Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün

Şol dil-rübâ ki ḥüsn ilinüñ kişveri geçer
Bir şehdür ol ki cân u göñül leşkeri geçer
Ol dil-rübâya dil nice olmaya müşterî
Cümle cihân güzellerinüñ serveri geçer
Virse żiyâ cemâli cihâna ‘aceb midür
Ol dilberüñ ki ḥüsni cihân enveri geçer
Cellâd-ı çeşmi cânuma ḳaṣd itmedin henüz
Derdlü yürege ġamzesinüñ ḫançeri geçer
Cân viremez yolumda dime Mihrî dostum
Ṣâdıḳlaruñ cihânda bu daḫi biri geçer

In English

1. That heart-ravisher who is counted the sovereign of the land of beauty is a shah whom life and heart are counted as his army. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the verb "geçer" can be taken as "is counted" or as "his command prevails"; it is then understood as "a shah whose rule prevails over the land of beauty and whose word prevails over the army of life and heart".)

2. How could the heart not be a buyer of that heart-ravisher; she is counted the chief of all the beauties of the world.

3. Is it any wonder if her beauty gives light to the world; the face of that beloved is counted the brightest in the world.

4. Before the executioner of her eye has yet set about my life, the dagger of her glance pierces the sorrowful heart. (Here "geçer" means pierces, goes through.)

5. My friend, do not say "Mihrî cannot give her life on my road"; she, too, is counted among the faithful lovers of the world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The fortieth ghazal (gazel) of the divan has five couplets (beyit) and is written in the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün", of the muzâri metre. The rhyme is the sound "-eri" (kişveri, leşkeri, serveri, enveri, ḫançeri, biri), and the redif (refrain word) is "geçer". The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts (F 44a, M 62a, S 46a, Ü 36b); the manuscripts differ only by a few words, for example manuscript F writes "yüzine" instead of "yürege" in the fourth couplet. There is no record of whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole weight of the ghazal lies in the variety of meanings carried by the redif "geçer". In old Turkish the verb "geçmek" means "to be counted, to enjoy esteem" as well as "to have one's command carry" and "to pierce through". In the first three couplets the poet uses the verb in the senses of being counted and of one's command prevailing, in the fourth he ties it to the dagger piercing the heart, and in the last he returns again to "is counted". The same refrain appearing with a different face in each couplet gives variety to the short ghazal.

In the first two couplets the beloved is imagined as a ruler. Beauty is a land (ḥüsn ili, kişver), the beloved is the shah of that land, life and heart are her soldiers (leşker), and she is the chief (server) of all the beauties of the world. In the section where she examines how words connected with soldiering and government such as server, serdâr and leşker are used in the divan, Gülşen Kaya gives the second couplet as an example and notes that the word server describes the beloved as the head of the beauties. The semantic link among these words forms the art of tenasüp (congruence of images). In the second couplet the heart is a "müşterî", that is, a buyer, of the beloved: beauty is thought of as merchandise, and the heart is ready to buy it.

The third couplet describes the beloved's face illuminating the world. The words "żiyâ" (light) and "enver" (brightest) suggest that the face is likened to the sun, but the sun is not named. Kaya mentions this couplet in two places: in the section where she shows the world as a place lit by the beloved's light, and in the section treating the notions of light and brightness. The question "‘aceb midür" (is it any wonder) strengthens the praise as a question whose answer is clear.

In the fourth couplet the eye is likened to an executioner and the gamze (languid glance) to a dagger. Kaya gives this couplet as an example in the section where the names of offices in palace and city life (pâs-bân, der-bân, cellâd) are used as elements of comparison. Before the eye has even begun to kill, the dagger of the glance has pierced the heart. As Kaya notes in her discussion of the glance, the glance in this respect is quicker than even the "executioner of the eye"; the source of this conception is the dagger carried at the waist and drawn at an unexpected moment.

In the closing couplet (makta) the speaker addresses the beloved as "my friend" and answers a doubt that might cross her mind: Mihrî, too, is one of the faithful who can give their lives on the road of love. The reference to the pen name (mahlas) in the third person and the construction of the couplet as an objection allow the ghazal to move after its praise to a personal voice.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 71-72, Gazel 40 (F 44a, M 62a, S 46a, Ü 36b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, p. 48, 88, 89, 162, 261. 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).

Online sources