Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün

Cân boynına zülfeynüñ ‘anber-resen olmışdur
‘Aşḳ ehline dergâhuñ ḥubbü'l-vaṭan olmışdur
Hecrüñle gözüm yaşı yaġmur gibi yaġaldan
Başdan başa bu ‘âlem çayır çimen olmışdur
Dil bülbüli feryâdın artursa ‘aceb midür
Şeydâ ḳılan anı sen ġonca-dehen olmışdur
Cevrüñle beni cânâ öldürme taḥammül it
‘Aşḳuñ ġamı ile ḫod baña olan olmışdur
Yoluñda senüñ cânâ bilsem ne günâh itdüm
Cevrüñ baña aġyâra luṭfuñ neden olmışdur
Ḥaḳḳâ ḳad ü ḫaddüñüñ kim ölse hevâsında
Tâbût aña serv olup gülden kefen olmışdur
Gül-ruḫlaruñuñ çoḳdur ‘uşşâḳı velî ammâ
Çeşmine raḳîbüñüñ Mihrî diken olmışdur

In English

1. Your two locks have become an amber-scented cord about the neck of the soul; for the people of love, your door has become "love of the homeland". (The lover loves the beloved's threshold as his own homeland and cannot be parted from it.)

2. Since the tears of my eyes have rained like rain at your parting, this whole world has become meadow and lawn from end to end.

3. Is it any wonder if the nightingale of the heart raises its cry? It is you, bud-mouthed one, who have driven it mad.

4. O beloved, do not kill me with your torment; be patient a little; what was to befall me through the pain of your love has already befallen.

5. O beloved, if only I knew what sin I committed on your path. Why has your torment come to me and your kindness to strangers?

6. Truly, for whoever dies of longing for your stature and your cheek, the cypress has become the coffin and the rose the shroud.

7. The lovers of your rose cheeks are many, but Mihrî has become a thorn in your rival's eye. (That is, Mihrî has become the one who pricks and troubles the rival's eye.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The twenty-eighth ghazal (gazel) of the divan has seven couplets (beyit) and is written in the hezec meter of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün". This pattern divides each line into two equal halves in the middle. The redif (refrain word) is "olmışdur" (has become) and the rhyme is the sound "-en": resen, vaṭan, çimen, dehen, neden, kefen, diken. The word "olan" in the fourth couplet does not fully meet this rhyme. The poem is found in the Ankara National Library (M 51b) and Istanbul University (Ü 34a) manuscripts. It is not known for whom it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) joins two separate images. In the first line the beloved's two locks are an amber-scented cord put round the neck of the lover's soul; the hair becomes a noose that binds the lover both by its scent and by its curl. The second line rests on a hadith quotation. The saying "Hubbü'l-vatan mine'l-îmân" (love of the homeland is part of faith), as Reyhan Keleş notes, is not among the sound transmissions but was found acceptable in meaning by the hadith scholars; in poems it is mostly the "hubbü'l-vatan" part that is taken. Since, according to the Sufis, the true homeland of man is not this world, love of the homeland is interpreted as the longing to return to God. In her study of hadith quotations in the poems of women divan poets, Keleş writes that Mihrî uses the hadith in a Sufi sense in this couplet and stresses that for lovers the dergâh is "hubbü'l-vatan". Gülşen Kaya also gives the couplet as an example of the beloved's threshold being described as "hubbü'l-vatan". The word "dergâh" means both the beloved's door and threshold and the lodge (tekke) where members of a Sufi order gather; the couplet carries both meanings together.

The second couplet is a typical example of hyperbole. The lover's tears flowing with separation rain like rain and turn the whole world into meadow and lawn. Kaya gives this couplet as an example when she describes how, in the divan, tears raining like rain in separation make the world meadow and lawn. The third couplet uses the rose-and-nightingale conceit: if the nightingale of the heart raises its cry there is nothing to wonder at, because it is the "bud-mouthed" beloved who drives it mad. Kaya explains with this couplet the nightingale's inability to keep from falling in love with the rose.

The fourth and fifth couplets are the section of reproach. The lover asks the beloved not to kill her with torment and to be patient a little; what was to befall her through the pain of love has already befallen. In the fifth couplet the question of the previous ghazal is asked again: what sin has been committed on the beloved's path that cruelty falls to the lover and kindness to strangers? Kaya cites this couplet both for places where the lover cannot know what her sin against the beloved is, and for cases where the rival, without taking pains, enjoys privileges the lover could not win by giving a thousand lives.

The sixth couplet carries the most striking image of the ghazal. The beloved's stature is likened to the cypress and her cheek to the rose; for the lover who dies of longing for her stature and cheek, the cypress becomes the coffin and the rose the shroud. The listing first of two things (ḳad ü ḫadd, stature and cheek) and then of the two things that correspond to them (serv and gül) is the art of leff ü neşr (a list of items followed by a matching list). Kaya gives this couplet where coffin and shroud are mentioned along with the concept of death in the divan, and notes that the image of the cypress becoming a coffin arises from the likening of stature to the cypress. The pen name couplet (mahlas) carries on the rose image: the rose-cheeked beloved has many lovers, but Mihrî has become a thorn in the rival's eye. The idiom "gözüne diken olmak" (to be a thorn in the eye) forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) with the thorn that stands beside the rose, and closes the ghazal with a small sentence of triumph.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 65, Gazel 28 (M 51b, Ü 34a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Reyhan Keleş, "Kadın Divan Şairlerinin Şiirlerinde Hadis İktibasları", Türk Kültürü, Sanatı ve Edebiyatında Hadisler Sempozyum Tebliğler Kitabı, vol. II, İstanbul: Meridyen Destek Derneği, 2022, pp. 335-336.
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 16, 36, 45, 182, 225, 246, 277. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Online sources