Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yine eyyâm-ı bahâr irdi bezendi her diyâr
Ḳıldı âfâḳı şükûfeyle müzeyyen Kird-gâr
Nice naḳş itdi gör ol naḳḳâş ṣun‘ından yine
Her dıraḫt-ı ḫâmdan gösterdi bir rûy-ı nigâr
Devlet anlaruñ ki bu es̱nâd'ola gülzârda
Bir elinde câm-ı sâġar bir elinde zülf-i yâr
Geh yañaġından gül ala geh lebinden mül anuñ
Geh miyânını der-âġûş ide geh bûse-kinâr
Gül gibi güldi yine ‘âlem bahâr ile bugün
Ṣûretin keşf eyledi gülzâra beñzer şehriyâr
Ḳadd-i dil-cûsını gördi raḳṣa girdi servler
Aña germ olup çemende ayasın ḳarṣar çenâr
Her gül-endâmuñ hevâsına mey-i câm iç yüri
‘Ārif iseñ furṣatı fevt itme bu dem zînhâr
Didi Mihrî ol güle bencileyin bülbül m'olur
Didi kim ben görürem günde senüñ gibi hezâr

In English

1. The days of spring have come again and every land is adorned; the Creator has decked the horizons of the world with blossoms.

2. See what patterns that Painter has made again with the art of His creation: from every bare, raw tree He has shown the face of a beloved. (God is called the "painter" and what He creates the "pattern"; when the trees that stood dry in winter blossom in spring, each looks like a beloved's face.)

3. Blessed are those who at this time are in the rose garden: in one hand a goblet of wine, in the other the beloved's lock of hair.

4. At times they take a rose from her cheek, at times wine from her lip; at times they clasp her waist, at times they kiss and embrace her. (Bûse-kinâr means kissing and embracing.)

5. The world has laughed like a rose today with spring; the king of the beautiful has unveiled a face that resembles a rose garden. (Şehriyâr here is the beloved, the king of the beautiful; the face like a rose garden is hers. The line can also be understood as the rose garden itself unveiling its face.)

6. The cypresses saw her heart-drawing stature and began to dance; the plane tree, too, in rapture at her, claps its hands on the lawn. (Because plane leaves resemble the palm of a hand, the plane tree is said to clap.)

7. For the love of every rose-bodied beauty, drink wine from the goblet, go on; if you are a person of insight, do not let the opportunity slip at this moment, beware.

8. Mihrî said to that rose: "Could there be a nightingale like me?" The rose said: "Every day I see a thousand such as you." (Hezâr means both "thousand" and "nightingale" in Persian; in the second line both senses are heard together.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal stands fifty-third in the Harfü'r-Râ section of the divan and has eight couplets. It is written in the metre "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif; the rhyme rests on the sound "-âr": diyâr, Kird-gâr, nigâr, yâr, kinâr, şehriyâr, çenâr, zînhâr, hezâr. The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts; manuscript M reads "mi var" in place of "m'olur" in the last couplet. It is not known for whom it was written. Since its subject is the coming of spring, it can be counted among the ghazals devoted to descriptions of spring.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Kaya notes that spring is the season most often treated in divan poetry, that the revival of dead nature in this season, with its coloured flowers and pleasant scents, adorns the poets' imagination. She mentions the opening couplet of this ghazal among her examples of such descriptions of spring. According to the same researcher, in Mihrî's poetry the art of God, as "the Painter", is seen in every leaf in spring. The words "naḳş" (pattern), "naḳḳâş" (painter) and "ṣun‘" (art of creation) in the second couplet express this thought through a congruence of images (tenasüp). That the tree standing bare in winter blossoms in spring and turns into a beloved's face joins the description of nature to the love poem.

The third and fourth couplets describe the pleasure of the spring gathering. Kaya says that the luckiest person in this season is the one with a goblet in one hand and the beloved's lock in the other, that is, one who is together with the beloved. In the fourth couplet, the rose-cheek, wine-lip, waist and kiss listed through the repetition "at times... at times" describe union in a sequence that moves from one line to the next. Between "gül" (rose) and "mül" (wine) there is a pun based on similarity of sound.

In the fifth and sixth couplets nature behaves like a human being: the world laughs like a rose, the cypresses rise to dance, the plane tree claps. Kaya notes that the plane tree is mentioned in poetry because of its hand-shaped leaves, and that when the cypress sways in dance the plane tree is said to clap for it. That the open rose is imagined as a laughing and speaking mouth is also a feature the same researcher points out in connection with the fifth couplet. Personification is plainly visible in these couplets. The seventh couplet is an invitation born of the transience of spring: one who has insight should not miss this moment.

The last couplet is the most striking of the ghazal. The poet puts herself in the place of the nightingale and speaks with the rose in turn. This question-and-answer arrangement, built with the pattern "said... said", gives the couplet the air of a small scene. In the conceit of rose and nightingale, the nightingale is the lover and the rose the beloved. Mihrî thinks herself a lover without equal; the rose says she sees a "hezâr" like her every day. That the word means "thousand" and "nightingale" at the same moment turns the rose's answer into a wordplay: a thousand lovers every day, countless nightingales every day. That a woman poet shows herself in the role of the nightingale, the lover, and that the beloved meets this claim with indifference, closes the ghazal with a subtle mockery.

Bibliography

Online sources