Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Vezin: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

Gör ne yüz gösterdi bu zülf-i semen-sâlar bize
Ḳodı biñ derd ü ġam-ı hecr ile sevdâlar bize
Ḫurrem olsun her ḳadem baṣduḳça ṣaḥrâlar size
Ḫâne-i ġamda yeter bu âh ile vâlar bize
Çekmişüz yüz biñ cefâsın her cihetden gerçi âh
İtmedi bir dem vefâ bu ḫûb u ra‘nâlar bize
Düşmişüz âḥû gözüñ sevdâsına Mecnûn-veş
Mesken olmışdur ḳamu bu kûh u ṣaḥrâlar bize
Pâre ḳılsa itlerüñ cânâ raḳîb-i kâfiri
Olmaz idi daḫi bir vechile ġavġâlar bize
Çâresi ṣabr eylemekdür Mihrî ḳassâm-ı ezel
Böyle yazmış çünki her vechile inşâlar bize

In English

1. See what face these jasmine-like locks have shown us: they have left us a thousand sorrows, the grief of separation, and melancholy. ("To show a face" means "to treat, to behave toward"; since the lock covers the face, the idiom also carries a play on words. Sevdâ is both love and black bile, that is, melancholia.)

2. May the fields and plains delight you at every step you take; in the house of grief this "ah" and "vah" are enough for us.

3. Though we have suffered hundreds of thousands of cruelties from every side, alas, these fair and graceful ones have not shown us loyalty for a single moment.

4. We have fallen like Majnun for the love of your gazelle eyes; all these mountains and deserts have become our dwelling.

5. Beloved, if the dogs of your street tore that infidel rival to pieces, we would have no quarrel and no trouble left in any way.

6. The only remedy is patience, Mihrî; for the Divider of Portions in eternity (God) has written for us in every respect such compositions, such decrees.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 166th ghazal (gazel) of the divan has six couplets (beyit) and is composed in the remel metre of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "-lar bize"; the rhyme (kafiye) is built on the sound "-â": semen-sâ, sevdâ, vâ, ra‘nâ, ṣaḥrâ, ġavġâ, inşâ. The word "ṣaḥrâlar" occurs twice in the ghazal; in the first line of the second couplet it appears in a use that ends in "size", while in the fourth couplet it stands in the true rhyme position. A notable difference among the manuscripts is that the second couplet is missing from manuscripts M and Ü; it comes only from F and S. There is no information on whom or on what occasion the ghazal was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a reproach addressed to the beloved's lock of hair. "Semen-sâ" means jasmine-like, jasmine-scented. Gülşen Kaya notes that in Mihrî's divan this compound describes the jasmine-like lock and so the beloved herself directly, and that with this couplet the lover reproaches the beloved who has left her in sorrow and grief. Kaya discusses the same couplet again in the section on grief and says that the words lock, grief, sorrow and melancholy describe a dark state and are used in congruence with one another (tenasüp). In divan poetry the lock is black; and "sevdâ" recalls, besides love, the black bile of old medicine, melancholia. Thus the black lock and black melancholy meet around the same colour. The idiom "ne yüz gösterdi" is also a play on words that suits a lock: the lock that covers the face has shown the lover a quite different "face."

In the second couplet the speaker sets herself apart from others. She wishes delight at every step for those who roam fields and plains, while for the lover "ah" and "vah" are enough in the house of grief. Kaya cites this couplet, in studying the image of the house of grief in Mihrî's divan, as an example of the lover still being content to sigh in that house. The meeting of the pronouns "size" and "bize" gives the couplet a natural antithesis (tezat).

The fourth couplet alludes to the story of Layla and Majnun. Majnun, losing his mind for the love of Layla, wandered into the deserts and lived with gazelles in mountains and plains. Mihrî calls the beloved's eye "âhû", a gazelle's eye; so the gazelle recalls both the beloved's eye and Majnun's companions in the desert. Kaya notes that the gazelle is used in divan and folk poetry to describe the beloved and her eyes, that the same use is seen in Mihrî, and cites this couplet. The phrase "kûh u ṣaḥrâ" (mountain and desert) also completes Majnun's setting.

The fifth couplet rests on a familiar scene of divan poetry. The dogs waiting at the beloved's door are close to the lover and hostile to the rival; the lover befriends these dogs and wishes the rival torn apart by them. The rival is called an "infidel" because he is seen as faithless and merciless, someone who blocks the road to the beloved. The makta couplet then ties the complaint to submission to destiny. "Ḳassâm-ı ezel" is God, who divided sustenance and portions in eternity; "inşâ" is used in the sense of writing, a written decree. The sorrow that falls to the lover's share was written in eternity, and the only remedy left is patience. The presence of the verb "yazmış" (has written) and the word "inşâ" in the same line forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) belonging to writing.

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 137-138, Ghazal 166 (F 65a, M 92a, S 67a, Ü 65b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 150, 229, 231, 280. openaccess.firat.edu.tr