Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sensüz ṣanemâ cismüme bu cânı gerekmez
Cânum sen imişsin baña cân ânı gerekmez
Gülzâr-ı ḫadüñsüz baña ey cân-ı cihânum
Firdevs-i cinânı gül-i ḫandânı gerekmez
Dişüñ var iken lü‘lü ü mercânı niderler
La‘lün var iken çeşme-i ḥayvânı gerekmez
Derdüñ yeter ey dost benüm derdüme emsem
Dil-ḫasteñe cânâ daḫi dermânı gerekmez
Ḫaddüñ ile ḳaddüñ ü ruḫuñ var iken ey dost
Serv ü semen ü lâle vü reyḥânı gerekmez
Cânânuñı terk it didi cânuñ gerek ise
Mihrî didi cânânı gerek cânı gerekmez
Öldürmek ise ey dost raḳîbi yeter ancaḳ
Ol kelb-i la‘înüñ bir avuç ḳanı gerekmez

In English

1. O idol-like beauty, without you my body has no need of this soul; it turns out you are my soul, and I have no need of that (other) one.

2. O soul of my world, without the rose garden of your cheek I have no need of Firdaws among the gardens of paradise, nor of the laughing rose.

3. What would people do with pearls and coral when they have your teeth; with your lip, the ruby, there is no need of the spring of the water of life. (The lip is "la‘l," the red ruby, and because it grants life it is held equal to the water of immortality.)

4. O friend, your grief is enough as a remedy for my grief; O soul, your sick-hearted one needs no other cure.

5. O friend, with your cheek, your stature and your face, there is no need of cypress, jasmine, tulip or basil.

6. "If you want your life, abandon your beloved," it said; Mihrî said, "I need the beloved; I do not need life."

7. O friend, if killing is your aim, killing the rival is enough; a handful of that accursed dog's blood is not worth shedding. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the rival's blood is so worthless that there is no harm in spilling it, or there is no need to stain the beloved's sword with it.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The fifty-ninth ghazal (gazel) of the divan has seven couplets (beyit) and is composed in the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ûlün". The rhyme is the sound "-ânı" (cânı, cinânı, ḫandânı, ḥayvânı, dermânı, reyḥânı, ḳanı), and the redif (refrain word) is "gerekmez". In the opening couplet the rhyme is built between "cânı" and "cân ânı"; "cân ânı" (that soul) in the second line repeats in sound the "cânı" of the first line. The same redif "gerekmez" is used in ghazal 60, which follows immediately; in Mihrî's redif list Sıtkı Nazik records the two ghazals together (G.59, G.60). The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts (F 46a, M 65a, S 48b, Ü 40b); in Havlioğlu's OTAP text it is ghazal 61. It is not known to whom it was addressed.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Each couplet of the ghazal says the same thought from another side: when the beloved is present, nothing that could take the beloved's place is needed. The opening couplet carries this thought to its extreme; even the soul is not needed, because the lover's true soul is the beloved. Gülşen Kaya cites this couplet at the head of the examples in which the beloved is called "cân" (soul), and says that the word is used to express the beloved's worth because the soul is the sole reason for a person's existence.

The second, third and fifth couplets weigh the elements of beauty against their counterparts in nature and place them above these. The cheek is the rose garden and leaves no need of the garden of paradise; the tooth is worth more than the pearl, the lip more than the water of life. In the third couplet pearl and coral, and la‘l (ruby) and çeşme-i ḥayvân (the spring of the water of life), form two complementary series. In manuscript Ü the first line of this couplet reads like a repetition of its second line. In the fifth couplet cheek, stature and face are listed, and set against them are cypress, jasmine, tulip and basil. Kaya cites this couplet as an example in the section where she lists the elements of the beloved's beauty, and says that the beloved's cheek smells of jasmine, her stature is a cypress, and her face smells of tulip and basil. The reciprocal pairing of the things listed in the first line with the things compared in the second recalls the device of leff ü neşr (enumeration followed by distribution).

In the fourth couplet grief and cure change places: the grief the beloved gives is the remedy for the lover's grief. This thought, frequent in divan poetry, appears again in the second couplet of ghazal 60 ("Cevrüñ de vefâdur baña derdüñ de devâdur"). The sixth couplet is a small scene of conversation. Someone says "if you want your life, abandon the beloved," and Mihrî answers "I need the beloved, I do not need life." The closeness of root and sound between "cân" and "cânân" (iştikak, derivation) carries the whole weight of the couplet and restates the thought of the opening couplet in the form of a reply. The last couplet departs from the general mood of the ghazal and turns to the rival; here too the rival is the "kelb-i la‘în", the accursed dog.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 81-82, Ghazal 59 (F 46a, M 65a, S 48b, Ü 40b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 128, 133 (elements of the beloved's beauty; entries on cân and tabîb). 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: "gerekmez", G.59, G.60).

Books

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ġazeliyyât-ı Mihrî-i Ḥaḳîre, OTAP electronic edition, ghazal 61 (text published on the türkoloji-iran page, 2007).

Online sources