Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Vezin: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün

Göñül geçmez hevâdan Allah Allâh
Uṣanmaz dil-rübâdan Allah Allâh
Dün ü gün dilberüñ kûyına vardum
Geçilmez mübtelâdan Allah Allâh
Yürürler ḫûblar bîgânelerle
Ḳaçarlar âşinâdan Allah Allâh
Raḳîbi yâd ider luṭfıyla her dem
Bizi añmaz vefâdan Allah Allâh
Dil ü cân aldı bilmem daḫi ne ister
O şâhum ben gedâdan Allah Allâh
Ya vaṣl it dilbere yâ luṭf it öldür
Beni ḳurtar belâdan Allah Allâh
Dehânına gelüpdür cân-ı Mihrî
Daḫi ölmez cefâdan Allah Allâh

In English

1. The heart does not give up its passion, Allah Allah; it does not tire of the heart-stealing beauty, Allah Allah. (Hevâ is the heart's desire and passion. Dil-rübâ means one who snatches or wins hearts, a beloved. "Allah Allah" here expresses astonishment and complaint.)

2. Night and day I went to the beloved's quarter; one cannot get through there for the lovestruck, Allah Allah. (Mübtelâ is someone seized and afflicted by love.)

3. The beauties go about with strangers and flee from those they know, Allah Allah. (Âşinâ is an acquaintance, someone close; the lover counts himself the beloved's acquaintance.)

4. The beloved remembers the rival with kindness at every moment, yet does not remember us even once out of loyalty, Allah Allah. (The second line can also be understood as "does not remember us because the beloved knows no loyalty.")

5. The beloved has taken my heart and my life; I do not know what that sovereign of mine still wants from a beggar like me, Allah Allah.

6. Either unite me with the beloved or kindly kill me; deliver me from this affliction, Allah Allah. (The plea seems to be addressed to God or to fate; the addressee is not named.)

7. Mihrî's soul has come up to her lips, and still she does not die of the cruelty, Allah Allah. (To have one's soul come up to the mouth is to stand on the threshold of death. The couplet can be read in two ways: "dehânına" may point to Mihrî's own mouth, but it also suggests the beloved's mouth, in which case Mihrî's soul has reached the beloved's lips and still found no release in death.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 164th ghazal (gazel) of the divan has seven couplets (beyit) and is composed in the hezec metre of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün". The lines are built on this short eleven-syllable pattern. The redif (refrain word) is "Allah Allâh"; the rhyme (kafiye) is the "-âdan" sound in "hevâdan, dil-rübâdan, mübtelâdan, âşinâdan, vefâdan, gedâdan, belâdan, cefâdan". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is found only in the Istanbul University (Ü) manuscript. According to Sıtkı Nazik's table, the redif "Allah Allâh" is used in only this ghazal in the divan. There is no record of whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most distinctive feature of the ghazal is its redif. In everyday speech "Allah Allah" is an exclamation that conveys astonishment, wonder and reproach together. By placing it at the end of every couplet, the poet creates a voice that is baffled by the lover's condition and complains a little. The short metre and the refrain repeated at the end of each line give the poem a plain flow close to spoken language. Most couplets describe an unexpected, illogical behaviour of the beloved or of the heart, and the refrain carries the bewilderment at that behaviour.

In the first couplet the heart, despite all the pain it is given, does not give up its passion and does not tire of the heart-stealing beauty. The second couplet says that the beloved's quarter is crowded with the lovestruck. Gülşen Kaya cites this couplet when she describes how, in the divan, the lover spends his life in sighs and laments in the beloved's quarter and how that quarter is full of those devoted to the beloved. The third and fourth couplets are built on a contrast: the beauties go about with strangers and flee from acquaintances; the beloved speaks of the rival kindly and never remembers the lover. The opposition between "bîgâne" (stranger) and "âşinâ" (acquaintance), and between "raḳîb" (rival) and "us", forms an antithesis (tezat) in these couplets.

In the fifth couplet the beloved is likened to a sovereign and the lover to a beggar. This familiar pairing of divan poetry is joined here to a question: the beggar has already given his heart and life and has nothing else left to give. In the sixth the lover offers two options: either union or death. That he would take either, so long as he is delivered from the affliction, shows that his present state is heavier than both.

The last couplet ends the ghazal on the threshold of death. Mihrî's soul has come up to her mouth, but the cruelty is not enough even to kill her. This links with the "kill me" of the previous couplet; the lover asked for death as a deliverance and could not reach even that.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources