Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dostlar ṣanmañ ki bir lâle-‘iẕâr egler beni
Ḫâne-i ġam içre her dem âh u zâr egler beni
Geh ḫayâl-i yâri hem-dem eylerem gâhî ġamın
Miḥnet ü derd ü belâ ile bu kâr egler beni
Vaṣlı eglerken beni dildârumuñ her rûz u şeb
Şimdi gör ḥâlüm ḫayâl-i rûy-ı yâr egler beni
Eglenür miydi bu cânum tende bir an yârsuz
Vuṣlatına irgürem dir rûzgâr egler beni
Sîne-i pür-sûzuma çeşmüm aḳıdur çeşmesin
Teşne-dil bulur ḥayâtı bu pıñar egler beni
İntiẓâr ile irişdi işte ‘ömrüm âḫire
Va‘de-i vaṣlı ile daḫi nigâr egler beni
Didiler lâzım durur ‘uşşâḳa ṣabr u yâ sefer
İmdi ey Mihrî hemân terk-i diyâr egler beni
Ġarḳa virsem baḥr-i ‘aşḳında direm dil zevraḳın
Hâ sürer beni kenâra rûzgâr egler beni

In English

1. Friends, do not think that a tulip-cheeked beauty keeps me occupied; in the house of sorrow, it is sighing and lament that keep me occupied at every moment.

2. At times I make the beloved's image my companion, at times her sorrow; this task, spent in hardship, pain and affliction, keeps me occupied.

3. There was a time when meeting my beloved kept me occupied day and night; now look at my state, only the image of the beloved's face consoles me.

4. Would this soul of mine stay in the body for a single moment without the beloved? Fate keeps me waiting, saying "I will bring you to her." ("Eglenmek" in the older language means to stay, to wait; "eglemek" means to detain, to keep waiting.)

5. My eye pours its own spring over my burning breast; the thirsty heart finds life in this water, and this spring consoles me. (The tear is thought of as a spring that cools a breast burning with the fire of love.)

6. My life has now reached its end with waiting; the beloved still keeps me occupied with the promise of union.

7. They said that lovers need either patience or travel; now, O Mihrî, only leaving my homeland consoles me.

8. If I wished to sink the boat of my heart in the sea of his love, behold, the wind drives me and throws me on the shore; the wind keeps me detained. (Even if the lover wishes to die, fate does not allow it and always keeps him waiting on the shore.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and ninety-second ghazal (gazel) has eight 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 "egler beni", and its rhyme is built on the sound "-âr": ‘iẕâr, zâr, kâr, yâr, rûzgâr, pıñar, nigâr, diyâr. The word "rûzgâr" serves as a rhyme twice, in the fourth and the eighth couplets; but in the first it means "time, fate" and in the second "blowing wind", so the repetition becomes a play on words rather than a flaw. In Arslan's edition the ghazal rests on manuscript Ü alone; in Havlioğlu's electronic text it appears as number 197 and is the same apart from minor spelling differences. There is no information on whom the ghazal was written for or on what occasion.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The verb "eglemek" lies at the root of today's "eğlendirmek" (to entertain), but in Mihrî's Turkish it carries chiefly the sense of "to occupy, to console, to keep in one place and make wait". The real subtlety of the ghazal is that this verb is used with a slightly different sense in each couplet. In the first couplet what keeps the lover occupied is not a beauty but the sighs and laments she endures in the house of sorrow; in the second, the image of the beloved and her sorrow are taken in turn as companions. Gülşen Kaya gives this couplet as an example of the lover's accepting everything that comes from the beloved, and of taking pain and sorrow as companions because she knows that she must bear the beloved's sorrow in order to reach her. The third couplet compares past and present: formerly union kept her occupied, now only the image remains.

In the fourth couplet "eglenmek" and "egler" stand side by side. "Eglenür miydi" in the first line means to stay, to remain in the body: the soul would not stay in the body for a single moment without the beloved. In the second line, fate keeps the lover occupied by promising "I will bring you to her", and prevents her from dying. The use of two words from the same root with different senses gives the couplet a harmony close to paronomasia (cinas). In the fifth couplet the eye is likened to a spring and the tear to a spring that cools the burning breast. Kaya notes that when the lover is deprived of the beloved's lips it is the fountain of tears that gives water to the heart, and she gives this couplet as an example. The similarity of sound between "çeşm" (eye) and "çeşme" (fountain) is also heard in the couplet.

The sixth couplet states the pain of waiting directly: life has been used up in waiting, and the beloved still keeps her occupied with a promise. In the seventh couplet, which contains the pen name (mahlas), the poet recalls the words of those who say that lovers need patience or travel, and chooses for herself leaving her homeland. The last couplet, which follows the mahlas couplet and departs from the usual order in a ghazal, closes the poem with a picture of the sea. According to Kaya, in this couplet the sea of love is rough, the boat of the heart sinks and surfaces and looks for a shore on which to live; and this shore is the beloved. Even though the lover wishes to sink her boat, the wind drives it to the shore. The words "baḥr", "zevraḳ" (boat), "ġarḳ" (sinking), "kenâr" (shore) and "rûzgâr" make up a congruence of images (tenasüp).

A noteworthy feature of the ghazal is that in the first couplet it addresses a group, "friends". Here the poet speaks in the voice of someone describing her own state and correcting the misunderstanding of those around her: it is not a beauty that keeps me occupied, it is sorrow. The idea of "terk-i diyâr" (leaving one's homeland) in the seventh couplet is seen in other poems of the divan too. Mehmet Arslan reads the 161st ghazal as if it described a sea voyage, and takes the final couplet of the 176th ghazal as a pointer that Mihrî may have spent some time in Istanbul. Whether the couplet in this ghazal has anything to do with a real journey is not known; the pair "patience or travel" can also be read as a general piece of advice of love poetry.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 151, Ghazal 192 (Ü 72a); introduction pp. 7-9. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 209, 228, 244. 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. 197).

Online sources