Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Oldı dil bülbüli bu gül-ruḫ-ı zîbâ delüsi
Biñ ola bencileyin ‘âşıḳ-ı şeydâ delüsi
Düşdi ṣaḥrâya yeler derd ile mecnûn-ı göñül
Olalıdan berü ol ṣaçları leylâ delüsi
Gerçi çoḳ o ṣanemüñ ‘aşḳınuñ âşüfteleri
Olmaya bencileyin bir daḫi rüsvâ delüsi
Gice gündüz başını serv ṣalar gülşende
Meger olmış o daḫi ol ḳad-i ra‘nâ delüsi
Ol mehüñ Mihrî cihân ḫalḳı da dîvânesidür
Sen seni ṣanma hemân dünyede tenhâ delüsi

In English

1. The nightingale of the heart has gone mad for this adorned, rose-faced beauty; may a thousand lovers distraught like me be mad for her.

2. Since the heart became mad for those tresses of Leylâ, it has been running about in grief like a Mecnun fallen into the desert. (Because the name Leylâ also means "night", the beloved's black hair is likened to Leylâ and the heart enamoured of it to Mecnun.)

3. Though many are the distracted victims of that idol's love, there will not be another madman disgraced as I am.

4. Night and day the cypress shakes its head in the rose garden; it must have gone mad for that graceful stature as well.

5. O Mihrî, the people of the world too are mad for that moon-faced one; do not think yourself her only madman in the world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and eightieth ghazal (gazel) has five 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 "delüsi", that is, "delisi" (mad for her); the rhyme (kafiye) is built on words of Persian and Arabic origin ending in the sound "-â": zîbâ, şeydâ, leylâ, rüsvâ, ra‘nâ, tenhâ. The ghazal is in the Yâ section of the Divan and, in the Arslan edition, rests on the Ü manuscript alone. In Havlioğlu's electronic text it appears as the one hundred and eighty-second ghazal; there the first line is read as "gül·i ruẖ-zībā". It is not known for whom it was written.

The way the redif points in each couplet to a different "madman" determines the structure of the ghazal. In the first couplet the nightingale of the heart, in the second the heart turned Mecnun, in the third the disgraced lover, in the fourth the cypress, in the fifth all the people of the world are mad for the beloved. Madness thus widens from the state of a single lover to a condition that embraces all of creation.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In Divan poetry the highest degree of love is expressed through madness, and this is counted less a defect than a sign of the reality of the love. In this ghazal Mihrî makes madness a matter of pride. In the first couplet the heart is a nightingale enamoured of the rose-faced beloved; the congruence of images (tenasüp) between rose and nightingale is set up from the first line. In the third couplet the lover admits that the beloved has very many devotees, but says that none of them is as disgraced as she is. To gain a bad name among the people because of love is, in Divan poetry, a state that proves the lover's loyalty.

The second couplet alludes to the story of Leylâ and Mecnun. Gülşen Kaya notes that in the Divan these two heroes are sometimes named singly and sometimes together, that because of the meaning "night" in the word Leylâ the beloved's hair is likened to her, and that the heart, with its passion and madness, is likened to Mecnun, and she gives this couplet as her example. As Mecnun fell into the deserts through his love for Leylâ, so the heart runs in the deserts through its love for the tresses; there is a congruence of images among the words ṣaḥrâ, Mecnûn and Leylâ.

The fourth couplet is a fantastic etiology (hüsn-i talil), that is, the finding of a beautiful, imaginary reason for something that happens in nature. The cypress's shaking its head in the wind is attributed to its having seen the beloved's stature and gone mad for her. In Divan poetry the beloved's stature is likened to the cypress; here the comparison is reversed, and the cypress becomes a lover who admires a stature more beautiful than its own. In the closing couplet (makta) Mihrî directs a warning at herself: all the people of the world are mad for that moon-faced one, and the poet must not think herself her only madwoman. That the pen name Mihr (sun) and the word "meh" (moon) occur in the same line also forms a congruence of images.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (hzl.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 145, Gazel 180 (Ü 68a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ġazeliyyât-ı Mihrî-i Ḥaḳîre, electronic edition, Ottoman Texts Archive Project (OTAP), Gazel 182 (İst 154a).

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, p. 74. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Online sources