Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Yüz urup âsitânına ḥabîbimüñ ḳorum başı
Yüzüme bir ḳadem baṣmaz başumdan yeg görür ṭaşı
Ġamuñdan ḫaste olup dil ḳapuñda yaṣdanur ṭaşı
Teraḥḥum ḳıl ki ‘uşşâḳuñ ḳatı yaṣdıḳdadur başı
Ġanîmet gör dem-i ‘ömri ṣarıl bir nâzenîn ile
Cihân aġyârdan ḫâlî olıcaḳ ṭuymasun nâşî
Geçerken bende oldı dil ḥabîbüm âsitânuñda
Göñül der-bân gözüm saḳḳâ müjemdür şimdi ferrâşı
Hevâ-yı la‘l-i şîrînüñ içün cân virdügüm Ferhâd
Göreydi dostum her dem iderdi ḥüsn-i şâbâşı
Hevâ-yı ‘aşḳa yoldaş ol dilerseñ bulasın vaḥdet
İdinme kendüñe maḥrem dili bî-‘aşḳ yoldaşı
Senüñ ‘aşḳuñ hevâsında budur taḥṣîli Mihrî'nüñ
Ciger biryân u dil ḫaste aḳıdur gözleri yaşı

In English

1. Pressing my face to my beloved's threshold, I lay my head down; yet he will not set a single step on my face, and values the stone of his threshold above my head.

2. Sick with grief for you, the heart makes a pillow of the stone at your door; have mercy, for the heads of your lovers lie on a hard pillow. (Ḳatı means both "hard" and "very"; to "have one's head on the pillow" also means to lie ill. The couplet says at once that the lovers sleep on stone and that they are gravely sick.)

3. Count the moment of life a prize and cling to a delicate beauty; when the world is empty of rivals, let no coarse, uncomprehending person (nâşî) hear of it.

4. My beloved, passing by your threshold, my heart became your slave there; now the heart is the doorkeeper, my eye the water-carrier (saqqa), and my eyelash the sweeper of that threshold. (Tears sprinkle the threshold, and eyelashes sweep it.)

5. My friend, had Ferhad seen that I gave my life for longing for your sweet ruby lips, he would have cried "well done, bravo" to me at every moment.

6. If you wish to find union (vahdet), be a companion to the longing of love; do not take a heart without love as your confidant and fellow traveller.

7. This is all that Mihrî gains from longing for your love: a liver roasted, a heart sick, and eyes that shed tears.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 200th ghazal of the divan has seven couplets and is written in the hezec metre, in the pattern "Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün". This long, weighty pattern is among the most commonly used in divan poetry. The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is built on the sounds "-aşı": başı, ṭaşı, nâşî, ferrâşı, şâbâşı, yoldaşı, yaşı. The poem is found in the F, S and Ü manuscripts. Variants cluster in the fifth couplet, where the S and Ü manuscripts have "aḥsend" (bravo) in place of "ḥüsn-i şâbâş". Nothing is known of whom the ghazal was written for or on what occasion.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets are built on the words head (baş) and stone (taş). In the opening couplet the lover lays his head on the beloved's threshold, but the beloved does not deign to take even a step toward his face and finds the threshold stone more precious than the lover's head. In the second couplet the same two words return in reverse order: the sick heart has made a pillow of the stone at the door, and the lovers' heads rest on a "ḳatı yaṣdıḳ". That ḳatı means both "hard" and "very much", and that "to have one's head on the pillow" is an idiom for lying seriously ill, makes the couplet a double entendre (tevriye). Repeating the rhyme words across two couplets in swapped positions gives the opening of the ghazal a tight acoustic weave.

The third couplet voices the commonplace of divan poetry that one should seize the moment. Life is short; a meeting with the beloved at a time when the rivals have withdrawn should be counted an opportunity, and coarse people must not hear of it. "Nâşî" means a crude person who does not understand such matters, and here it stands for those who would spoil the secret between lover and beloved.

The fourth couplet draws the most detailed picture of the ghazal. The heart has become a slave at the beloved's threshold and a whole household staff has been formed there: the heart is the doorkeeper (der-bân), the eye the water-carrier (saqqa) and the eyelash the sweeper (ferrâş). Gülşen Kaya cites this couplet in her section on the trades and offices named in Mihrî's divan: the water-carrier sprinkles while the sweeper sweeps, and the lover's heart, eye and eyelashes, passing the beloved's threshold, clean it as doorkeeper, water-carrier and sweeper. Comparing tears to water and eyelashes to a broom is done through simile (teşbih), and there is also congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words der-bân, saḳḳâ and ferrâş.

The fifth couplet alludes to the story of Ferhad and Şirin. Ferhad is the lover who pierced mountains for love of Şirin and gave his life on the path of love. Mihrî says that she gave her life for longing for the beloved's "şîrîn" (sweet) lips, and that Ferhad, if he saw it, would applaud her. The word "şîrîn" describes the lips as sweet and at the same time recalls the name of Ferhad's beloved; this double meaning is a double entendre (tevriye). Kaya notes that in the divan Ferhad is sometimes used as a measure of loverhood, a figure who confirms the lover's devotion, and she gives this couplet as an example.

The sixth couplet changes the tone of the ghazal and offers Sufi counsel. "Vaḥdet" is a term in Sufism for attaining the oneness of being. Mihrî tells whoever wishes to reach this oneness to be a companion to the longing of love and not to take a heart without love for a confidant. The words "hevâ-yı ‘aşḳ" and "yoldaş" appear at both the beginning and the end of the lines and bind the couplet into a whole. In the closing couplet the poet then lists what this love has earned her: a roasted liver, a sick heart and weeping eyes. The meanings of "taḥṣîl" as both gain and learning suggest that the only thing love has taught the lover is pain.

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 155-156, Ghazal 200 (F 67a, S 69b, Ü 74a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat University Institute of Social Sciences, Elazığ 2010, pp. 75, 89. openaccess.firat.edu.tr