Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dergehinde ol şehüñ ma‘lûm olaydum kâşkî
Ḫıdmetinde ‘âḳıbet maḫdûm olaydum kâşkî
Vaṣl-ı cânânı müyesser ḳılmaz imiş çün felek
Bu belâ-keş cândan maḥrûm olaydum kâşkî
Gülsitânında çün ezhâr olmadum ben dostuñ
Bûstânında piyâz u s̱ûm olaydum kâşkî
Ol ṣanem yazduḳda ‘uşşâḳın vefâ mektûbına
Ben siyeh-kârı daḫi merḳûm olaydum kâşkî
Ka‘be kûyında ḥabîbimüñ ṭavâf idenlerüñ
Ayaġı altında ṭopraḳ ḳum olaydum kâşkî
Göyünince ḳahr-ı aġyâr ile dil micmer gibi
Cevr-i yâr ile yanaydum mûm olaydum kâşkî
Biñ ‘aẕâb ile geçince bir nefes cânâ yine
Cânı teslîm eyleyüp merḥûm olaydum kâşkî
Ṭa‘n-ı nâdândan sen ey zâhid yüri ḳıl iḥtirâz
Ḥaşre dek ben ‘aşḳ ile meẕmûm olaydum kâşkî
İtleriyle hem-dem olaydum i Mihrî dâ’imâ
Dergehinde ol şehüñ ma‘lûm olaydum kâşkî

In English

1. If only I were known in the court of that monarch (the beloved); if only, in his service, I became in the end a person of standing, one who is served. ("Maḫdûm" means one who is served, a master; the sense is attaining mastership by serving.)

2. Since fate, it seems, does not grant union with the beloved, if only I were deprived of this life that suffers affliction, that is, if only I had died and gone.

3. Since I could not be a flower in the beloved's rose garden, if only I were an onion and garlic in his vegetable garden.

4. When that fair one writes the letter of fidelity to the lovers, if only I, this black-faced sinner, were also written in that letter. ("Siyeh-kâr" means sinner; the "siyâh" (black) in the word also recalls the ink of the letter.)

5. Beneath the feet of those who circle my beloved's quarter, holy like the Kaaba, if only I were earth and sand.

6. My heart, burning from the tyranny of rivals, smokes like a censer; if only I burned from the beloved's cruelty and were a candle. (The poet wishes to burn because of the beloved rather than because of the rival.)

7. O beloved, since a single breath passes with a thousand torments, if only I surrendered my life and became one who has gone to mercy.

8. O ascetic (zâhid), you go on your way and keep away from the reproach of the ignorant; as for me, if only I were reproached for love until the Day of Judgement.

9. O Mihrî, if only I were forever a companion of his dogs; if only I were known in the court of that monarch. (In divan poetry, to keep company with the dogs at the beloved's door is the humblest wish of the faithful lover who never leaves the threshold.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and ninety-first ghazal (gazel) has nine couplets (beyit) and is composed in the remel metre with the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". Its redif (refrain word) is "olaydum kâşkî" (if only I were), and its rhyme is the sound "-ûm": ma‘lûm, maḫdûm, maḥrûm, s̱ûm, merḳûm, ḳum, mûm, merḥûm, meẕmûm. The last line of the ghazal repeats the first line exactly; this arrangement, in which the opening line is said again in the final couplet, is called redd-i matla in divan poetry. The ghazal thus closes with the wish with which it began. In Arslan's edition the ghazal rests on manuscript Ü alone; in Havlioğlu's electronic text it also appears, as number 196. There is no record of whom the ghazal was written for. Among the ghazals that Gülşen Kaya, judging from their content, regards as presented to Prince Ahmed (147, 168 and 196), this ghazal is not included; the address "ol şeh" (that monarch) here is the customary divan way of seeing the beloved as a ruler.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal is built on the lover's willingness to settle for a lower, humbler place when what he wants is out of reach. The redif is the mould that carries this idea. Sıtkı Nazik says that the redif "olaydum kâşkî" reflects a state in which what was hoped for is not obtained and regrets are felt, and that in such ghazals poets express the longing that comes from being deprived of certain desires. The third couplet is its liveliest example: the lover who could not be a flower in the friend's rose garden is content to be an onion and garlic in his vegetable garden at least. The contrast between rose garden and vegetable garden, between flower and onion-and-garlic, brings a plain element of daily life into the ornate garden picture of divan poetry. In the fifth couplet the beloved's quarter is likened to the Kaaba; the lover wishes to be earth and sand beneath the feet of those who circle that quarter. The words "Ka‘be", "ṭavâf", "ṭopraḳ" and "ḳum" make a congruence of images (tenasüp) in the couplet.

The fourth couplet is built on words to do with writing: "yazmak" (to write), "mektûb" (letter), "merḳûm" (written) and "siyeh-kâr", which calls ink to mind. Kaya lists this couplet among the places in the divan where the letter is mentioned as a means of communication, and notes that it points to the beloved's showing her fidelity only to a small number of people chosen beforehand. In the sixth couplet the heart is likened to a censer (micmer). In Kaya's explanation, thinking of the heart as a place of fire leads to its being likened to a vessel in which incense is burned; the smoke that rises is the lover's sigh. The lover grieves that this burning comes from the tyranny of rivals, and prefers to be a candle burning from the beloved's cruelty. In the seventh couplet the same wish arrives at a wish for death. Kaya interprets this couplet as a reproachful utterance in which the poet wishes to die rather than suffer a thousand torments in each breath. The word "merḥûm" means both "dead" and "one who has received mercy"; for the lover death is a release.

The eighth couplet sets the ascetic against the lover. The ascetic keeps away from people's reproach, while the lover wishes to be reproached for love until the Day of Judgement. Facing the censure of the public is one of the lover's frequent stances in divan poetry. In the final couplet (makta) the poet asks to keep company with the beloved's dogs and ties up her speech by repeating the first line.

Historical Context

The ghazal must be one of Mihrî's poems that were known in her own time. In his entry on Mihrî in Meşâ‘irü'ş-Şu‘arâ, Âşık Çelebi, giving examples of the poet's verse, quotes four couplets of this ghazal: the first, third, sixth and eighth. The text in the tezkire differs here and there from that of the edition: the second line of the first couplet reads "Ḫıdmetine yüz sürüp maḫdûm olaydum kâşkî", "ḳahr-ı aġyâr" in the sixth couplet appears as "ḳahr-ı a‘dâ" (the tyranny of enemies), and the second line of the eighth couplet goes "ḥaşre dek ben ‘ışḳla meẕmûm ola idüm kâşkî". That a ghazal found in only one of the four divan manuscripts Arslan used was also recorded under Mihrî's name in a sixteenth-century tezkire is independent testimony in support of the poem's attribution.

Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi of Amasya also has a ghazal with the same redif, rhyme and metre. In his study comparing the poems of the two poets that share a redif, Sıtkı Nazik establishes that Mihrî wrote two ghazals with this redif (182 and 191) and that Cafer Çelebi's ghazal is in the same metre, rhyme and redif. The two ghazals share the onion and garlic (piyâz u s̱ûm) and the rhyme "merḥûm": Cafer Çelebi says "Bir piyâz-ı kem-bahâ yâ sûm olaydum kâşkî" (If only I were a cheap onion or a garlic). Nazik says that these similarities bring a nazire (response poem) to mind, but that neither Mecma‘u'n-Neẓâ’ir nor Pervâne Bey's Mecmua records a nazire between the two poets; in his view, Mihrî has a more emotional manner of expression in these ghazals.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 150-151, Ghazal 191 (Ü 72a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ‘irü'ş-Şu‘arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı e-kitap, p. 357 (entry on Mihrî). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Sıtkı Nazik, "Benzer Redifli Şiirleri Bağlamında Mihrî Hatun ve Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi'nin Karşılaştırılması", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya 2017, pp. 140, 146-147.
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 35, 59-60, 111, 214. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Other sources

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), "Ğazeliyyāt-ı Mihri-i Hāqīre", türkoloji-iran, 2007 (a different transliteration of the ghazal, ghazal no. 196).

Online sources