Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Dili virdüm yalıñuz ṣanma saña cân biledür
Dil nedür cân daḫi cânâ saña ḳurbân biledür
Geçdi ey ḳaşı kemân ġamzeñ oḳı cândan öte
Daḫi çeşmüñ nice bir sîneme müjgân biledür
Nidelüm gözden ıraġ olduñ ise dost yeter
Çün ḫayâlüñ dil-i vîrânuma mihmân biledür
Görüp ol yâri baña söylemesün deyü raḳîb
Muttaṣıl sâye gibi gör nice şeyṭân biledür
Mihrî bülbül gibi efġânuñı dilden ḳoma kim
Lâle ḫaddinde anuñ çün gül-i ḫandân biledür

In English

1. Do not think I have given you my heart alone; my life, too, is together with it. O beloved, what is the heart? My life as well, together with the heart, is a sacrifice to you. ("Bile" means "together, along with" in Old Anatolian Turkish; "biledür" means "is together".)

2. O you whose brow is a bow, the arrow of your languid glance has passed through my life and out the other side; how long will your eye, with its lashes, still be aimed at my breast? (The brow is likened to a bow, the glance to an arrow, and the lashes to arrows.)

3. What can we do if you are far from my eyes; my friend, it is enough that your image is with me as a guest in my ruined heart.

4. So that the rival, seeing that beloved, may not speak to me, look, like Satan, like a shadow, he is with her all the time.

5. Mihrî, do not let your lament leave your heart like the nightingale; for there is a laughing rose together with it on her tulip cheek. (The beloved's cheek is both red like a tulip and like an opened rose; where there is a rose, the nightingale's lament has its place.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The thirty-sixth ghazal (gazel) in Arslan's edition has five couplets (beyit) and is found in all four manuscripts (F 39b, M 55b, S 41b, Ü 35b). Its metre is the pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "biledür" (is together); the rhyme is built on the sound "-ân" in the words cân, ḳurbân, müjgân, mihmân, şeyṭân and ḫandân. The redif is one of the words that show traces of Old Anatolian Turkish in Mihrî's language: while "bile" today is mostly used in the sense of "even", here it keeps the old meaning "together". Nothing is known about whom the poem was written for or when.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The redif gives the poem a theme of "togetherness", but most of these togethernesses are to the lover's disadvantage. In the first couplet heart and life have together been given to the beloved; in the second the eye is aimed at the lover's breast together with its lashes; in the third the beloved's image is a guest in the lover's heart; in the fourth the rival never leaves the beloved's side like a shadow; in the fifth there is a rose on the beloved's tulip cheek. The lover's only real togetherness with the beloved is her image, since she herself is far from his eyes.

In the first couplet the sound similarity between "cân" (life) and "cânâ" (O beloved) forms a wordplay; the question "Dil nedür" (what is the heart?) belittles the heart and says that the life is the greater gift. In the second couplet brow, glance, eye and lash come together in a bow and arrow comparison. Kaya shows that in Mihrî's divan the beloved's brow is thought of as a bow, her glance as an arrow and her eye as a plunderer; in this couplet the arrow of the glance has passed beyond the life, but the eye has not stopped attacking with its lash-arrows.

The third couplet rests on the idea of the "house of the heart", which is often treated in divan poetry. Kaya notes that in Mihrî's divan the heart is thought of as a house in which the lover lives and in which the beloved's image is sometimes a guest, and that this house is also called vîrân or vîrâne (ruined). The image that is guest to the ruined heart takes the place of the beloved who is far from the eye and consoles the lover.

In the fourth couplet the rival is likened to a shadow that never leaves the beloved's side and to the Satan that comes between lover and beloved. The simile "sâye gibi" (like a shadow) expresses the rival's constant presence and the word "şeyṭân" his ill intent; the two comparisons stand side by side in the same line. In the last couplet nightingale, tulip and rose come together (tenasüp, congruence of images). Kaya notes that in the divan the tulip is generally used together with the rose for the cheek, and gives this couplet as an example. The poet addresses herself and tells herself to go on lamenting like a nightingale, for there is a rose on the beloved's cheek and where there is a rose the nightingale is not expected to fall silent. The compound "gül-i ḫandân" (laughing rose) likens an opened rose to a laughing face.

The manuscript variants are minor: in the third couplet manuscript M reads "nola ger" (what if) instead of "Nidelüm"; in the fourth couplet manuscript F records "yâr" instead of "yâri"; in the fifth couplet the word order differs in manuscript M ("efġânuñı bülbül gibi").

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 69-70, Gazel 36 (F 39b, M 55b, S 41b, Ü 35b) 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 brow, the eye, the house of the heart and the tulip). openaccess.firat.edu.tr