Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫoş görür benden raḳîbi raḥm idüp cânân aña
Nice ḳatlansun bu yürek nice döysün cân aña
‘Āşıḳuñ ḥaḳḳında çoḳ söz söyler inanma raḳîb
‘Ādet olmışdur cihânda dostum bühtân aña
Dil marîżine lebüñden eylemezseñ ger ‘ilâc
Ḥikmetiyle çâre bulmaz olsa biñ Loḳmân aña
Atsa ġamzeñ tîrini cân pûtesine ḳaşlaruñ
Gösterür dil daḫi cânâ cevherî peykân aña
‘Aḳl-ı küll ü dâniş ü ‘ilm ü ulü'l-elbâb bâb
Görmese ḥüsnüñ kitâbından dirüz nâdân aña
Her seḥer bâd-ı ṣabâ bâġ-ı cihânda dilberüñ
Zülfine urduḳça şâne misk ider efşân aña
Ṣafḥa-i ḥüsninde başlamış vefâ resmin yazar
Lâciverd ile yed-i ḳudret ḫaṭ-ı reyḥân aña
‘Aşḳ meydânında ṭop olsa güneş olmaz ‘aceb
Kim ḳamer her dem hilâlinden ṣunar çevgân aña
Dil delermiş ‘îd-i vaṣluñçün kemân ebrûlaruñ
Çoḳdan itdüm dostum ben cânumı ḳurbân aña
Ḫaṭṭuñ inşâsın ḫadüñ üstinde kim yazdı ‘aceb
Kim Kirâmen Kâtibîn olmış durur ḥayrân aña
Yollar üzre Mihrî'nüñ her dem görür ḫâk olduġın
Bir naẓar ḳılmaz nedür cürmi ‘aceb sulṭân aña

In English

1. The beloved, taking pity on him, thinks the rival better than me. How is this heart to bear it, how is the soul to endure it?

2. The rival says much about the lover; do not believe it. My friend, in this world it is his habit to slander.

3. If you do not find a cure for my sick heart with your lip, even a thousand Luqmans coming with their knowledge could not find a cure for it. (Luqman is the figure known for his wisdom and his medicine; in divan poetry he is the emblem of remedy and medicine.)

4. O beloved, if your glance shoots its arrow from the bow of your brows at the target of the soul, the heart in turn shows it a jewelled, precious arrowhead. (The brow is likened to a bow and the glance to an arrow. The couplet can be read in two ways: the heart regards the arrow lodged in it as precious like a jewel, or the arrowhead, reddened with the blood flowing from the wound, resembles a jewel.)

5. Even if it were the source of all reason, knowledge and learning itself, the door of the people of understanding, if it has not seen one chapter from your book of beauty, we call it ignorant. (Bâb at the end of the line means both "door" and "chapter of a book". Ulü'l-elbâb is the Qur'anic expression for "those endowed with understanding".)

6. Every morning, as the morning breeze blowing in the garden of the world combs the beloved's tresses, it scatters musk upon them. (In the F manuscript "cinânda" instead of "cihânda", that is, in the gardens of paradise.)

7. The hand of power (God) has written the rayhani script on the page of her beauty in lapis-blue ink and begun to draw the form of fidelity. (The fresh down on the face is likened to hat, "writing"; reyhân is both a kind of script and the basil plant.)

8. It is no wonder if in the field of love the sun is a ball; for the moon at every moment offers it a polo stick with its crescent. (Çevgân is a game played on horseback in which a ball is driven with a stick curved at the end. The crescent is likened to the curved stick and the sun to the ball.)

9. Your bow-like brows are said to pierce hearts for the festival of union. My friend, I long ago sacrificed my life to that festival. (Since the brow is also likened to the crescent of the festival, the words bow, festival and sacrifice are linked.)

10. Who, I wonder, wrote those down on your cheek like writing, so that even the angels who record people's deeds are amazed at it? (Kirâmen Kâtibîn is the Qur'anic expression for the honoured recording angels who write down people's good and bad deeds.)

11. The sultan sees that Mihrî is dust on the roads at every moment and does not look at her even once; what, I wonder, is her fault? (The beloved is called "sultan"; to be dust on her road is to humble oneself to the lowest degree and show devotion.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The third ghazal of the divan has eleven couplets and counts as long among Mihrî's ghazals. It is written in the pattern "Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün" of the remel metre. Each couplet ends with the redif (refrain word) "aña" (to him/her); the rhyme is the sound "-ân": cânân, cân, bühtân, Loḳmân, peykân, nâdân, efşân, reyḥân, çevgân, ḳurbân, ḥayrân, sulṭân. That most of the rhyme words are of Arabic and Persian origin gives the poem a heavier and more ornate manner of speech than the short ghazals that follow. The ghazal is in all four manuscripts; the differences between them are in only a few words. For whom it was written is not known; since the word "sultan" in the last couplet is also frequently used for the beloved in divan poetry, it cannot be taken as pointing to an identity.

The flow of the poem follows a definite order. In the first two couplets the tension between lover, beloved and rival is set out: the beloved favours the rival, and the rival tells lies about the lover. From the third couplet to the tenth, the beloved's lip, brow, glance, hair and the down on her face are described in turn. In the last couplet the poet returns to her own situation and complains that the beloved, who behaves like a sultan, does not look even once at the lover who is dust on her road.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most striking aspect of the ghazal is the density of images taken from the world of knowledge and writing. In the fifth couplet reason, knowledge and learning are listed, and then the beloved's "book of beauty" is mentioned. The word "bâb" is used here with its two meanings: the door that opens to people of understanding and the chapter of a book. This is a well-known example of tevriye (double entendre). Kaya notes that in the divan there are many couplets saying that whoever has not read a chapter from the beloved's book of beauty "in the school of sight" is to be counted ignorant. In the seventh and tenth couplets the same field continues: the face is a page, and the fresh down on the face is a writing on that page. According to Kaya, since the word "hat", describing the down on the face, is written and read in the same way as hat, the art of calligraphy, it is mostly used with a double meaning in the divan; the name of the rayhani script is for this reason connected with the down on the face. "Reyhân" is also a fragrant plant; writing, plant and face thus meet in the same word.

The hyperbole (mübalağa) in the tenth couplet rests on a religious image. That even the angels who record people's deeds are amazed at the "writing" on the beloved's face implies that this writing did not come from a human hand but was written, as said in the seventh couplet, by "yed-i kudret", that is, the hand of God's power. The mention of Luqman in the third couplet is the art of allusion (telmih). Kaya notes that Luqman appears in two places in the divan and that in both it is said that his wisdom could not cure the wound and the death the beloved causes; this couplet is one of those two places. The beloved's lip is the one medicine Luqman did not know.

In the eighth and ninth couplets heavenly bodies join with images of play and festival. Kaya writes that the game most often mentioned in the divan is "gûy u çevgân", played on horseback, that the ball is generally used as an element of comparison for the lover's head or for the sun, and the polo stick for the beloved's crescent brows and hair. Here Mihrî turns the crescent into the stick and the sun into the ball and imagines the field of love as a playing field. In the ninth couplet the bow-shaped brow is on one side the bow that shoots arrows and on the other the crescent that announces the coming of the festival; the lover sacrifices her life for the festival of union. The use together of the words bow, arrow, festival and sacrifice is a fine example of tenasüp (congruence of images).

The type of the rival in the second couplet is one of the constant figures of divan poetry: the one who circles around the beloved, speaks ill of the lover and sows discord. Here Mihrî addresses the beloved as "my friend" and calls on her not to believe the rival's slanders. In the last couplet the poet names herself; to be dust on the roads is a known expression of devotion, describing lying under the beloved's feet and rubbing one's face on the places she passes. The question "nedür cürmi 'aceb" (what, I wonder, is her fault) closes the poem with a reproach.

Bibliography

Online sources