Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Hem-dem olmasun İlâhî âh u efġân kimseye
Maḥrem olmasun cihânda zâr u giryân kimseye
Devr-i ḥüsnüñdür bugün sâyeñde ḫoş gör ‘âşıḳı
Bâḳi ḳalmaz dostum bil kim bu devrân kimseye
Tîġ-ı ḳahr ile deler çün şerḥa şerḥa sînemi
Bir naẓar ḳılsa gözi ucıyla cânân kimseye
Ḳorḫaram aġyâr bir gün yâr kûyından beni
Sürdüre cennetden uymasun bu şeyṭân kimseye
Mihrümi terk eylemiş Mihrî dimişsin dostum
İtmegil billâh nâ-ḥaḳ yere bühtân kimseye

In English

1. O God, may sighs and laments be no one's companion; may weeping and wailing be no one's confidant in the world.

2. Today is the turn of your beauty; treat the lover well in your shade, look after him. Know, my friend, that this turning of fortune's wheel stays with no one.

3. When the beloved casts a glance from the corner of her eye at someone else, it pierces my breast to pieces with the sword of wrath.

4. I fear that one day the rivals will have me driven from the beloved's quarter, as if driven from paradise; may no one follow this devil. (An allusion to Adam following Satan and being expelled from paradise.)

5. "Mihrî has abandoned my love," you have said, my friend; for God's sake, do not slander anyone unjustly.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 171st 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 "kimseye"; the rhyme (kafiye) is built on the sound "-ân": efġân, giryân, devrân, cânân, şeyṭân, bühtân. The poem is found in all four manuscripts (F, M, S, Ü), and the differences among them are small; the notable one is that in the F manuscript the word "Mihrümi" at the start of the last couplet is written as "Mihrî". There is no information on whom or on what occasion the ghazal was written.

In his study comparing the common redifs in the divans of Mihrî Hatun and Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi, an Amasya poet who lived in the same years, Sıtkı Nazik counts the redif "kimseye" among the redifs shared by the two poets: in Mihrî it is this ghazal, and in Cafer Çelebi it is the 194th ghazal of his divan that is written with this redif. Nazik's table shows only the sharing of the redif; it does not state that one of the two ghazals was written as a nazire (response poem) to the other.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a prayer: "İlâhî", may sighs and laments be no one's companion, may weeping and wailing be no one's confidant. While wishing that no one else suffer what she suffers, the lover indirectly conveys the greatness of that pain. The words "hem-dem" (breath-companion, comrade) and "maḥrem" (confidant) are set in corresponding places in the two lines; the pairs "âh u efġân" and "zâr u giryân" answer one another in the same arrangement. This balance between the lines forms a kind of parallel structure in the couplet.

The second couplet has the character of advice to the beloved. Today is the turn of her beauty, but "the turning of fortune's wheel stays with no one." The transience of beauty is a theme often treated in divan poetry; the lover asks the beloved to keep her well in the shade of this short-lived rule. The words "devr-i ḥüsn" and "devrân" come from the same root and form a figure close to derivation (iştikak); "sâye" (shade) is also a word that shows the beloved as a ruler, since in old poetry the shade of the sultan means protection.

The third couplet expresses jealousy. When the beloved glances at someone else from the corner of her eye, the lover's breast is split to pieces by the sword of wrath. The reduplication "şerḥa şerḥa" (in slices) gives the couplet a harsh and concrete picture; that the glance turns into a sword rests on the divan-poetry conception of the eye and the glance as weapons.

The fourth couplet is the richest of the ghazal. Gülşen Kaya notes that in Mihrî's divan the beloved's quarter is also described as a paradise beside the Kaaba, and gives this couplet as an example: the quarter is paradise, the beloved by implication is the houri, the rival is Satan, and the lover is Adam driven from paradise. The couplet thus alludes to the story of Adam and Eve following Satan and being expelled from paradise. The phrase "Uymasun bu şeyṭân kimseye" is both a prayer recalling the Qur'anic account and a reproach aimed at the rival.

In the makta couplet the poet answers the beloved who says "Mihrî has abandoned my love," and says that this is an unjust slander. The words "Mihrüm" (my love) and "Mihrî" come together in the same line; the shared sound and root between the poet's pen name and the word "mihr", meaning love, is a play often used in Mihrî's poems. That the person accused of abandoning love bears a name meaning "love" also hints at how groundless the slander is. In the F manuscript's reading "Mihrî" the line turns into "Mihrî terk eylemiş" and the wordplay is lost; the edition follows the reading "Mihrümi" of the other three manuscripts.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 140-141, Ghazal 171 (F 66b, M 94a, S 68a, Ü 66b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, p. 186. 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. 140.

Online sources