Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün

Ġam-gîn dilümde zâr ile efġân dükenmedi
Nem-gîn gözümde derd ile giryân dükenmedi
Tennûr-ı ġamda âteş-i hicrân ile ciger
Biryân olalı dünyede biryân dükenmedi
Derdâ dirîġ geçdi günüm intiẓâr ile
‘Ömrüm dükendi va‘de-i cânân dükenmedi
Ḫûblar ḳatında ḳançaru baḳsañ raḳîbdür
‘Ālemde cevr-i yâr ile şeyṭân dükenmedi
Bir kerre mübtelâlaruma raḥm idem diseñ
Dünyâda sevdügüm n'ola yalan dükenmedi
İn‘âm eylese sâ’ile ḥüsnin zekâtını
Şehler ḳatında luṭf ile iḥsân dükenmedi
Mihrî olalı gülşen-i kûyuñda ‘andelîb
Ġam-gîn dilinde nâle vü efġân dükenmedi

In English

1. In my sorrowful heart, moaning and lament have not run out; in my moist eye, weeping from pain has not run out.

2. Since my liver was roasted in the oven of sorrow by the fire of separation, roast meat in this world has not run out. ("Biryân" means roasted and also a roast meat dish; the lover's burning liver is imagined as a roast that never runs out.)

3. Alas, what a pity; my days have passed in waiting. My life has run out, but the beloved's promise has not run out (the promised meeting was always postponed, and the word never came to fulfilment and an end).

4. Wherever you look among the beauties there is a rival; in the world, together with the beloved's torment, Satan has not run out either.

5. The couplet can be read in two ways: "Beloved, what would it matter if you said just once, 'Let me take pity on my afflicted ones'; lies have not run out in the world" (that is, even if she made such a promise, it too would be a lie); or "Beloved, what comes of it if you merely set about saying 'I will take pity' once; lies have not run out in the world anyway" (give a consolation, even if a false one).

6. What if the beloved gave the alms-tax (zekât) of her beauty to the beggar (the lover); in the presence of kings, favour and bounty do not run out. (The beloved is imagined as a king; showing generosity takes nothing away from her beauty.)

7. Since Mihrî became a nightingale in the rose garden of your quarter, lament and cry have not run out in her sorrowful heart.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The one hundred and ninety-ninth ghazal (gazel) of the divan has seven couplets (beyit) and is composed in the muzâri metre with the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün". Its redif (refrain word) is "dükenmedi", that is, "has not run out". The rhyme is built on the sound "-ân": efġân, giryân, biryân, cânân, şeyṭân, iḥsân; in the fifth couplet the word "yalan", with a short syllable, also joins this rhyme. The ghazal is found only in manuscript Ü and in none of the others; for that reason no manuscript variants are shown in the edition. It is not known for whom or on what occasion it was written.

In his paper comparing the choice of redifs of Mihrî Hatun and Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi, Sıtkı Nazik records the redif "dükenmedi" among the redifs seen only in Mihrî's divan. According to Nazik's table, Cafer Çelebi's divan has no poem written with this redif.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the ghazal is unending pain and endless waiting. In the opening couplet the pairs "ġam-gîn" (sorrowful) and "nem-gîn" (moist), "dil" (heart) and "göz" (eye), and "zâr ile efġân" and "derd ile giryân" are set against each other across the two lines, so that the couplet is built on a parallel structure. In examining how the heart is conceived in Mihrî's divan, Gülşen Kaya gives this couplet as an example of the heart that is sorrowful and afflicted from longing for the beloved and weeps and moans as long as it cannot reach union.

In the second couplet separation is a fire and sorrow is an oven. The lover's liver has been roasted in this oven; roast meat does not run out in the world because the burning of the liver never ends. The use of the same word, "biryân", twice, once for the state of the liver in one line and once for the roast in the other, gives the couplet a word play built on repetition (tekrir). The third couplet is the plainest and most bitter of the ghazal. The lover's life has run out in waiting, while the beloved's "va‘de", her promise of a meeting, has not run out. Here the verb "to run out" is made to work in two opposite senses: life has ended and gone, while the promise has not been fulfilled and finished but lingers on. This contrast rests the couplet on antithesis.

In the fourth couplet the rival is likened to Satan. Wherever one looks among the beauties there is a rival; like the beloved's torment, Satan is never missing from the world. The fifth couplet is a reproach in the form of an indirect statement (kinaye): it implies that even if the beloved were to say "I will take pity", this word too would be a lie. The sixth couplet imagines the beloved as a king. Beauty has its alms-tax; as the rich give their zekât to the poor, so the beautiful should bestow a share of their beauty on the lover. Since the favour and bounty of kings do not run out, the beloved will lose nothing by this generosity. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words "zekât", "sâ’il" (beggar), "in‘âm" (bestowal), "luṭf" and "iḥsân".

In the final couplet (makta) Mihrî calls herself the nightingale of the rose garden in the beloved's quarter. Kaya gives this couplet among the examples in which the beloved's quarter is thought of as a rose garden, the beloved as a rose and the lover as a nightingale that cries out. The makta ties the ghazal back to where it began by using again the words "ġam-gîn dil" and "efġân" of the opening couplet; the lament that does not run out in the first couplet has become the never-silent voice of the nightingale in the last.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 155, Ghazal 199 (Ü 73b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 186, 211. 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.

Online sources