Mihrî Hatun, Ghazal 186: A Jest for Güvâhî

A jesting poem of curses that Mihrî Hatun sent to Güvâhî, poet of the Pend-nâme: she wishes him every torment of love, and his only offence is never mentioning her in his couplets.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün

Cihân içinde bir ḫûba Güvâhî
Seni Ḥaḳ mübtelâ ḳılsun İlâhî

Ruḫı bâġında bülbül-veş ḥabîbüñ
Fiġân u nâle ile eyle âhı

Ṭaḳup boynuña zülfi rîsmânın
Zenaḫdânında ḳılsun saña çâhı

Yaḳup cânuñ fetîlin ġam şebinde
Uyarsun ‘âlemüñ bir mihr ü mâhı

Lebi câm-ı meyinden yâd ḳılsun
Seni meclisde bir boynı sürâhî

Dem-â-dem ṣu yerine ḳanuñ içsün
Kemân-ebrûlaruñ çeşmi siyâhı

Ser-i zülfine ber-dâr itsün âḫir
Seni bir ḥüsn ilinüñ pâdişâhı

Mu‘âyin işbu şi‘ri ger ṣorarsañ
Nedür dirseñ Güvâhî'nüñ günâhı

Ki birḳaç beytüñ ile Mihrî'yi sen
Niçün yâd eylemezsin gâhi gâhî

In English

1. O Güvâhî, O my God, may the Truth make you smitten with a beauty in this world.

2. In the garden of the beloved's cheek, go on sighing like a nightingale, with lament and wailing.

3. May the tress fasten its rope about your neck, and may the dimple of the chin make a well for you and let you down into it.

4. May the beauty who is a sun and moon of the world kindle the wick of your soul in the night of grief and keep you sleepless.

5. May a beauty with a neck long as a flask leave you, in the assembly, deprived of the wine cup of her lip. (The couplet can be read in two ways: if "yâd" is taken in the sense "stranger", the beauty keeps you a stranger to the cup of her lip, deprives you of it; if it is taken in the sense "remembrance", in the assembly she only remembers you with the cup of her lip, but does not let you drink.)

6. May the black eye of beauties with bow-shaped brows drink your blood at every moment in place of water.

7. May a sovereign of the land of beauty finally hang you from the tip of her tress.

8. If you, the examiner, ask openly what this poem means, if you say, "What is Güvâhî's sin?",

9. (this is the answer:) Why do you not, with a few couplets of yours, remember Mihrî now and then?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and eighty-sixth ghazal (gazel) of the Divan has nine couplets (beyit) and is composed in the hezec metre of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün". There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme (kafiye) is built on the sounds "-âhî" and "-âhı": Güvâhî, İlâhî, âhı, çâhı, mâhı, sürâhî, siyâhı, pâdişâhı, günâhı, gâhî. The edition gives the poem among the ghazals, and the rhyming of the two lines of the first couplet conforms to the ghazal form. The ghazal is found in only the Ü manuscript of the four. The name Mihrî occurs in the last couplet, and the name of Güvâhî, to whom the poem is addressed, in the first and eighth couplets.

The poem also appears in Âşık Çelebi's tezkire (biographical anthology of poets) Meşâ‘irü'ş-Şu‘arâ. Âşık Çelebi calls it a "kıt‘a" and gives it as seven couplets; the second and sixth couplets of the Divan are not in the tezkire. In the tezkire text the eighth couplet reads "Me’âlin işbu naẓmuñ ger ṣorarsañ" (if you ask the meaning of this poem) and the ninth "Bir iki beytüñ ile Mihriyi sen" (with one or two of your couplets, Mihrî). The edition's footnotes also record this difference in Âşık Çelebi.

Historical Context

This poem is one of the few of Mihrî's poems for which it is known with certainty to whom it was written. Âşık Çelebi relates that Mihrî was a contemporary of Güvâhî, that the two exchanged witticisms, and that Mihrî wrote this kıt‘a and sent it to Güvâhî. Gülşen Kaya also notes that this ghazal plainly shows that Mihrî and Güvâhî sent each other poems in reply and joked together in witticisms.

Güvâhî was a poet who lived in the first half of the sixteenth century. In the sources he is called Geyveli, and his real name is recorded as Mehmed. The early tezkires say that he was a sipahi (cavalryman) holding a timar. His fame comes chiefly from his Pend-nâme, 2133 couplets written in the mesnevi form in the aruz pattern "Mefâilün Mefâilün Feûlün"; this book of counsel, containing many proverbs and idioms, was completed in 1526. For the date of his death the sources give different years, but Mustafa İsen, relying on the date of composition of the Pend-nâme, shows that the poet died after 1526. İsen also notes that the work was not much admired by the tezkires because it was thought simple in language and expression; Kaya likewise presents Güvâhî as a poet known for giving much room to proverbs and idioms in his poems, but not a strong one. It is noteworthy that this ghazal of Mihrî is written in the same aruz pattern as Güvâhî's Pend-nâme; whether this was a deliberate choice is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

From beginning to end the poem is a chain of jesting curses. In Kaya's words, the poet jestingly curses Güvâhî, wishing him to be smitten with a beauty and, after wishing him to suffer for her sake, explains the reason for the curses. The subtlety of the poem is that each of these curses is built from the familiar love topoi of Divan poetry. Mihrî wishes Güvâhî everything that befalls lovers: to lament like a nightingale in the garden of the cheek, to be let down by the rope of the tress into the well of the dimple, to have the wick of his soul lit in the night of grief, to make the black eye of bow-browed beauties drink his blood, and finally to be hanged by the beloved from her tress.

In the third couplet the beloved's tress is likened to a rope and the dimple of her chin to a well; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "rîsmân" (rope) and "çâh" (well), and the lover is pictured as one let down into the well by the rope put about his neck. In the fourth couplet the soul burning like a lamp wick and the image of night, together with the phrase "mihr ü mâh" (sun and moon), set light and darkness against each other. In the fifth couplet the beloved's lip is likened to a wine cup and her neck to a flask. Kaya mentions this couplet among the furnishings of the gathering in the Divan. In the sixth couplet, with "kemân-ebrû" (bow-browed) and "çeşm-i siyâh" (black eye), the beauty's eye is shown as a tyrant that drinks blood. In the seventh, the likening of the tress to a gallows and the phrase "ḥüsn ilinüñ pâdişâhı" stage a scene of a ruler in the land of love having the lover executed.

The last two couplets reveal the point of the poem. The reader has wondered thus far why there are so many curses, and the poet asks the question herself: what is Güvâhî's sin? The answer is surprisingly small: in his poems Güvâhî does not remember Mihrî even now and then. The phrase "yâd eylemek" (to remember) in the ninth couplet echoes the words "yâd ḳılsun" in the fifth. All these heavy curses of love are tied to a poet friend's expecting to be mentioned in a few couplets by the other.

The poem is also valuable as a document showing that Mihrî could joke in an equal language with male poets. The tezkires also relate her exchanges with Necâtî, Maḳâmî and Ḫâtemî; in this poem Mihrî directs at a male poet the topoi that in Divan poetry are mostly built in the voice of a male lover, and puts him in the place of the lover. The force of the jest comes from Mihrî's skilful command of these patterns and her ability to turn them into a friend's witticism.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Mehmet Arslan (hzl.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 148, Gazel 186 (Ü 69b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ‘irü'ş-Şu‘arâ, hzl. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı e-kitap, pp. 356-357 (entry on Mihrî). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 65-66, 287. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

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