a protector, and a large tent.)

2. No one but this has shared the pain of me, the beggar. My honour, my rank, my soul's companion, and also my sovereign, is felt.

3. My body has become such a friend to it that it is not apart from it for a single breath. The one I love, my faithful companion, my beautiful beloved, is felt. (With the reading "yâr-i" in manuscript M: my beloved whom I love, faithful.)

4. In the days of winter, whenever now and then the bitter midwinter wind blows, the fire that warms me in the house of my seclusion is felt. ("Ḫalvet-geh" is the place where dervishes withdraw to worship alone.)

5. O fate, if you have clothed Mihrî in black, is it a grief to me? What I chose of my own will, before the soul entered the body, is felt. (Black is the colour of mourning and sorrow. "Ḳâleb" means body, mould; the time before the union of soul and body, that is, the world of souls, is meant.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The sixteenth ghazal (gazel) has five couplets (beyit) and is written in the metre "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "-umdur nemed" (… is felt); the rhyme is the sound "-âr" (yâr, var, şehriyâr, nigâr, nâr, iḫtiyâr). As Kamile Çetin notes, the ghazal is spoken in the first person singular, and "nemed", felt, is redefined in each couplet as the only thing the lover owns. Because the last letter of the redif is dâl, the poem is in the section "Ḥarfü'd-Dâl" in the edition. It is found in all four manuscripts (F 36b, M 51a, S 38b, Ü 31a); the manuscript variants consist of the readings "yârüm/yâr-i" in the third couplet and "gâh gâh/gâh geh" in the fourth.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Nemed is a word of Persian origin and means felt, a cloak of coarse wool, a covering made of wool. According to the information gathered by Çetin, felt had a wide range of use in the daily life of the Turks, from clothing to shelter; people of Sufism also preferred it to garments sewn of cloth for its plainness. For this reason nemed is counted in classical poetry as a symbol of poverty, contentment, lovership and being on God's path; "nemed-pûş", one who wears felt, means a dervish. Gülşen Kaya also mentions this ghazal in her discussion of dervishhood: dervishes wear nothing but coarse felt, and this is a sign of their having withdrawn from the world; the poet too, in the manner of a dervish, describes felt as her sole companion in the corner of sorrow.

Throughout the ghazal felt ceases to be an object and becomes a being that fills the lover's whole world. As Çetin lists, Mihrî describes the nemed as a companion (yâr), a shade-giver (sâye-bân), a confidant (maḥrem), the only being in the world, honour and rank (izz ü câh), a close friend (hem-dem), a sovereign (şehriyâr), a faithful one (vefâ-dâr), a beloved (nigâr), and the fire that warms on a winter's day. The word "sâye-bân" in the opening couplet (matla), besides its senses of shade and protector, also means a large tent and brings to mind a tent made of felt. In the second couplet there is antithesis (tezat) between the beggar (gedâ) and the sovereign (şehriyâr): the honour, rank and sovereign of the lover who lacks worldly goods is again felt. In the third couplet felt takes the place of the beloved; the words "yâr", "nigâr" and "vefâ-dâr" describe an object in the traditional language of the ghazal's beloved, and personification (teşhis) takes its clearest form in this couplet.

The fourth couplet returns to the real use of felt. Çetin notes that the couplet refers to felt being used to keep warm in cold regions. Kaya too records that winter is rarely mentioned in the divan and that in this ghazal felt's protection against the cold of winter is expressed. The phrase "ḫâne-i ḫalvet-geh" recalls the place in the dervish lodges where dervishes retire into seclusion; according to Çetin this too reflects the poet's wish to present herself as a dervish. An antithesis is set up between the midwinter cold and the "germ nâr", the warm fire.

In the pen-name couplet (makta) fate has clothed the poet in black. Çetin says that black is the colour of grief and mourning, but that this is no cause of sorrow for Mihrî: the poet chose dervishhood, and its symbol the nemed, of her own will before the soul entered the body. This is related to the way love is thought of in divan poetry as a decision given in the world of souls, in pre-eternity. In the couplet a congruence of images (tenasüp) through clothing is set up between "siyeh-pûş" (clad in black) and "nemed": against the mourning garment that fate has put on her is set the dervish felt chosen by the lover herself.

Necâtî's "Nemed" Ghazal

Necâtî Bey, Mihrî's contemporary, also has a seven-couplet ghazal with the redif "-umdur nemed", which begins: "Ben gedâyem pâdişâhumdur nemed / Âr zahmından penâhumdur nemed". Relying on the tezkire record (Latîfî) that most of Mihrî's poems are nazires (response poems) to Necâtî, and on the view that she almost made this her profession, Kamile Çetin considers Mihrî's ghazal a nazire to Necâtî's. The two poems are, however, written in different metres: Necâtî's is in the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün", Mihrî's in "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The redif is shared, while the rhyme is built on the sound "-âh" in Necâtî and "-âr" in Mihrî. Çetin recalls that unity of metre and rhyme is not always required in nazires. Metin Hakverdioğlu's 2009 study, in which he collected twenty nazires that keep metre, rhyme and redif exactly, does not include this ghazal.

The clearest common ground between the two ghazals is the contrast between beggary and sovereignty. Necâtî says "Ben gedâyem pâdişâhumdur nemed"; Mihrî begins her second couplet with "Ben gedâ" and ends it with "‘İzz ü câhum ... hem şehriyârumdur nemed". The phrase "izz ü câh" in Necâtî's line "Devletümdür izz ü câhumdur nemed" also occurs in the same couplet of Mihrî. According to Çetin, the expressions common to the two poets are "izz ü câh" and "pâdişâh" and "şehriyâr", which have the same meaning. Apart from this, the two poets work felt with different conceptions: Necâtî sees it as a garment, a cap, a place of prostration, the case of the heart's mirror and the road to the beloved; Mihrî describes it as a friend, a confidant, a beloved and a winter fire. The dervish garment and the idea of repentance that stand out in Necâtî's ghazal turn in Mihrî into a feeling of companionship and shelter.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 59, Gazel 16 (F 36b, M 51a, S 38b, Ü 31a) and the footnotes on manuscript variants. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Kamile Çetin, "Necâtî Bey ve Mihrî Hatun'un 'Nemed' Gazellerinin Karşılaştırılması", Littera Turca Journal of Turkish Language and Literature 6/3 (2020), pp. 344-355, doi:10.20322/littera.714801. dergipark.org.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010 (entries on dervish, winter and cloth). openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Metin Hakverdioğlu, "Mihrî Hâtun'un Necâtî Bey'in Şiirlerine Nazîreleri", Turkish Studies 4/2 (Winter 2009), pp. 522-551, doi:10.7827/TurkishStudies.638.

Online sources