Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Vezin: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Ne cefâ eyledi gör çarḫ bizüm cânumuza
Ḥasret itdi bizi her sevgülü yârânumuza
Rûzgâruñ biz umarduḳ ki vefâsın görevüz
Varduġınca o bizüm diş biledi ḳanumuza
Ḳanı ol ‘ayş u ‘işret ḳanı ol çeng ü rebâb
Āh her demde selâm olsun o devrânumuza
Görmeden bir daḫi yârân yüzini âh eger
İrişe bir gün ecel desti girîbânumuza
Kârumuz itdi felek bülbül-veş zâr u fiġân
Ḥasret ideli bizi bu gül-i ḫandânumuza
Ne günâh itdük ola çarḫ-ı sitem-kâra ‘aceb
Ki bizi dûr ider ol dâ’ima cânânumuza
Egler idi bularuñ luṭfı ġarîb göñlümüzi
Şimdi kim vire ṣafâ bu dil-i vîrânumuza
Ṣaldı küffâr iline âl ile yârânlarumuz
Neyledi bu felegi gör ki müselmânumuza
Mihrî ger ‘ömr vefâ eyler ise kesme ümîd
Geleler ṣaġlıġ ile bir gün ola yanumuza
Unudurlarsa bizi dostlar unutsun nidelüm
Hele biz ṭuralum iḫlâṣ ile îmânumuza

In English

1. See what cruelties fate has done to our souls: it has left us longing for every dear friend of ours.

2. We hoped to see the loyalty of time; but all the while it went on sharpening its teeth for our blood (plotting against our lives).

3. Where is that pleasure and revelry, where is the sound of the harp and the rebec; ah, at every moment, greetings to those days of ours.

4. Ah, if, before seeing the faces of our friends once more, the hand of death should one day seize our collar... (The sentence is not completed; the sense "what would become of us" is hinted at.)

5. Since fate left us longing for this smiling rose of ours, our work has become to wail and lament like the nightingale.

6. It is a wonder: what sin did we commit against this tyrannical fate that it always keeps us far from our beloved?

7. Their kindness used to soothe and cheer our heart far from home; now who will give joy to this ruined heart of ours?

8. By trickery it sent our friends off to the land of the infidels; see what this fate has done to our Muslims.

9. Mihrî, if life keeps faith, do not give up hope; one day they will come to us in good health.

10. If our friends forget us, let them forget, what can we do; let us at least stand by our sincerity and our faith (remain true to the word we gave).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 169th ghazal (gazel) of the divan has ten couplets (beyit) and is composed in the remel metre of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-umuza" (our ... -ımıza); the rhyme (kafiye) is built on the sound "-ân": cân, yârân, ḳan, devrân, girîbân, ḫandân, cânân, vîrân, müselmân, yan, îmân. Its length of ten couplets makes it one of the longer among Mihrî's ghazals. The poem is found, of the four manuscripts, only in the Ü manuscript. It is not known for whom or on what event the ghazal was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Unlike most of Mihrî's ghazals, this one does not address a single beloved. The speaker is "we", and what is lamented is the breaking up of a circle of friends. The word "yârân" occurs three times in the ghazal; friends and companions of the gathering are named in place of the beloved. The addressee of the complaint is likewise fate. Gülşen Kaya notes that in Mihrî's divan fate is treated, in keeping with the classical poetic tradition, in the relation of fortune and luck, and that the lover sees the cause of her torments either in the rival or in fate; she gives the fifth and sixth couplets as examples of this complaint. The question "Ne günâh itdük ola" in the sixth couplet carries the bewilderment of a person parted from the one she loves without knowing what offence she committed.

In the second couplet time is named with the word "rûzgâr". Kaya says that in the divan time appears as an element that separates the lover from the beloved, gives her pain and adds grief to her grief, and she cites this couplet. That time, from which loyalty was hoped, "sharpens its teeth for blood", that is, plots against one's life, gives the couplet a bitter antithesis (tezat). The third couplet is a longing turned to the past. Kaya gives this couplet as an example of the couplets in which the poet recalls past time with sadness and yearning. The repetition of "ḳanı" (where is, where are) is a familiar manner in old poetry of enumerating the lost fair days. The harp and the rebec are stringed instruments played in gatherings, and "‘ayş u ‘işret" describes the gathering of drink, music and conversation. What is longed for is thus the days of gatherings spent together with friends.

The fourth couplet is a conditional sentence left unfinished: what will happen if the hand of death seizes the collar before the faces of friends are seen again is not said, but left to the reader. By using "ecel desti" (the hand of death) and "girîbân" (collar) together, death is personified as a hand seizing the collar. In the fifth couplet the speaker is the nightingale, and what is longed for is the "gül-i ḫandân", the smiling, opened rose. The relation of rose and nightingale suits the general mood of the ghazal here too: the rose is far away and the nightingale is left with lament. In the seventh couplet the heart is "ġarîb", a heart left far from home, without anyone; Kaya counts this couplet among the examples describing how the heart becomes ruined when the beloved who kept it content with her kindness is gone.

The most striking couplet of the ghazal is the eighth. Fate has sent the friends "âl ile", that is by trickery, "küffâr iline", to the land of the infidels, and the poet calls this a wrong done to "müselmânumuza", our Muslims. This couplet suggests that the friends have actually gone, or been taken, to a land that is not Muslim; but about what such an event was, whom it concerned, and whether it had any connection with Mihrî's life, the sources give no information. The couplet can also be read as a figure: in divan poetry beauties are often called "infidel", and "küffâr ili" may also mean the land of the beloveds.

The last two couplets are built between hope and submission. In the ninth couplet Mihrî addresses herself and hopes that, if life keeps faith, the friends will one day return safe and sound. In the tenth, the possibility of being forgotten is met with calm acceptance: if friends forget, let them forget; "we" will stand by our sincerity and faith. That another couplet follows the makta couplet is an arrangement not often seen in divan poetry; Mihrî has mentioned her pen name in the ninth couplet and left the last word to the voice of "we" that runs through the whole ghazal.

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 139-140, Ghazal 169 (Ü 66a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 211, 251, 262-263. openaccess.firat.edu.tr