Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ûlün

Benden çevürür yüzini cânân ne ḳolaysuz
Meyl itmedügi ḳulına sulṭân ne ḳolaysuz
‘Āşıḳları bir bûsesine cân vire her dem
Aġyâr ile ol ṣarıla ‘uryân ne ḳolaysuz
Derdâ vü dirîġâ kişinüñ sevgülü yâri
Yanından ıraġ olduġı bir ân ne ḳolaysuz
Sâ‘illerine virmeye hiç ḥüsni zekâtın
Yâdlara ḳıla luṭf ile iḥsân ne ḳolaysuz
Buyurmuş iken aṣmaġa ol yâr raḳîbi
Aṣılmadan it üzile urġan ne ḳolaysuz
Öldüriser âḫir ġam-ı hicrân seni Mihrî
Yâr itmez ise derdüñe dermân ne ḳolaysuz

In English

1. The beloved turns her face from me; how unseemly. That the sultan should feel no inclination toward his own slave is how improper.

2. That lovers should give their lives at every moment for one kiss of hers while she embraces strangers (rivals) naked; how unseemly.

3. Alas, what a pity: for a person to be parted from the beloved she loves, even for a moment, how hard, how unbearable. (In this couplet the redif comes closer to "hard, hopeless" than to "improper".)

4. That she should never give the alms of her beauty to those who beg of her, yet bestow favours on strangers with kindness; how unseemly. (Beauty is imagined as a wealth and the lover as a poor man waiting for its alms.)

5. When that beloved had ordered the rival hanged, that the rope should snap before the dog was hanged; what ill luck. (The rival is likened to a dog; the snapping of the rope is his escape from punishment.)

6. Mihrî, the grief of separation will kill you in the end; if the beloved does not make a remedy for your pain, what a hopeless state.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The fifty-fifth ghazal of the divan has six couplets and, like the previous ghazal, is written in the hezec metre in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ûlün". The rhyme is the sound "-ân" (cânân, sulṭân, ‘uryân, ân, iḥsân, urġan, dermân), and the redif (refrain word) is again "ne ḳolaysuz". These two ghazals, written one after the other in the same metre and redif, appear together (G.54, G.55) in the list of redifs that Sıtkı Nazik prepared for Mihrî's divan; the first, with the rhyme "-er", and the second, with the rhyme "-ân", continue the same reproach. The edition rests on manuscripts M (64b) and Ü (40a); in Havlioğlu's OTAP text it is given from a single manuscript as ghazal 57, and there the last couplet is mistakenly printed with the number 5. It is not known for whom it was written.

The word "ḳolaysuz" in the redif works in two different tones in this ghazal. In the first, second and fourth couplets it is the reproach "how unseemly" directed at the beloved's behaviour; in the third and sixth couplets it says that separation and helplessness are "how hard, how hopeless" a state. This difference has been kept in the rendering.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet likens the beloved to a sultan and the lover to his slave. That the sultan turns his face from his slave is the order of things running in reverse; all the couplets of the ghazal list this reversed order. The second couplet draws one of the harshest scenes in the divan: while lovers give their lives for a kiss, the beloved embraces strangers, "‘uryân", that is, naked. In the texts of Gemici and Havlioğlu the line is read as "Aġyârla ol ṣarıla"; the meaning does not change.

The conceit of the "zakat of beauty" in the fourth couplet is illustrated with this couplet in two separate places in Gülşen Kaya's thesis. According to Kaya, beauty is imagined as property on which alms-tax is due; the beloved is rich in beauty, the lover a beggar for her beauty. The beloved gives her zakat not to the needy but to one who has no need. In the couplet the words "sâ’il" (beggar) and "zekât" (alms-tax), "luṭf" (kindness) and "iḥsân" (benefaction) form two series that complete one another (tenasüp); carrying a religious ruling into the language of love adds a light mockery to the complaint.

The fifth couplet rests on the divan convention of likening the rival to a dog. The beloved has ordered the rival hanged, but the rope snaps before the dog is hanged. In her entry on the rival, Kaya lists couplets in the divan that mention the rival as a dog and say the beloved should deem him worthy of a rope put around his neck rather than of her hair; this couplet is another example of the same mocking attitude. In the grave air of the ghazal the scene stands like a brief moment of humour. In the pen-name couplet the poet addresses herself and says that the grief of separation is deadly and that the remedy can come only from the beloved. Here the redif leaves the tone of reproach and turns into a sigh meaning "what a hopeless state".

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 79-80, Gazel 55 (M 64b, Ü 40a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral dissertation, Uludağ Üniversitesi, Balıkesir 1990 (comparative text of the ghazal, ghazal 57).

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, p. 42, 125, 246 (entries on zakat, the zakat of beauty, and rival and dog). openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Sıtkı Nazik, "Benzer Redifli Şiirleri Bağlamında Mihrî Hatun ve Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi'nin Karşılaştırılması", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya 2017, p. 137 (table of redifs in Mihrî's divan: "ne kolaysuz", G.54, G.55).

Books

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ġazeliyyât-ı Mihrî-i Ḥaḳîre, OTAP electronic edition, ghazal 57 (text published on the türkoloji-iran page, 2007).

Online sources