Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Didi dilber ḥüsnümüñ ḥayrânı ol didüm be-ser
Didi her dem ‘aşḳumuñ giryânı ol didüm be-ser
Didi ḥüsnüm gülsitânınuñ hezârân derd ile
Rûz u şeb bülbül gibi nâlânı ol didüm be-ser
Didi Ka‘be kûyumuñ itseñ ṭavâfın ṣıdḳ ile
‘Īd-i vaṣlımuñ hemân ḳurbânı ol didüm be-ser
Didi yüz sür âsitânumda ṭurup leyl ü nehâr
Sen de ḫıdmet-kârımuñ der-bânı ol didüm be-ser
Didi ey Mihrî saña cânân gerekse cân vir
İmdi gel ‘aşḳum yolında fâni ol didüm be-ser

In English

1. The beloved said, "Be an admirer of my beauty"; I said, "On my head." She said, "Weep for my love at every moment"; I said, "On my head."

2. She said, "In the rose garden of my beauty, with thousands of sorrows, be one who laments day and night like a nightingale"; I said, "On my head." ("Hezârân" means thousands; since "hezâr" also means nightingale, it plays on sound with the nightingale.)

3. She said, "If you circle the Kaaba of my quarter with sincerity, be at once the sacrifice at the feast of my union"; I said, "On my head." (The beloved's quarter is likened to a place of pilgrimage and union to the feast of the Sacrifice; the lover is the one to be sacrificed at that feast.)

4. She said, "Stay on my threshold night and day and rub your face on it; be also the doorkeeper of my servant"; I said, "On my head." (The place given to the lover is lower even than that of the beloved's servant.)

5. She said, "O Mihrî, if you need a beloved, give your life; come now, be annihilated on the road of my love"; I said, "On my head."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The thirty-eighth ghazal of the divan has five couplets (beyit) and is written in the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün", of the remel metre. The rhyme is the sound "-ânı" (ḥayrânı, giryânı, nâlânı, ḳurbânı, der-bânı, fâni); the redif (refrain word) is "ol didüm be-ser", that is, "be, I said: on my head". With so long a redif, every line of the ghazal ends in the same pattern and the poem turns into a chain of questions and answers: each line opens with "Didi" (she said), conveys one of the beloved's demands and closes with the short reply "be-ser" (on my head) given by the lover. The ghazal is found only in the Istanbul University manuscript (Ü 36a). There is no record of whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole effect of the poem arises from this conversational order. As the beloved asks, the demands grow heavier: first to admire and weep, then to lament like a nightingale, then to be a sacrifice, then to be the doorkeeper of doorkeepers, and finally to give his life and be annihilated. The lover's reply never changes. This repetition works like a measure of the degree of surrender as the couplets advance. Mihrî's divan has one more ghazal of the same construction: the hundred and ninth ghazal begins "Didi cânân terk ḳıl yolumda cân didüm be-çeşm" and uses the reply "be-çeşm" (on my eye), of the same meaning, in place of "be-ser".

The second couplet uses one of the best-known conceits of divan poetry, the rose and the nightingale. The beloved's beauty is a rose garden, and the lover is the nightingale lamenting in that garden day and night. The word "hezârân" (thousands), because of the nightingale meaning of "hezâr", forms a relation of sound and sense with the nightingale; this is a subtle example of the art of tenasüp (congruence of images). "Rûz u şeb" (day and night) is a pair that forms an opposition (tezat).

The third couplet builds a chain of comparisons taken from religious language. Gülşen Kaya notes that in the divan the beloved's quarter is called the Kaaba because of its sanctity in the lover's eyes, and that at this place, which the lover circles, he is ready to sacrifice his life; she gives this couplet as the example. The words Kaaba, circumambulation, feast and sacrifice form a set (tenasüp) belonging to the pilgrimage and the feast of the Sacrifice; the phrase "ṣıdḳ ile" (with sincerity) also recalls the sincerity that is a condition of circumambulation.

In the fourth couplet a ranking taken from the world of the palace is seen. Kaya says that in the divan the lover is thought of as the doorkeeper (der-bân) at the beloved's threshold, and that in this couplet the beloved, as a favour, makes the lover who stands at her door day and night the doorkeeper of her servants, and that the lover gladly accepts this. "Āsitân" (threshold) and "yüz sürmek" (to rub one's face on) recall the old custom of showing respect by rubbing the face on the threshold.

In the closing couplet (makta) the demand reaches its final point: whoever wants the beloved must give his life and become "fânî" on the road of love. In everyday language fânî means mortal, transient; in Sufism it is tied to the concept of "fenâ", which describes the passing of a person out of his own existence. The sound similarity between "cân" and "cânân" also carries the meaning of the couplet: the price of reaching the beloved (cânân) is life (cân). In this couplet the speaker is the beloved, who addresses Mihrî by name; the pen name (mahlas) is thus heard from the mouth not of the lover but of the beloved.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 70, Gazel 38 (Ü 36a); the same work for Gazel 109. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, p. 88, 186. openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral thesis, Uludağ Üniversitesi, Balıkesir 1990 (comparative text of the ghazal and examples of "Didi … didüm" sentences).
  • Sıtkı Nazik, "Benzer Redifli Şiirleri Bağlamında Mihrî Hatun ve Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi'nin Karşılaştırılması", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya 2017 (table of refrains in Mihrî's divan: "ol didüm be-ser", G.38).

Online sources