Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dostum çün yüze gülmek eylemişsin ḫû saña
Yüri ey hercâyi var şimden girü yâ hû saña
Gel aḳıtma gözlerümüñ ḳanlu yaşın sevdügüm
Ocaġuña ṣu ḳoyar ḫayr itmez âḫir bu saña
Çeşmine cân virdüñ ey dil pendümi gûş itmedüñ
Gör nice siḥr itdi âḫir bu iki câdû saña
Öldürürseñ la‘lüñ âbı ḥasretiyle ger beni
Teşne cân vir Ḥaḳ tabıtmasun bir içim ṣu saña
Ẓulmet-i ġamda ḳodıysa seni yârüñ ġam yime
Bulınur Mihrî cihândur yine bir meh-rû saña

In English

1. My friend, since you have made it your habit to smile in everyone's face, O faithless one who gives her heart everywhere, go; from now on, farewell to you. (Hercâyî means one who is everywhere and attaches herself to no one. The phrase "yâ hû saña" can be understood in two ways: with the dervishes' cry "yâ hû", "now farewell to you", or "now you are apart and I am apart".)

2. My beloved, do not make me shed the bloody tears of my eyes. In the end these tears will put out your hearth, and no good will come of them to you. (To "put water on someone's hearth" is an idiom meaning to extinguish someone's household, to bring ruin upon her.)

3. O heart, you gave your life to her eye and did not heed my advice. See how in the end those two sorcerers (the two eyes) have cast their spell on you.

4. If you kill me with longing for the water of your lip, you will give up your life thirsty; may God not let you find a sip of water. (This is in the nature of a curse. In the Ü manuscript "tattırmasın" (may He not let you taste) instead of "buldurmasın".)

5. O Mihrî, if your beloved has left you in the darkness of grief, do not be sad. The world is wide, and again a moon-faced one will be found for you. (In the M manuscript "ġam degül" (it is no grief, it does not matter) instead of "ġam yime".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The fourth ghazal of the divan is a poem of five couplets, written in the pattern "Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün" of the remel metre. The redif (refrain word) is the word "saña" (to you), and the rhyme is the sound "-û": ḫû, yâ hû, bu, câdû, ṣu, meh-rû. That among the rhyme words there are everyday Turkish words such as "bu" and "ṣu" makes the language of the poem plain and close to speech. The ghazal is in all four manuscripts. For whom it was written is not known. It is among Mihrî's best-known poems today; it is one of the two Mihrî ghazals in the Turkish Wikisource.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This ghazal is one of the poems in which Mihrî's lover's voice departs from the usual manner of pleading and submission. In divan poetry the beloved is generally faithless, cruel and unattainable, while the lover bears this cruelty and does not leave the beloved's door. Here, from the first couplet, there is an anger mixed with reproach. The beloved who smiles in everyone's face and attaches herself nowhere is told "go". In the second couplet the lover says that her bloody tears will in the end put out the beloved's hearth; the abundance of tears is imagined as a flood, and this flood is likened to a disaster that will extinguish the beloved's house. The use of the idiom combines hyperbole with an expression of everyday language.

In the third couplet the poet addresses her heart. The heart has paid no attention to advice and has given its life to the beloved's eye. In divan poetry the beloved's eye is often likened to a sorcerer; Kaya, too, notes that the word "câdû" (sorcerer) is used in the divan for the beloved's eyes, that the eye bewitches the lover with its beauty. The two eyes, like two sorcerers, have taken the heart into their grasp. To scold oneself by addressing the heart is a familiar way in divan poetry and lets the lover take her share in the situation she has fallen into.

In the fourth couplet the beloved's lip is imagined as "âb", that is, water. The lip is in divan poetry mostly likened to the water of life, the water of immortality. If the lover dies longing for this water, she wishes that the beloved too die of thirst. This curse increases the harshness of the couplet; an expression from popular speech such as "a sip of water" brings to mind the thought of thirst on the deathbed. The link built between water and lip, thirst and longing is an example of tenasüp (congruence of images).

The last couplet completes the attitude of the poem. Mihrî, addressing herself, says that if the beloved has left her in the darkness of grief she should not be sad, that the world is wide and again a moon-faced one will be found. There is a contrast between "ẓulmet" (darkness) and "meh-rû" (moon-faced): what will scatter the darkness is a new moon-like face. For the lover to give up the beloved is a rarely seen attitude in divan poetry. In Mihrî's poems there are other pieces in which she reproaches the beloved and says she has given up on her; Kaya records that in a murabba the poet says she has given up the beloved and that reproach is seen in her couplets. The same voice is heard in this ghazal, and it gives the poem the quality of the words of a lover who is confident and does not shrink before the beloved.

Bibliography

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