Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Āşinâlar ṣaġlıġ ile eylesün seyrânlar
Ṭurduġınca bu cihân geldükçe bu devrânlar
Dûr düşdüñ çünki ey dil bülbüli gülzârdan
Gitdi güller biz ḳılalum nâle vü efġânlar
Pister-i nesrînde ârâm eylesün ḫoş dostlar
Cismimüze pûreler ursun bizüm dendânlar
Yisün içsün ḫoş bular yaylaḳlarda dem-be-dem
Yuṭalum biz ġam evinde kâse kâse ḳanlar
Ḳaldısa cismüñ bu şehrüñ issisinde çâre ne
Pes mekânıdur ġarîb olanlaruñ külḫânlar
Yoḳ durur Mihrî bugün da‘vîye ma‘nî gösterür
Vâz gel hercâyilerdür şimdiki yârânlar

In English

1. As long as this world stands, as long as these turns of time come round, let my acquaintances go strolling and making merry in good health. ("Seyrân" is an outing and amusement in the countryside. "Devrân" means the turning of time, fortune.)

2. O nightingale of the heart, since you have been parted from the rose garden, the roses are gone; it falls to us to lament and weep. (Manuscript F reads "bülbül-i" in place of "bülbüli".)

3. Let my pleasant friends rest on beds of wild rose; let the fleas sink their teeth into our body. ("Pister-i nesrîn" is a bed of wild rose petals, that is, the most comfortable bed. Manuscript M reads "mûreler", ants, in place of "pûreler".)

4. Let these people eat and drink pleasantly, without pause, in the highland pastures; let us swallow bowl after bowl of blood in the house of sorrow. (To swallow blood means to suffer great pain.)

5. If your body has been left in the heat of this city, what is to be done? The place of the strangers and the friendless is the bath-house furnace anyway. ("Külḫân" is the stoke-hole under a bath.)

6. Mihrî, today there is no one who shows his claim in meaning, that is, in real conduct; give it up, the friends of today are faithless, flitting from place to place. ("Hercâyî" means one seen everywhere, attached to no one.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The nineteenth ghazal (gazel) has six couplets (beyit) and is written in the metre "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The rhyme is the sound "-ân" and the redif (refrain word) is the plural suffix "-lar" (seyrânlar, devrânlar, efġânlar, dendânlar, ḳanlar, külḫânlar, yârânlar). Because the last letter of the redif is râ, the poem is in the section "Ḥarfü'r-Râ" in the edition. It is found in all four manuscripts (F 42b, M 59b, S 44b, Ü 31b). The manuscript variants are mostly differences of spelling: "Ṭurduġınca/Durduġınca", "Pister/Bister", "Yuṭalum/Yudalum". The word "pûreler" (fleas) in the third couplet is "mûreler" (ants) in manuscript M and is written "bûreler" in F and S. It is not known to whom it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is less a conventional ghazal to a beloved than the complaint of one parted from her friends. The poem is built on the contrast between two groups: on one side the "âşinâlar" (acquaintances), the "ḫoş dostlar" (pleasant friends) and "bular" (these), who stroll in good health, lie on beds of rose petals and eat and drink in the highland pastures; on the other "biz", "we", the lover who swallows blood in the house of sorrow, is bitten by fleas and is left in the heat of the city. In the first, third and fourth couplets the first line is made of good wishes for the friends and the second of the poet's own state; this regular contrast gives the couplets a tone of bitter mockery. The wishes said for the friends, "eylesün", "ârâm eylesün", "yisün içsün" (let them do, let them rest, let them eat and drink), are in truth a reproach at having been abandoned.

In the third couplet "pister-i nesrîn" (bed of wild rose) and "pûre" (flea) are set against each other. Gülşen Kaya, speaking of the fly and the flea, each mentioned in only a single couplet in the divan, cites this couplet: the flea is treated for the discomfort it gives people and for its biting. This contrast between a bed of roses and a flea-ridden bed adds a harsh detail from daily life to the ornate world of divan poetry. In the fourth couplet the verbs "yisün içsün" and "yuṭalum" set up a similar contrast between the highland table and "kâse kâse ḳanlar" (bowl after bowl of blood); the word kâse (bowl) is the bridge between eating and drinking and swallowing blood.

The fifth couplet is the most remarkable of the ghazal. Kaya notes that summer is rarely mentioned in the divan and is spoken of for its heat; in this couplet Mihrî speaks of the heat of the city and complains of it. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "garîb" (far from home, friendless) and "külḫân" (bath furnace); that one left in the heat of the city names the furnace as her place takes the image of heat to its extreme. In the last couplet the poet addresses herself: today there is no one who proves his word with his conduct, and the friends of today are hercâyî. Kaya records that the word "hercâyî" is used in the divan for the beloved, because she gives her favour to everyone except the lover, and she cites this couplet. Here the word is directed less at the beloved than at the "yârânlar", the circle of friends.

The second couplet of the ghazal gives a key to the rest of the poem. The "nightingale of the heart" has been parted from the rose garden and the roses are gone. The passing of the rose season also corresponds to the end of the spring pleasures and the coming of the summer heat: the friends have gone to the highlands, and the poet has stayed in the city. The couplets are thus tied together through season, place and friendship.

Highland and City

The ghazal names neither the highland pastures nor the city; which city's heat is complained of is not known. In Mihrî's divan, however, a highland is clearly praised in another poem. The fourth murabba' (four-line-stanza poem) of the divan, with the refrain "Ne ḫoş yaylaḳ imiş bu şehr-i Lâdiḳ", is a panegyric of 25 stanzas on Lâdik, a small town then attached to Amasya. Avni Erdemir notes that Mihrî, Münîrî, the chancellor (nişancı) of Şehzade Ahmed, and Mûsâ Medhî of Lâdik each wrote a panegyric on Lâdik, and that Münîrî described the journey he made to Lâdik with Şehzade Ahmed. These poems show that Lâdik was praised as a highland pasture by poets who grew up around the princely palace in Amasya at that time. There is no record that this ghazal was written in the same circle or with the same summer migration in view; the link between the two poems consists only of a similarity of subject.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 60-61, Gazel 19 (F 42b, M 59b, S 44b, Ü 31b) and the footnotes on manuscript variants; pp. 166-169, Murabba‘ 4. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010 (sections on seasons, animals and types of beloved). openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Avni Erdemir, "Aynı Edebî Muhit İçinde Üç Şair: Mihrî Hatun, Münîrî, Mûsâ Medhî ve Lâdik Methiyeleri", Turkish Studies 13/28 (2018), pp. 341-379, doi:10.7827/TurkishStudies.14205.

Online sources