Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ilün

Çoḳdur cihânda gerçi güzeller nenüñ gibi
Bir nâzenîn görmedüm el-ḥaḳ senüñ gibi
Ḳomam ölince elden etegüñi dostum
Buldum sa‘âdet ise yeter dâmenüñ gibi
Cânâ ḳapuñda cân ile serden geçenlerüz
Uyma raḳîbe sürme bizi düşmenüñ gibi
Dil zülfüñe aṣıldı didüm didi neyleyin
Her bir ḳılında biñ aṣılupdur anuñ gibi
Dil zülfüñi vaṭan ideli dir ḳamu ünâs
Yoḳdur cihânda Mihrî senüñ meskenüñ gibi

In English

1. Though there are many beauties in the world who resemble you in some feature, truly I have never seen a coquette like you. (The phrase "nenüñ gibi" at the end of the line is obscure. It can be understood as "like some part of you", that is, resembling you in one respect; if there is a slip in the manuscript it could also mean simply "like you".)

2. My friend, I will not let go of your hem even in death; if I have found happiness, the like of your hem is enough for me.

3. O beloved, we are those who have given up soul and head at your door; do not heed the rival, do not drive us away as you would an enemy.

4. I said, "The heart has hung itself upon your tress"; she said, "What can I do? On each hair of it a thousand such hearts hang." ("Aṣılmak" means both to cling and to be hanged on a gallows.)

5. Ever since the heart made your tress its homeland, all people say: "O Mihrî, there is no dwelling in the world like yours."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and eighty-seventh ghazal (gazel) of the Divan has five couplets (beyit) and is composed in the muzari metre of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "gibi" (like); the rhyme (kafiye) is built on the sounds "-enüñ" and "-anuñ": nenüñ, senüñ, dâmenüñ, düşmenüñ, anuñ, meskenüñ. The ghazal is found in the F, S and Ü manuscripts. In the F manuscript the fourth and fifth couplets read "zülfine" and "zülfini" in place of "zülfüñe" and "zülfüñi"; this difference turns the address of the couplets from the second person to the third. There is no record of whom the ghazal was written for or on what occasion.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Though a short ghazal, each couplet works a separate topos concerning the beloved: incomparable beauty, holding the hem, giving one's life at the door, hanging on the tress, and making the tress a homeland. The redif "gibi" binds these topoi into a chain of comparisons. The beloved has no like, no hem like hers, no homeland like her hair; but the lovers too, on her hair, are countless and alike one another.

The second couplet works the motif of holding the hem. Gülşen Kaya notes that in Mihrî's Divan holding the beloved's hem, finding happiness in her, and not letting go of the beloved's hem even in death are often treated, and that the hem is a symbol of union with the beloved. "Etek" and "dâmen" are the Turkish and Persian names of the same thing; in the couplet the same object is named by two different names in two lines, and this repetition forms a bond of sound and sense between the lines. In the third couplet the lovers are introduced as "those who have given up soul and head at the door"; the congruence of images (tenasüp) between "cân" and "ser" (head) expresses giving up both life and head. The comparison of rival and enemy is also the lover's asking that the beloved not look upon her through the rival's eyes.

The fourth couplet is the liveliest of the ghazal and is built like a small scene of conversation. The lover says, "The heart has hung itself upon your tress," and the beloved answers indifferently: "What can I do? On each hair a thousand like it hang." Kaya says that the conception of the tress as a gallows rests on the idea of a soul hanging on each hair, and she gives this couplet as her example. The verb "aṣılmak" forms a double entendre (tevriye) here: what the lover means is clinging, embracing; the beloved's answer pulls the word toward being hanged on a gallows and makes the lover one of countless victims. The beloved's unconcerned answer gives the ghazal a lightness not often seen in Divan poetry.

The closing couplet (makta) continues the image of the tress. The heart has made the tress its homeland, and all people say that there is no dwelling like Mihrî's. In the previous couplet the tress was a gallows; here it becomes a homeland, a refuge. That the same image is used with opposite meanings in two successive couplets suggests that the tress is both the lover's place of death and her home. The nearness in meaning between "vaṭan" and "mesken" forms a congruence of images in the couplet.

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (hzl.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 148-149, Gazel 187 (F 72b, S 74b, Ü 70a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 141, 188. openaccess.firat.edu.tr