Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Rîsmân-ı zülfüñe dil tâ ki cânın baġladı
Ḫıdmetüñe ṣıdḳ ile tende miyânın baġladı
Bâġ-ı ḥüsnüñde görüp dil bülbülinüñ nâlesin
‘Andelîbân ṣaḥn-ı gülşende zebânın baġladı
Ṣatdı ‘aşḳuñ tâciri ben bendesin hecr ü ġama
Müdde‘îye ḫoş feraḥlar armaġânın baġladı
Gördiler leylî ṣaçuñ bendinde mecnûn göñlümi
Ehl-i diller Leyli vü Mecnûn dîvânın baġladı
Ḫûnını ‘âşıḳlaruñ çeşmüñ meger dökmek diler
Neşter-i müjgânuña ḳaşuñ kemânın baġladı
Almadan bir berg-i gül ḫaddüñden irdi ḫaṭṭuñ âh
Ḫârlar ol gül-‘iẕâruñ çevre yanın baġladı
Mihrî şevḳ-i ‘aşḳuñ içre leblerüñ yâd idicek
Bu şirîn güftârı şekkerler dükânın baġladı

In English

1. Ever since the heart bound its life to the rope of your hair, it has girded its waist in sincerity to serve you, in the body. ("To gird the waist" means to prepare for a task, to devote oneself to service; the lover is pictured as a slave bound with a rope of hair.)

2. Seeing in your garden of beauty the lament of the heart's nightingale, the nightingales of the rose garden bound their tongues, that is, fell silent.

3. The merchant of your love sold me, his slave, to separation and sorrow; and to the rival he bound a gift of pleasant joys. (While the lover is sold to pain, the rival is rewarded with presents.)

4. Seeing my heart turned Majnun in the garden of your night-black hair, the people of the heart composed a divan of Layla and Majnun. ("Leylî" means both "black like night" and "belonging to Layla"; the hair is likened to Layla and the lover's heart to Majnun.)

5. Your eye, it seems, wishes to shed the lovers' blood; your eyebrow has strung its bow on the lancet of your lashes. (The eyebrow is likened to a bow, the lashes to a lancet and an arrow.)

6. Alas, before I could pluck even one rose petal from your cheek, your down (your beard) grew; thorns encircled that rose-cheeked face.

7. When Mihrî, in the ardour of love, recalls your lips, these sweet words have shut up the confectioners' shops. (The poet's speech is so sweet that the sugar-makers are left with no business.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and ninety-fourth ghazal (gazel) has seven 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 "baġladı", and its rhyme is the sound "-ânın": cânın, miyânın, zebânın, armaġânın, dîvânın, kemânın, yanın, dükânın. In Arslan's edition the ghazal rests on manuscript Ü alone. In Havlioğlu's electronic text it appears as number 199 and is the same apart from minor spelling differences. In the table of redifs that Sıtkı Nazik prepared for Mihrî and Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi, this ghazal appears with the redif "baġladı". There is no information on whom the ghazal was written for or on what occasion.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The mastery of the ghazal comes from its redif. The verb "bağlamak" (to bind) becomes part of a different idiom in each couplet and each time gains a different meaning: to bind one's life, to gird one's waist, to bind one's tongue, to bind a gift, to compose a divan, to string a bow, to bind around and to close a shop. In this way the same word, though repeated through seven couplets, leaves no monotonous effect. This use is a good example of how the redif in divan poetry is worked for meaning and not only for sound.

The first couplet likens the beloved's hair to a rope (rîsmân). Gülşen Kaya explains that souls are tied to the beloved's rope-like hair, and that, with an allusion to the bondage of slaves, the heart too is pictured as a slave girded at the waist, running to the beloved's service. In the second couplet the heart is a nightingale; the real nightingales that hear its lament fall silent. Thus the lover's cry surpasses even that of the nightingale, the emblem of lament in divan poetry. The third couplet draws on the language of commerce: love is a merchant and the lover is his slave for sale. Kaya gives this couplet as an example of the idea that the beloved sells her slave, the lover, to separation and sorrow while offering gifts to the rival. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words "tâcir" (merchant), "ṣatmak" (to sell), "bende" (slave) and "armaġan" (gift).

The fourth couplet alludes to the story of Layla and Majnun. The word "leylî" in the expression "leylî ṣaç" comes from the Arabic root "leyl" (night) and means "black like night", and at the same time recalls the name Layla; this double meaning is a double entendre (tevriye). The people of the heart, seeing a heart that has become Majnun in the garden of the hair, compose a divan of "Layla and Majnun"; that is, the lover's state turns into a love story worth writing down. In the fifth couplet the eyebrow is likened to a bow and the lashes to a lancet. Kaya reminds us that illnesses are cured by taking blood with a lancet, and interprets that the lash which appears to shed the lover's blood is in fact healing him. In the sixth couplet the beloved's cheek is thought of as a rose and the down newly grown on it as thorns. Kaya gives this couplet as an example describing how, before the lover could take even one petal of the rose cheek, the thorns of the down surrounded it. In divan poetry the growing of the beloved's beard is a sign that her beauty has come to an end.

The final couplet (makta) is in the nature of a boast (fahriye). The poet says that when she recalls the beloved's lips the words she speaks are so sweet that the confectioners have had to shut up their shops. Kaya draws attention to the way the poet praises her own poetry here by likening her speech to sugar. The words "leb" (lip), "şîrîn" (sweet) and "şekker" (sugar) join in the field of sweetness; the word "şîrîn" also brings to mind the story of Khusraw and Shirin.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 152-153, Ghazal 194 (Ü 72b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 90-91, 139, 164, 171, 197. openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Sıtkı Nazik, "Benzer Redifli Şiirleri Bağlamında Mihrî Hatun ve Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi'nin Karşılaştırılması", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya 2017, p. 136 (table of Mihrî's redifs).

Other sources

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), "Ğazeliyyāt-ı Mihri-i Hāqīre", türkoloji-iran, 2007 (a different transliteration of the ghazal, ghazal no. 199).

Online sources