Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çekmeyen bilmez nedür yârüñ cefâsı özgedür
Düşmeyen bilmez nedür hecrüñ belâsı özgedür
Olmayan ‘âşıḳ ne bilsün ehl-i ‘aşḳuñ ḥâlini
Şerḥ olunmaz bu beyânuñ mâ-cerâsı özgedür
Râstî seyr eyle ‘uşşâḳı nevâlar gösterür
Dilleri ḥayrân ider ‘aşḳuñ ṣadâsı özgedür
Ḫalvetüñde zâhidâ ‘ayb itme ehl-i ‘aşḳa sen
Ḳünc-i ġamda ‘âşıḳuñ da bî-riyâsı özgedür
İşüñ altun itmek isterseñ yüzüñ zer eylegil
Ṭâlib-i iksîr-i ‘aşḳ ol kîmyâsı özgedür
Bûy-ı zülf-i dilberüñ ġayrin getürme ey ṣabâ
Bu dil-i sûzânuma ḳıble hevâsı özgedür
Bir ṭabîbe ben didüm bîmâr-ı ‘aşḳa çâre ne
Didi dilber vaṣlıdur anuñ devâsı özgedür
Bir perînüñ ḥalḳa-i zülfine nâ-gâh oldı ṣayd
Şimdi Mihrî miskinüñ dâm-ı belâsı özgedür

In English

1. One who has not suffered does not know what the beloved's torment is; it is something quite different. One who has not fallen into separation does not know what the calamity of separation is; that too is quite different.

2. How would one who is not in love know the state of the people of love? This state cannot be explained by telling; its adventure is different.

3. Truly, look at the lovers, what melodies they show. The voice of love is different; it leaves hearts amazed. ("Râst", "nevâ" and "‘uşşâḳ" are also the names of three musical modes; while "râstî" is read as truly, "nevâ" as melody and "‘uşşâḳ" as lovers, the names of the modes are also evoked.)

4. O ascetic, in your corner of retreat do not blame the people of love; the sincerity of the lover withdrawn into the corner of grief is different.

5. If you wish to make your affair gold, make your face yellow as gold; go after the elixir of love, its chemistry is different. (In old alchemy the elixir is the substance believed to turn base metal into gold. A face turned yellow by the pain of love is likened to gold.)

6. O morning breeze, bring nothing but the scent of the beloved's hair; the air toward the qibla of this burnt heart of mine is different. (The lover's qibla, the direction she turns to, is the beloved. "Hevâ" means both breeze and desire, longing; all the heart longs for is the wind that blows from the beloved.)

7. I said to a physician, "What is the cure for one sick with love?" He said, "It is union with the beloved; its medicine is different."

8. Poor Mihrî suddenly became the prey of the ringlet of a fairy's locks; now the snare of calamity into which she has fallen is different.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel), which stands thirty-first in Arslan's edition, has eight couplets (beyit) and is found in all four manuscripts (F 43a, M 61a, S 45b, Ü 34b). Its metre is the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün"; this long and dignified pattern of the remel meter of the aruz (quantitative metre) is one of the measures most used in divan ghazals. The redif (refrain word) is "özgedür" (is different); the rhyme is made by the sound "-âsı" in the words cefâsı, belâsı, mâ-cerâsı, ṣadâsı, bî-riyâsı, kîmyâsı, hevâsı and devâsı. The word "belâsı" is used twice, as the calamity of separation in the opening couplet (matla) and as the calamity of the snare in the last. There is no information on whom the poem was written for or when.

The redif also sets the subject of the poem. Each couplet says that something to do with love is "different", that is, cannot be weighed by ordinary measures: the beloved's torment, the calamity of separation, the lover's adventure, the voice of love, the lover's sincerity, the chemistry of love, the wind from the beloved, the medicine for the sickness of love, and finally the snare the poet has fallen into. The ghazal thus works out in eight different aspects the idea that love can be understood only by the one who lives it. Summing up the conception of the lover in Mihrî's divan, Gülşen Kaya expresses this idea as "the adventure of being a lover is different, and only those who have fallen in love can understand it", and gives the second couplet as an example.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The two lines of the opening couplet are built on the same structure: "Çekmeyen bilmez nedür… / Düşmeyen bilmez nedür…" (One who has not suffered does not know what… / One who has not fallen does not know what…). This parallelism gives the couplet the firmness of a proverb. Kaya ties the divan's treatment of separation to this couplet: one who has not borne the calamity of longing and the beloved's torment cannot know how different the pain of these is.

The third couplet is woven with musical terms. Kaya shows that Mihrî often uses the modes ‘uşşâk, râst, nevâ and şehnâz with two meanings, and brings terms such as "sadâ" and "perde" into the poem in the same way. In this couplet the words "râstî" (truly), "‘uşşâḳ" (lovers) and "nevâ" (melody) stand in the sentence with their own meanings while recalling the names of three modes; using the near and the far meaning of one word together is called tevriye (double entendre). The word "ṣadâ" (sound) completes this musical air.

The fourth couplet rests on the familiar divan opposition of ascetic (zahit) and lover. As Kaya notes, Mihrî, before the hypocrisy of the ascetic who sits in his seclusion, values more the sincere lover who has made the corner of grief his home. "Ḫalvet" (seclusion) and "künc" (corner) here name two different solitudes: one the place of showy worship, the other of silent pain.

In the fifth couplet love is likened to an alchemical process. Kaya notes that in the divan chemistry, the science of obtaining gold from various substances, chiefly earth, and its raw material the elixir are often treated, and that love too is described as elixir and chemistry; the lover who seeks the elixir of love makes face and heart gold. "Altun" and "zer" are the Turkish and Persian names of the same thing, and "iksîr" and "kîmyâ" are terms of the same science (tenasüp, congruence of images).

The seventh couplet is a short conversation. The lover goes to the physician, and the physician says there is no remedy but union. Kaya exemplifies with this couplet the idea in Mihrî's divan that love is a sickness the physician cannot treat and that the only medicine is union with the beloved. The words "ṭabîb" (physician), "bîmâr" (sick), "çâre" (remedy) and "devâ" (medicine) form a group that calls one another up. In the last couplet the poem passes to the likeness of hunting and snare: as Kaya shows, in this likeness the lover's heart is the bird hunted and the beloved's hair the snare. The "halka" (ring, ringlet) of the hair recalls the loops of a snare by its curls; the word "perî" (fairy) describes the beloved's superhuman beauty.

The differences among the manuscripts are limited: in the third couplet manuscripts M and S read "eyler" in place of "eyle"; in the fifth couplet manuscript F records "yüzin" in place of "yüzüñ".

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 67, Gazel 31 (F 43a, M 61a, S 45b, Ü 34b) and footnotes on manuscript variants. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010 (sections on the lover, zâhid, music, chemistry, physician, hunting and separation). openaccess.firat.edu.tr