Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘lâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

Ḫâbdan açdum gözüm nâ-gâh ḳaldurdum seri
Ḳarşuda gördüm ṭurur bir mâh-rûy-ı dilberi
Ṭâli‘im sa‘d oldı yâḫud ḳadre irdüm ġâlibâ
Kim maḥallem içre gördüm gice ṭoġmış Müşterî
Nûr aḳar gördüm cemâlinden egerçi ẓâhirâ
Kendüsi beñzer müselmâna libâsı kâfirî
Gözümi açup yumunca oldı çeşmümden nihân
Şöyle teşḫîṣ itdüm anı yâ melekdür yâ perî
İrdi çün âb-ı ḥayâta Mihrî ölmez ḥaşre dek
Gördi çün ẓulmet şebinde ol ‘ayân İskender'i

In English

1. I woke from sleep and suddenly raised my head; I saw a moon-faced beauty standing before me.

2. Either my fortune has turned auspicious or, perhaps, I have reached the Night of Power; for in my own quarter I saw Jupiter risen in the night. (Müşteri is the planet Jupiter and was held to be the most auspicious star. The Night of Power, Kadir gecesi, is the holy night on which prayers are believed to be answered.)

3. Though I saw light plainly streaming from the face, the beauty looks like a Muslim while the clothing is that of an unbeliever.

4. In the time it takes to open and close an eye the beauty vanished from my sight; this is how I identified it: either an angel or a peri (a fairy-like being).

5. Since Mihrî has reached the water of life, the water of immortality, she will not die until the Resurrection; for in the dark night she saw Iskender (Alexander) plainly. (According to the legend, Alexander searched for the water of life in the Land of Darkness but did not find it.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and eighty-ninth ghazal (gazel) of the divan has five couplets (beyit) and is composed in the remel metre, given in the edition as "Fâ‘lâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is built on the sounds "-erî" and "-eri": seri, dilberi, Müşterî, kâfirî, perî, İskender'i. In Arslan's edition the ghazal is recorded in only one of the four manuscripts, Ü. It also appears in the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire): Âşık Çelebi quotes the first, third and fifth couplets, while Latîfî quotes only the final couplet. In Âşık Çelebi's text the second line of the first couplet reads "Ḳarşuda gördüm ṭurur bir mâh-çihre dil-beri", and some manuscripts of the tezkire have "ḳarşuma" in place of "ḳarşuda".

Historical Context

This ghazal is tied to the best-known story about Mihrî's life. Latîfî writes that Mihrî became attached, with great love and affection, to İskender Çelebi, the son of Sinan Paşa, that she revealed her passion in many poems about him, but that this love did not end in union; he quotes the last couplet of this ghazal as the closing couplet (makta) of those poems. Âşık Çelebi too says that her affair with a beauty named İskender was famous, and records that the ghazal was composed when İskender appeared before Mihrî's eyes at dawn. This account matches the scene in the first couplet, in which the poet wakes from sleep and sees a beauty before her. İsmail E. Erünsal notes that, besides Âşık Çelebi and Latîfî, Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi also alludes to this attachment, and that they point to the İskender motif in Mihrî's poems as evidence. Gülşen Kaya observes that in the divan the name İskender is used as a double entendre (tevriye) with the historical and legendary ruler Alexander, but that the sources agree that these poems were written for İskender Çelebi.

The tezkires also relate the continuation of the same story. According to Latîfî, when the refined people and poets who attended the gatherings of Sultan Ahmed, that is, Prince Ahmed, the sanjak governor of Amasya, made witty remarks charging Mihrî with this affair with İskender, she answered them with this couplet: "Nice İskenderi la‘lüm zülâli / Ṣuya iletdi vü ṣusuz getürdi" (The clear water of my ruby lips has led many an İskender to the water and brought him back without any). Âşık Çelebi also gives the couplet as the reply she made when they accused her over İskender, and adds that Mihrî came into the world a maiden and went out of it a maiden. Gönül Ayan likewise cites this ghazal as evidence for the relationship that the tezkires describe. In Ayan's view, İskender, the water of life and the dark night are major motifs of divan literature; but the presence of an İskender Çelebi in Mihrî's circle and the unity of subject in the ghazal gave occasion to reading the poem as a passion for İskender Çelebi. The relationship itself thus rests on the tezkires' account, and that account is the only basis for saying that the ghazal was written for İskender Çelebi.

The name İskender occurs elsewhere in the divan. In the eighth murabba there is the line "Bir zamân şehr-i Amâsiyye'de İskender idüñ" (Once you were an Iskender in the city of Amasya), and this line mentions Amasya directly.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal describes a moment of seeing. The poet wakes from sleep, raises her head and sees a moon-faced beauty before her; in the time it takes to open and close an eye the beauty is gone. This brief scene gives the ghazal a narrative flow that is not common in divan poetry: waking, seeing, astonishment, disappearance and, at the end, the meaning of the sight.

In the second couplet the beauty who is seen is likened to Jupiter (Müşteri) risen in the night. Gülşen Kaya notes that Müşteri is in the sixth sphere and is regarded as the most auspicious star, that in Mihrî's divan too it is mentioned as auspicious (sa‘d) in this sense, and she gives this couplet as an example. In the same place Kaya reminds us that the word "Müşterî" also means someone willing to buy goods, which allows a double entendre (tevriye); in this second sense the "customer" seen in the quarter can be read as a suitor. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words "ṭâli‘" (fortune, rising star) and "sa‘d" (auspicious), and among "ḳadr" (the Night of Power), "gice" (night) and "Müşterî".

The third couplet is built on a contrast. Light streams from the beauty's face and she looks like a Muslim, but her clothing is that of an unbeliever. Light and unbelief, inside and outside, face and garment are set against one another. In the fourth couplet the being who is seen is identified as an angel or a peri because it appeared to the eye and vanished at once. Kaya says that in the divan the beloved is imagined as an angel and a peri, that this comparison also stresses that angels are not seen by the eye, and thus expresses that the beloved does not show herself to the lover; she gives this couplet as an example.

The final couplet is the most discussed couplet of the ghazal. In the legend Alexander searched for the water of life, which gives immortality, in the Land of Darkness; Khidr found it, but Alexander did not. Âmil Çelebioğlu explains that in divan literature Alexander, who despite all his effort could not find the water of life, stands for someone who does not attain his aim. Mihrî reverses the legend: it is she who sees Iskender plainly in the dark night, and this sight has brought her to the water of life, to immortality. What Alexander could not find, the one who sees Iskender finds. Between "ẓulmet" (darkness) and "nûr" and "‘ayân" (plain, evident), and between "âb-ı ḥayât" and "ölmez" (will not die), antithesis and congruence of images work together. The reply couplet related in the tezkires rests on the same legend: there Mihrî's lips take the place of the water of life, and many an Iskender reaches this water and returns thirsty. The ghazal and the reply couplet can thus be read as a pair that uses the same legend from two different directions.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 149-150, Ghazal 189 (Ü 71b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-Şu‘arâ ve Tabsıratü'n-Nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı e-kitap, 2018, p. 497 (entry on Mihrî). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ‘irü'ş-Şu‘arâ, ed. 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. 10, 62, 255. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Books

  • Gönül Ayan, "Mihri Hatun ve Şiirleri", Erdem V/13 (1989), pp. 25-26.
  • Ahmet Yaşar Ocak and Âmil Çelebioğlu, "Âb-ı Hayât", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 1, İstanbul 1988, pp. 1-4. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • İsmail E. Erünsal, "Mihrî Hatun", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 30, 2020, pp. 37-38.

Online sources