Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Var mıdur ‘âlemde bir dilber cefâ-kâr olmaya
Ḥîle-i cevr ü sitem-kâr ile mekkâr olmaya
Ḳand'olur sünbüllerin mâh üzre ṭaġıtduḳda dost
Zülfinüñ bir ḳılına yüz biñ dil-efkâr olmaya
Ġamzeñüñ cânuma biñ biñ zaḫm ḳılduġın şehâ
Ḥażret-i Ḥaḳ ḳatına varıcaḳ inkâr olmaya
Himmet ü cûduñ ḫayâlümden ne ṭañ olmasa dûr
Luṭf u iḥsânuñ umar bir ben güneh-kâr olmaya
Dostum cem‘ itseler ‘âlemde bî-ṭâli‘leri
Bir daḫi Mihrî gibi baḫtı siyeh-kâr olmaya

In English

1. Is there in the world a beauty who is not cruel, who does not deceive with the wiles of tyranny and oppression?

2. Beloved, when you scatter your hyacinth curls over the moon of your face, where would one see not a hundred thousand grieving hearts caught on a single hair of your lock? (That is, a hundred thousand hearts hang from every hair of your lock.)

3. O king (beloved), when you come before the presence of the Truth (God), may you not deny the thousands upon thousands of wounds your glance has opened in my soul. (The lover wishes that on the Day of Judgment the beloved will not deny what she did.)

4. Is it any wonder if your generosity and bounty never leave my mind; there is not another sinner like me who hopes for your kindness and favour. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the second line may mean "no other sinner like me could be found who hopes for your kindness," or "may I, the sinner who awaits your kindness, not be left without it.")

5. My friend, if they gathered all the unlucky in the world, there would not be another one with a fortune as black as Mihrî's.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 170th ghazal (gazel) of the divan has five couplets (beyit) and is composed in the remel metre of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". Its redif (refrain word) is "olmaya"; the rhyme (kafiye) is built on the sound "-âr": cefâ-kâr, mekkâr, dil-efkâr, inkâr, güneh-kâr, siyeh-kâr. Five couplets is the shortest length counted for a ghazal. The poem is found in manuscripts M and Ü; the only difference between them is that of "ḳılduġın / ḳılduġı" in the first line of the third couplet. In Sıtkı Nazik's study comparing the redifs of Mihrî Hatun and Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi, this ghazal is listed as one of Mihrî's two ghazals with the redif "olmaya". There is no information on whom or on what occasion the ghazal was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The redif "olmaya" builds every couplet of the ghazal on a negative wish or a negative possibility. The first couplet opens with a question: is there in the world a beauty who is not cruel and does not deceive by guile? The answer is hidden in the question; there is no such beauty. This is an example of istifham, the art of stating something known in the form of a question. The words "cefâ-kâr", "cevr", "sitem-kâr" and "mekkâr" in the couplet are chosen from the same field of meaning and describe the beloved's cruelty by piling it up.

The second couplet unites the beloved's hair and face in a picture of sky and garden. Gülşen Kaya notes that the hyacinth is often used with the hair in the divan because its clustered florets resemble braided hair, and she gives this couplet as an example in which the beloved's face is likened to the moon and her hair to a hyacinth scattered over her face. In divan poetry the dishevelled lock is a place where the hearts of lovers hang; every hair holds a heart. Mihrî extends this conceit through hyperbole and hangs a hundred thousand grieving hearts on a single hair. The meeting of moon and hyacinth, that is sky and garden, in the same line also gives the couplet a visual contrast.

The third couplet turns to thoughts of the hereafter. Kaya says that in Mihrî's divan the hereafter is treated in its aspects of going before God and giving account, and she gives this couplet as an example. The beloved's "ġamze", her languid and wounding glance, has opened thousands of wounds in the lover's soul; the lover wishes that, when they come before the presence of the Truth (God), the beloved will not deny it. In divan poetry the "ġamze" is often thought of as an arrow or a sword; the image of the wound comes from there. Addressing the beloved in the couplet as "şehâ" (O king) is also a familiar form of address in divan poetry; the beloved is thought of as a ruler and the lover as her servant.

The fourth couplet turns to the beloved's generosity and kindness. The words "himmet", "cûd", "luṭf" and "iḥsân" join in the field of generosity and goodness and form a congruence of images (tenasüp) in the couplet. The syntax of the second line does not allow a single reading; given the sense of "let there be no other, let none be found" that the ghazal's redif carries, it is being said that the most sinful person awaiting the beloved's kindness is the poet herself. The makta couplet is built on the same pattern: if all the unlucky of the world were gathered, there would be none among them with a fortune as black as Mihrî's. "Bî-ṭâli‘" (unlucky) and "baḫtı siyeh-kâr" (black-fortuned) repeat the same meaning in two different words. The poet's exaggerated mention of her own misfortune is a form of complaint often seen in the makta couplets of divan poetry.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 140, Ghazal 170 (M 90a, Ü 66a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 28, 146. openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Sıtkı Nazik, "Benzer Redifli Şiirleri Bağlamında Mihrî Hatun ve Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi'nin Karşılaştırılması", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya 2017, p. 137 (table of Mihrî's redifs).

Online sources