Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Āşıḳ iseñ ‘aşḳ yolında ṣaḳlama nâmûs u ‘âr
Cehd idüp bu yolda cân vir yoḫsa elden gitdi yâr
Fâriġ olup ger göñülsüz ister isen yâruñı
Ġâfil olma key ḥaẕer ḳıl ġayrınuñ olur nigâr
‘Ālemi ġarḳ eyler iseñ kimse silmez yaşuñı
Ṣoñra ger ḳan aġlar iseñ günde biñ kez zâr zâr
Gülsitânında bugün ol ġoncanuñ feryâd ḳıl
Yoḫsa yarın gül gider ḳalursın ey miskîn hezâr
Ḫâr elinden dâmenin ḳurtarmaġ içün dilberüñ
Sen daḫi her gülsitâna yüz urup yalvar ne var
Merd iseñ ġayret demidür sür raḳîbi hey meded
Dâmenine ter gülüñ yapışmasun sa‘y eyle ḫâr
Bir zamân Mihrî felekde seyr iderdi şimdi gör
Bu sebebden oldı uş ayaḳlar altında ġubâr

In English

1. If you are a lover, do not guard concerns of honour and shame on the road of love; strive on this road and give your life, otherwise the beloved is lost. (Manuscript Ü reads "‘âr" instead of "yâr" at the end of the second line.)

2. If, carefree, you want your beloved half-heartedly, do not be heedless, beware greatly: that beauty will become another's.

3. Even if you drown the world with your tears, even if you weep blood a thousand times a day, wailing, no one will wipe your tears (once the beloved is lost).

4. Cry out today in the rose garden of that bud; otherwise tomorrow the rose will be gone, and you, O wretched nightingale, will remain just so. (Manuscript Ü reads "iken" instead of "bugün": "cry out while you are in the rose garden".)

5. To rescue the beloved's skirt from the hand of the thorn, you too rub your face on every rose garden and plead; what harm is there in that?

6. If you are a brave man, it is the time for zeal; drive off the rival, help! Strive that the thorn not cling to the skirt of the fresh rose. (The thorn is the rival, the fresh rose the beloved.)

7. Mihrî once roamed in the heavens; now look, because of this she has become dust under feet. ("Mihr" means sun; a connection is made between the sun's course in the sky and the poet's former high state.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The forty-third ghazal (gazel) of the divan has seven couplets (beyit) and is written in the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün", of the remel metre. The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is built on the sound "-âr" (‘âr, yâr, nigâr, zâr, hezâr, ne var, ḫâr, ġubâr). The words "yalvar ne var" in the fifth couplet answer the rhyme with a two-word expression like "ne var" (what harm is there). The ghazal is found in only two manuscripts (M 61b, Ü 37a). Nothing is known about whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a poem of counsel. The speaker addresses the lover like someone with experience of the road of love and tells him what he must do: he must give up concern for shame, must not act without heart, must cry out while there is time, plead if necessary and drive off the rival. In the first six couplets imperatives follow one another (ṣaḳlama, cân vir, ġâfil olma, ḥaẕer ḳıl, feryâd ḳıl, yalvar, sür, sa‘y eyle). In divan poetry the lover mostly complains of his own state; in this ghazal, by contrast, most of the speech is advice given to someone else, and the complaint appears only in the last couplet, under the poet's own name.

The opposition in the first couplet between "nâmûs u ‘âr" (honour and shame) and giving one's life on the road of love shows love as a road in conflict with the measures of society. In the second couplet the words "fâriġ" (carefree) and "göñülsüz" (heartless) announce the end of a heartless love: the beloved becomes another's.

The fourth, fifth and sixth couplets are built with the triad of rose, nightingale and thorn. The beloved is the rose or bud, the lover is the nightingale, the rival is the thorn. In the fourth couplet the opposition of "bugün" (today) and "yarın" (tomorrow) forms an antithesis (tezat) and, through the brevity of the rose's life, conveys that no time should be wasted. The word "hezâr" here means nightingale. In the fifth and sixth couplets the thorn's clinging to the rose's skirt is the image of the rival's drawing close to the beloved; the lover is asked to free this skirt. The words "merd iseñ" (if you are brave) and "ġayret demidür" (it is the time for zeal) in the sixth couplet turn the counsel into a challenge. That all the words belong to the rose garden builds a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the couplets.

The closing couplet (makta) moves from counsel to the poet's own story. Mihrî once roamed "in the heavens"; now she has become dust under feet. The meaning of "mihr" as sun builds a double entendre (tevriye) between the pen name and roaming in the sky: the sun travelling in the sky and the poet who was once on high are described with the same word. The phrase "bu sebebden" (because of this) suggests that this fall came from not following in time the counsel enumerated above; thus where the advising voice gets its experience also becomes clear. Gülşen Kaya notes that in the divan earth and dust are treated for their being under feet and counted worthless, while the lover's becoming earth on the beloved's road is regarded as an honour for him; in this ghazal, by contrast, becoming dust is the last point of a fall from the heavens to the ground.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 73, Gazel 43 (M 61b, Ü 37a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, p. 272-273. 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