Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sen var iken ey dost baña yâr gerekmez
Cevrüñ çekeyüm ġayri vefâ-dâr gerekmez
Cevrüñ de vefâdur baña derdüñ de devâdur
Bîmâr-ı dile bir daḫi tîmâr gerekmez
Cânâ bu cihân içre vefâ-dâr ṣanemler
Her gûşede gerçi nicesi var gerekmez
Kûyuñda senüñ dâ’imâ ‘uryân olayın tek
Cennetde baña ḥulle vü destâr gerekmez
Pend itme baña yâr içün yarını nâṣiḥ
Yârüm baña pendüñ saña hey var gerekmez
Çeşmüñ beni öldürdi vü sen yoḳ nice dirsin
Ġamzeñ ḫo şehâdet ider inkâr gerekmez
Mest-i mey-i ‘aşḳ ol yüri ‘âlemde i Mihrî
Pes rind ü ḫarâbât olana ‘âr gerekmez

In English

1. O friend, with you present I need no other beloved; let me bear your cruelty, I need no other faithful one.

2. Your cruelty is fidelity to me, and your grief is the cure; a sick heart needs no further care (tîmâr).

3. O soul, in this world faithful beauties are, to be sure, to be found in every corner, many of them; (but) I have no need of them.

4. In your quarter let me always remain naked, that is enough; in paradise I need neither the robe of paradise (ḥulle) nor a turban.

5. O preacher, do not counsel me about tomorrow because of the beloved's face; my beloved is for me, your counsel is for you; go on, off you go, there is no need. ("Tomorrow" here may stand for what will befall the lover, or for the hereafter. The "var" in the rhyme, unlike the "var" in the third couplet, is the imperative of the verb "varmak": "go.")

6. Your eye has killed me, how can you say "no"; your glance itself bears witness, there is no need of denial.

7. O Mihrî, get drunk on the wine of love and walk through the world; one who is a rend (carefree libertine) and has fallen into the tavern needs no shame (âr).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The sixtieth 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 "-âr/-ar" (yâr, vefâ-dâr, tîmâr, var, destâr, inkâr, ‘âr), and the redif (refrain word) is "gerekmez". It shares its metre and redif with the preceding ghazal; in the redif list that Sıtkı Nazik prepared for Mihrî's divan the two appear together. For this ghazal the edition rests on manuscripts M (63a) and Ü (41a); in Havlioğlu's OTAP text it is ghazal 62 and is given from a single manuscript. It is not known to whom it was addressed.

A play on words in the rhyme deserves notice. In the third couplet "var" has its present meaning of "existing" ("nicesi var," "there are many"), while "hey var" in the fifth couplet is the imperative of the verb "varmak": "hey, off you go." The same sound enters the rhyme as two different words.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal continues the thought of the previous ghazal, "when the beloved is present nothing else is needed," this time through the lover's own choices. In the opening couplet no other beloved, no other faithful one, is sought; in the second couplet cruelty turns into fidelity and grief into cure. Gülşen Kaya cites this couplet in her entry on the heart (gönül) and says that, whatever happens, both the grief and the remedy of the sick heart are the beloved, and no one else can help the lover. In the third couplet the lover, knowing full well how many faithful beauties there are, does not turn to them.

The fourth couplet sets worldly and otherworldly blessings face to face. To remain naked in the beloved's quarter (kûy) is preferred to the ḥulle and the destâr (turban) worn in paradise. Kaya notes that in the divan the garment of love worn by the lover is held superior to the robe that shows rank in this world and to the ḥulle worn in paradise; this couplet voices the same preference through the beloved's quarter. The word "‘uryân" (naked) also evokes the state of the dervish stripped of everything material.

In the fifth couplet the familiar type of divan poetry, the nâṣiḥ (counsellor), is confronted and dismissed in a blunt tone: "Yârüm baña pendüñ saña" (my beloved to me, your counsel to you). The sixth couplet is like a courtroom scene. Kaya cites it in her entry on the eye and says that in the divan the eye is thought of as a blood-drinker that kills the lover, and that even if the beloved denies it, the amorous glance (gamze) bears witness. A killer eye, a witness glance, a denying beloved: the couplet is a tenasüp (congruence of images) built from words taken from the language of law (shehâdet, inkâr).

The closing couplet ties in with the type of the rend. Kaya cites this couplet in her entry on the rend and says that there is no "âr" in rends drunk on the wine of love; relying on Mehmet Çavuşoğlu's study of the divan of Necâtî, she adds that this word "âr" is used in the sense of "selfhood." In this reading the couplet says that the rend has freed himself of selfhood rather than of the sense of shame. That a woman poet should address herself with "get drunk, walk on" is among the clearest examples of this rend manner of speech, which appears elsewhere in the divan as well.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 82-83, Ghazal 60 (M 63a, Ü 41a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 54, 154, 207, 244 (entries on the rend, the eye, the heart and the garment of love). 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

  • Mehmet Çavuşoğlu, Necâtî Bey Divânı'nın Tahlili, İstanbul 1971, p. 49 (as cited by Kaya).
  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ġazeliyyât-ı Mihrî-i Ḥaḳîre, OTAP electronic edition, ghazal 62 (text published on the türkoloji-iran page, 2007).

Online sources