Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Gördi bir mâh-liḳâyı yine sevdi gözümüz
Göz ucından göze göz odlara atduḳ özümüz
Lebi vaṣfından anuñ ṣormaġa ben cân virürem
‘Arż-ı ḥâl itmege lîkin aña döymez yüzümüz
Ruḫı devrinde virür zülfi bize ‘ömr-i dırâz
Feraḥından bir olupdur gicemüz gündüzümüz
Yapışup dâmen-i aġyâra müdârâ iderüz
Nitekim yalvaruruz bir çöpe geçmez sözümüz
‘Aşḳı râhında anuñ ḫâk ile yeksân olalum
Cân mülkin yıḳalum göklere çıḳsun tozumuz
Āsumânîler atar göklere âhum dün ü gün
Berḳ-i âḥumla ‘aceb yanmaz ise yılduzumuz
Ruḫı şem‘ine anuñ Mihrî çü pervânelerüz
Yanalum yaḳılalum bir pula almaz yüzümüz

In English

1. Our eye has again seen a moon-faced one and loved; as we glanced at each other from the corner of the eye, when eye met eye we threw ourselves into the flames.

2. I would give my life to ask about and listen to the beauty of her lip; but our face does not allow us to tell her our grief (we lack the courage, we are ashamed).

3. In the era of her cheek (in this time when her face shines), her tress grants us a long life; for joy our night and our day have become one. (Long black hair is likened to night and to a long life, a bright cheek to day; when the two appear together, night and day are joined.)

4. We cling to the skirts of the rivals and fawn on them; however much we plead, our word counts for not even a straw with them. (According to Kaya the couplet can be understood in two ways: "our word has no effect on the rival, who is worth no more than a straw," or "our word is given not even the value of a straw.")

5. On the road of her love let us become one with the dust; let us ruin the realm of the soul, so that our dust may rise to the heavens.

6. The couplet can be read in two ways: "the people of heaven scatter my sighs to the skies night and day," or "my sigh hurls those in the sky up to the heavens night and day." The second line is clear: it would be astonishing if our star (our star of fortune) were not burnt by the lightning of my sigh.

7. Mihrî, since we are moths to the candle of her cheek, let us burn and be burnt; our face would not be bought for a farthing anyway (we have no worth in anyone's eyes).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The sixty-second ghazal (gazel) of the divan has seven couplets (beyit) and is composed in the remel metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün". The ghazal is in the section Ḥarfü'z-Zâ, where the poems ending in the letter "z" are collected in the divan. The rhyme is built from Turkish words ending in "z" (göz, öz, yüz, gündüz, söz, toz, yıldız), while the redif (refrain word) is the first person plural possessive suffix "-ümüz, -umuz". The rhyme "yüzümüz" is used twice, in the second and the seventh couplet, but in the first with the sense of shame in the idiom "yüzü tutmamak" and in the second with the sense of worth and standing. The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts (F 45a, M 63b, S 47b, Ü 41b); among the manuscripts there are only a few small differences of spelling. There is no information about to whom it was addressed.

A striking feature of the poem is that its vocabulary is largely Turkish. Short native rhyme words such as göz, öz, yüz, söz and toz, expressions close to the spoken language such as "göz ucından göze göz," and idioms such as "bir çöpe geçmez sözümüz" and "bir pula almaz" give the ghazal a plain voice, unlike poems loaded with Persian compounds. Although the lover says "I" in two places, in most of the poem he speaks as "we"; this plural voice brought by the redif gives the words the air of being spoken on behalf of a community of lovers.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on the repetition of the word "eye": our eye, the corner of the eye, eye to eye. This repetition gives the scene of the exchange of glances step by step: first a sight from afar, then a sidelong look, and at last eye meeting eye. The end of the exchange of glances is fire; "odlara atduḳ özümüz" says that love is a blaze entered of one's own will.

The third couplet uses a well-known comparison of divan poetry. Hair, by its length and blackness, is likened to night and to a long life, and the cheek, by its brightness, to day. By calling the length of the hair "‘ömr-i dırâz" (long life), the poet turns the comparison into a favour: the beloved's hair grants the lover life. That face and hair are seen together means that night and day are joined; the word "devr" evokes both time and, in the sense of turning around, the roundness of the face. The contrast between night and day is an example of tezat (antithesis), and the sequence hair, cheek, night, day is an example of tenasüp (congruence of images).

The fourth couplet describes the relation with the rivals. The lover is ready to cling to the skirts of the rivals and to flatter them in order to reach the beloved, but achieves nothing. Gülşen Kaya gives this couplet among the examples in which the rival is called a "straw" (çöp) and notes that the line can be understood both as "our word has no effect on the rival, who is worth no more than a straw" and as "our word is not given even the value of a straw." The skill of the couplet is that the idiom works in both directions at once.

In the fifth couplet the soul is likened to a realm ("cân mülki"). Kaya says that the realm of the soul is treated in the divan as something to be sacrificed on the beloved's road, and cites this couplet as an example. The lover wishes to ruin this realm with his own hand so that its dust may rise to the heavens; the contrast between becoming one with the earth ("ḫâk ile yeksân") and dust rising to the skies hints that abasement is a kind of exaltation.

The sixth couplet is an exaggerated example of the sigh (âh) conceit. Kaya notes that in the divan the sigh, because of its violence, is imagined as lightning, and that this lightning is expected to burn the lover's star of fortune. There is a tenasüp between the words sky and star and berk (lightning); since the lover's sigh is shown to be great enough to fill the sky, the device of mübalağa (hyperbole) also comes to the fore.

The closing couplet turns to candle and moth, the best known pair of divan poetry. The cheek is the candle, and the lovers are moths that circle it and burn. The doublet "yanalum yaḳılalum" expresses consent to burning oneself; the idiom that follows, "bir pula almaz yüzümüz," says that burning away will not be counted a loss, since the lover is held worthless anyway. Thus the ghazal begins with the fire of the first couplet and closes with the candle of the last.

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 83-84, Ghazal 62 (F 45a, M 63b, S 47b, Ü 41b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 218, 226, 248. openaccess.firat.edu.tr