Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gördüm ruḫını zülfi şebinde nihân yatur
Ṣandum seḥâb içinde meh-i âsumân yatur
Ḥüsnüñ mis̱âli bir daḫi gelmiş midür ‘aceb
Her gûşesinde berg-i gül-i erġavân yatur
Ḳılsa vaṭan ‘aceb mi bu dil âsitânuñı
Pes ‘andelîb ḳanda göre gülsitân yatur
Ben ḳumrı gibi dost dirüm ṣubḥ olınca âh
Ol ḫoş raḳîb ile ṣarılup câna cân yatur
‘Aşḳuñ meyini nûş ideli Mihrî dostum
Gitdi başına gelmedi ‘aḳlı bî-cân yatur

In English

1. I saw her face lying hidden in the night of her hair; I thought it was the moon of the sky lying within a cloud. (Black hair is likened to night and cloud, the bright face to the moon.)

2. Has a likeness of your beauty ever come into the world again, I wonder, that rose petals the colour of Judas-tree blossom lie in every corner of it? (The couplet can be read in two ways: the beloved's face is pictured as a garden with crimson rose petals in every corner; or, since misâl means "likeness" as well as "picture, image", the poet may be asking whether another portrait of such beauty has ever been made.)

3. Is it any wonder if this heart makes your threshold its homeland? Where else would the nightingale lie, if not wherever it finds the rose garden? (The heart is likened to the nightingale, the beloved's threshold to the rose garden.)

4. Like the turtledove I cry "friend, friend" in sighs until morning; she, meanwhile, lies embraced with that pleasant rival, soul to soul.

5. My friend, since Mihrî drank the wine of your love, it has gone to her head and her reason has not come back to her; she lies lifeless. (The idiom "going to the head" describes wine taking effect, and "reason not coming to the head" describes failing to come to oneself; the two idioms are set against each other in the same line.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal stands forty-seventh in the Harfü'r-Râ section of the divan and has five couplets. It is written in the metre "Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "yatur" ("lies"); the rhyme rests on the sound "-ân": nihân, âsumân, erġavân, gülsitân, cân. In the last couplet "bî-cân" completes the rhyme. This short ghazal of five couplets is found in all four manuscripts. It is not known for whom it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Each couplet of the ghazal places the verb "to lie" in a different scene. In the first couplet the moon lies within the cloud, in the second rose petals are spread in the corners of the garden, in the third the nightingale lodges in the rose garden, in the fourth the beloved lies with the rival, and in the last the drunken lover lies lifeless. The redif thus takes on varied meanings, from being hidden to finding shelter, from embracing to losing consciousness.

In the opening couplet, the comparison of hair to night, face to moon and night to cloud is among the common conceits of divan poetry. As Kaya also notes, in Mihrî's divan the beloved's face is likened to the moon rising in the night and her hair to the night. In the second couplet "berg-i gül-i erġavân", the petal of a Judas-tree-coloured rose, describes the redness of the beloved's cheek. The third couplet works the conceit of rose and nightingale: the heart is the nightingale and the beloved's threshold the rose garden. Kaya states that in Mihrî's divan the beloved's threshold is pictured as "the rose garden in which the heart-nightingale makes its homeland"; this couplet is a clear example of that conception. In the couplet the closeness of sound and sense among the words "vatan" (homeland), "âsitân" (threshold) and "gülsitân" (rose garden) is striking.

The fourth couplet is the emotional centre of the ghazal. Kaya notes that the turtledove is likened to the lover in divan poetry for its single mate, its cooing and its nesting in cypresses, and that in this couplet too the lover moans until morning like a turtledove. According to the same researcher, in contrast to the lover who weeps and goes sleepless until dawn, the beloved lies in peace with the rival. The contrast between the lines is plain: on one side a lonely, sleepless lover, on the other two people embracing "soul to soul". The adjective "pleasant" in "pleasant rival" adds a bitter mockery to the couplet.

In the pen-name couplet the words wine, drunkenness and reason form a congruence of images (tenasüp). Kaya mentions this couplet among those in which the lover drinks the wine of love and stays drunk with that ardour until the Day of Resurrection. The couplet's real subtlety is the use of the idioms "to go to the head" and "not to come to the head" against each other in the same line. The use of the pen name together with the address "my friend" is also noteworthy: here the poet speaks of herself in the third person and tells of her condition as if to a friend.

Bibliography

Online sources