Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘ilün Fe‘ilâtün Mefâ‘ilün Fe‘ilün

Tebârekallah eger dilber ise ancaḳ ola
Güzeller içre bugün server ise ancaḳ ola
Çü düşdi şevḳ-i ruḫı âfitâb çihresinüñ
Cihâna virdi żiyâ enver ise ancaḳ ola
Ṣaçından oldı mu‘aṭṭar demâġ-ı rûy-ı cihân
‘Abîr-i mişk ile bu ‘anber ise ancaḳ ola
Hezâr yerde deler sînesini ‘uşşâḳuñ
Ḫadeng-i ġamzeleri ḫançer ise ancaḳ ola
Dilinde şâm u seḥer Mihrî'nüñ budur ẕikri
Tebârekallah eger dilber ise ancaḳ ola

In English

1. May God be exalted; if there is a heart-winning beauty in the world, it can only be she. If among the beautiful there is a head, a leader, today, it can again only be she. ("Tebârekallah" is an expression of admiration said before something beautiful, meaning "how blessed, behold the power of God".)

2. When the light of that sun-faced beloved's cheek fell on the world it gave the universe brightness; if there is anything that shines most, it can only be she. (Şevk here is the Old Turkish şavk, that is, light, radiance.)

3. From her hair the face and nose of the world were filled with fragrance. If there are scents called abir mixed with musk, and amber, it can only be this (the scent of the hair). (Abir is a mixture made of fragrant substances; musk and amber are also counted among the most precious scents.)

4. It pierces the breasts of lovers in a thousand places. If there is anything called a dagger, it can only be the arrows shot from her glances (gamze).

5. The words recited morning and evening on Mihrî's tongue are these: may God be exalted; if there is a heart-winning beauty, it can only be she.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The second poem in the ghazal section of the divan is a short and compact ghazal of five couplets. It is written in the müctess metre of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mefâ'ilün Fe'ilâtün Mefâ'ilün Fe'ilün". The ghazal is a verse form written in the same metre and rhyme, whose first couplet has rhyming hemistichs, whose later couplets rhyme only in the second hemistich, and whose last couplet carries the poet's pen name (mahlas). Here the rhyme is the sound "-er" (dilber, server, enver, anber, hançer), and the phrase "ise ancak ola", repeated at the end of each couplet, is a long redif (refrain word). This redif gives the poem the air of a definition: each couplet sets out a quality and says that its true owner can only be the beloved. That the poem is in all four manuscripts shows that it was among Mihrî's ghazals that were read and copied. For whom it was written is not known.

The most distinctive structural feature of the ghazal is that the second hemistich of the last couplet is identical to the first hemistich. In the pen-name couplet the poet says "the words recited morning and evening on Mihrî's tongue are these" and then repeats the opening line of the ghazal exactly. Thus the poem returns to where it began; the first line becomes a phrase repeated ceaselessly on the poet's tongue, like a prayer or a zikir. The expression "şâm u seher" (evening and morning) stresses this continuity. Gülşen Kaya, too, cites this couplet among the places in the divan where evening and morning are mentioned together to express continuity.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the poem is the beloved's beauty, and each couplet puts forward one side of this beauty: general beauty and superiority, the brightness of the face, the scent of the hair, the wounding power of the glance. This order follows the usual path taken in describing the beloved in divan poetry; the face is likened to the sun, the hair to fragrant musk and amber, the gamze to arrow and dagger. Kaya mentions the first couplet among the examples showing that in the divan beauty is gathered in the beloved's face and that she is regarded as the head of all the beautiful. In the second couplet it is said that the beloved's face lights up the whole universe together with the lover's heart; Kaya cites this couplet in two separate places in explaining the link built between the sun and the beloved's face.

In the third couplet images of scent come together. The spread of the scent of the hair through the world is a very common image in divan poetry: the hair resembles musk in its blackness and fragrance, and the morning breeze combs it and scatters its scent through the world. With the phrase "demâġ-ı rûy-ı cihân" (the nose of the face of the world) the world is imagined as a person and given a nose that smells; this is an example of personification (teşhis). The mention of musk, abir and amber together is the art of tenasüp (congruence of images). Kaya notes that in the divan the source of fragrance is always the beloved and that the scent of musk and amber spreads from her hair or cheek, and she cites this couplet in two places.

The fourth couplet shows the wounding face of the same description. The gamze, that is, the beloved's languid and deadly glance, is here imagined both as an arrow (hadeng) and as a dagger. According to Kaya, couplets in the divan in which the gamze is likened to a sword are fewer than those in which it is likened to an arrow; the dagger comparison comes from its being a weapon carried at the belt and drawn suddenly. The breast pierced in a thousand places is an exaggerated expression of the pain the lover suffers. The word "ancak" in the redif carries in every couplet a kind of claim to superiority; for this reason the ghazal as a whole takes on the quality of praise that presents the beloved as the sole and true owner of every quality.

Bibliography

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