Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Nice bir bu dil çeke her bî-vefânuñ nâzını
Nice bir pinhân idem sînemde dilber râzını
Virüben ‘aḳl u dil aldum ġuṣṣa-i yâri ṣatun
Ġam metâ‘ından ṭolupdur şimdi cânum ḫâzini
Nice ölmesün bir âdem ṣûfînüñ ṭa‘nından âh
Kendü sevmez mi görüp bir ḫûblar şehbâzını
Rîsmân zülfüñde bir gün dost ġamzeñ tîġına
Düşeyin cân vireyin gör ‘âşıḳuñ cân-bâzını
Bir nefes Mihrî varur kûyuñda seyrân itmege
Tiz ḳaçar çün seg raḳîbüñ işidüp âvâzını

In English

1. How long will this heart bear the airs of every faithless one; how long shall I keep the beloved's secret in my breast?

2. I gave my mind and my heart and bought the beloved's grief in return; now the treasury of my soul overflows with the merchandise of sorrow.

3. Ah, how could one not die of the sufi's censure; if he himself saw the falcon of the beauties (the most distinguished of them), would he not love him?

4. My friend, one day, walking on the rope of your tress (like a rope-dancer), let me fall onto the sword of your glance and give up my soul; see the acrobat who plays with his own life among your lovers.

5. For a moment Mihrî goes to wander in your quarter; but when she hears the voice of your rival, who is like a dog, she flees at once.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The 207th ghazal of the divan has five couplets and is written in the remel metre, in the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-ını/-ini"; the rhyme is built on the sound "-âz" in the words "nâz", "râz", "şehbâz", "cân-bâz" and "âvâz", while the word "ḫâzin" in the second couplet joins the series with a similar sound. The ghazal is found in the F, S and Ü manuscripts. The only difference among the manuscripts is in the closing couplet, where the F manuscript reads "virür" in place of "varur". Nothing is known of whom the poem was written for or on what occasion.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with two questions of "nice bir" (how long). This repetition gives the first couplet the tone of a complaint: the heart is tired of bearing the airs of every faithless one, and the lover is tired of keeping the beloved's secret. Keeping the secret in the breast is a well-known expression of the divan-poetry view that love is something to be concealed; here, though, this burden has turned into a subject of complaint.

The second couplet describes love as a trade. The lover has given her mind and heart and bought the beloved's trouble, her grief, in exchange; now the treasury of her soul is full of this merchandise of grief. Gülşen Kaya, in her study of market and trade elements in Mihrî's divan, mentions this couplet as well, noting that the lover gives her mind and heart and buys the beloved's sorrow, filling the treasury of her soul with the goods of grief. There is congruence of images (tenasüp) among "ṣatun almak", "metâ‘" and "ḫâzin"; presenting a losing bargain as a profit adds a delicate irony to the couplet.

The third couplet confronts the sufi, one of the familiar types of divan poetry. The sufi rebukes love and blames the lover; the poet asks him whether he too would not love if he saw the "şehbâz" of the beauties. According to Kaya, the şehbâz, a kind of falcon, is used for the beloved on account of its hunting and its beauty. The likeness between the hunting bird snaring hearts and the beloved snaring lovers makes the choice of word meaningful. That the sufi's censure "kills" the lover is said by hyperbole.

The most vivid image of the ghazal is in the fourth couplet. The beloved's tress is compared to a rope (rîsmân) and the lover to an acrobat walking on this rope; the place where she falls from the rope is the sword of the beloved's glance. The word "cân-bâz" here describes both the acrobat and, in its literal sense, one who "plays with his own life". Kaya notes that in the divan the word cânbâz is used of a lover always ready to give up her life for the beloved, and shows that the same image occurs in the line "Rismân-ı ser-i zülfüñden iner döne döne" of the 141st ghazal. Kaya also reports that the third murabba in the divan is built on a performance by an acrobat named Haydar, who walked on a rope in front of the prince at Eğribük. This information suggests that rope-walking was a spectacle watched in Mihrî's circle and that the image may have been fed by observation; the sources, however, do not state any direct connection between this ghazal and that performance. The congruence of images among "rîsmân", "düşmek" and "cân-bâz", joined with the link between "tîġ" and "cân vermek", builds the couplet like a scene.

In the closing couplet Mihrî portrays herself as someone who goes to wander in the beloved's quarter and flees as soon as she hears the rival's voice. Likening the rival to a dog is common in divan poetry; here the word "seg" both demeans the rival and conjures up the condition of one who flees from the barking of a neighbourhood dog. The reading "virür" in the F manuscript does not change the meaning of this couplet, but the edition takes "varur" as its basis.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 159, Ghazal 207 (F 70b, S 72b, Ü 76a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Other sources

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), "Ğazeliyyāt-ı Mihri-i Hāqīre", türkoloji-iran, 2007 (a different transliteration of the ghazal, no. 213).

Online sources