Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yolına cân virmege cânâna gelmişlerdenüz
Ṭâlib-i derd olmışuz dermâna gelmişlerdenüz
Başumı ṭop itmek içün zülfüñüñ çevgânına
‘Aşḳuñuñ meydânına merdâne gelmişlerdenüz
Mihrüñi göñlümde muḥkem ṭutmışam ḥaḳ söylerem
Ṣıdḳ ile Manṣûr-veş urġana gelmişlerdenüz
Gülsitân-ı ḥüsnüñüñ her gûşesinde dostum
Bülbül-i gûyâ olup efġâna gelmişlerdenüz
Gelmişem ḥüsnüñ zekâtından ki şey‘-lillâh idem
Ṣanma bu dervîşi cânâ nâna gelmişlerdenüz
Ey ṭabîb-i dil beni bend eyle dermân vaḳtidür
Zülfüñüñ zencîrine dîvâne gelmişlerdenüz
Şem‘-i ruḫsârına cânânuñ i Mihrî dâ’imâ
Yanalum pervâne-veş çün yana gelmişlerdenüz

In English

1. We are among those who have come to the beloved to give our lives on her path; we have gone after grief, we are among those who have come to the cure (which is grief itself). (For the lover the cure lies within the grief; seeking grief is the same as seeking the cure.)

2. We are among those who have come bravely to the arena of her love, to make our head a ball for the polo stick of her tress. (Çevgân: the curved stick used to strike the ball in the mounted game. Curling hair is likened to this stick, the lover's head to the ball.)

3. I have held your love firm in my heart, I speak the truth; we are among those who, like Mansur, come to the rope (the gallows) in loyalty. (Hallâc-ı Mansûr was hanged for saying "Ana'l-Haqq." The words "I speak the truth" point to him; the rope is the beloved's tress.)

4. My friend, we are among those who have come to cry out as nightingales given voice in every corner of the rose garden of your beauty.

5. I have come to ask for a share from the alms-tax (zakat) of your beauty, "for the sake of God"; O beloved, do not take this dervish for one who has come for bread. (Beauty is thought to have its zakat too; the lover begs from this zakat a glance, a favour.)

6. O physician of the heart, bind me, now is the time for the cure; we are among the madmen who have come to the chain of your tress. (Madmen used to be treated by being put in chains; curling hair is likened to a chain.)

7. Mihrî, let us always burn like moths at the candle of the beloved's cheek; for we are among those who have come to burn.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The sixty-fourth ghazal (gazel) of the divan has seven couplets (beyit) and is composed in the remel metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The rhyme is the sound "-âna, -âne" (cânâna, dermâna, merdâne, urġana, efġâna, nâna, dîvâne, yana), while the redif (refrain word) is a long verbal word, "gelmişlerdenüz" ("we are among those who have come"). A redif this long binds the end of every couplet to the same mould and gives the poem the air of an oath, a declaration. The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts (F 45b, M 64a, S 48a, Ü 42a); the differences among manuscripts consist of small variants such as "zülfüñüñ/zülfinüñ". There is no information about to whom it was addressed.

The redif presents the lovers as a community: "gelmişlerdenüz" means being among those who have come to this road before. In each couplet another face of this community appears: those who come to give their lives, brave men who descend into the arena, those who walk to the gallows like Mansur, nightingales, dervishes, madmen, and finally moths.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet puts grief and cure in the same place. The lover seeks grief, but this seeking leads him to the cure. The opposition between grief and cure is the device of tezat (antithesis); the thought that the pain of love is a remedy for the lover is a paradox frequently worked in divan poetry.

The second couplet rests on the mounted game of çevgân (gûy u çevgân, polo). Gülşen Kaya says that this is the game most used in the divan, that the ball is generally the lover's head and the stick the beloved's crescent eyebrows, tress or sovereignty, and she exemplifies with this couplet the arena where the game is played appearing as the arena of love. Kaya also gives this couplet among the images that express love: love is a field in which the lover makes his head a ball for the polo stick of the beloved's tress. There is a tenasüp (congruence of images) among the words head, ball, polo stick and arena; the word "merdâne" (bravely) stresses the courage of the lover who puts his head at stake.

The third couplet recalls Hallâc-ı Mansûr by the device of telmih (allusion). Kaya says that Mansur's hanging after saying "Ana'l-Haqq" in great love of God is frequently treated in the divan with artful expressions, the lover being likened to Mansur and the tress to the gallows. The same thesis notes that the rope is mentioned by way of the hair likened to the gallows, and that the lover comes without fear to the rope that is the hair, like Mansur who was hanged. The words "ḥaḳ söylerem" in the couplet mean both "I speak the truth" and recall Mansur's "Ana'l-Haqq"; a tevriye (double entendre) is built between these two meanings. The word "mihrüñi" also carries a play of sound between "mihr," meaning love, and the poet's pen name.

The fourth couplet uses the rose and nightingale conceit. The beloved's beauty is a rose garden; the lovers are nightingales singing in every corner of that garden. The compound "bülbül-i gûyâ" (speaking nightingale) hints that the lover's lament has turned into a poem, into speech.

The fifth couplet is built on the image of the dervish. Kaya notes that in the divan of Mihrî Hatun the dervish is the poor person who begs from the beauty of the beloved, who holds wealth and favour, and she gives this couplet as an example. "Şey‘en lillâh" (something for God's sake) is the phrase dervishes say as they go from door to door. The idea of the zakat of beauty equates the beloved's beauty with wealth: just as the rich give the zakat of their property, the beautiful should give the zakat of their beauty with a glance, with a favour. By saying that what he wants is not bread, the lover separates his plea from material begging.

In the sixth couplet the lover likens himself to the madmen. In the old understanding of treatment, madmen were put in chains; the beloved's curling tress is likened to a chain. The lover asks the beloved, the physician of the heart, to bind him, because being bound in the chain of her tress is for him both a punishment and a cure. The words ṭabîb, dermân, dîvâne and zencîr are in tenasüp.

The closing couplet ends with the candle and moth conceit. Kaya notes that in the divan the bright side of the candle (şem‘) is the beloved's cheek, and the moth is the lover and his heart, and she cites this couplet as an example. The verb "to come" in the redif here reaches its plainest meaning: the lovers, like moths, have come in order to burn.

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 84-85, Ghazal 64 (F 45b, M 64a, S 48a, Ü 42a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 26, 49, 109, 142, 166, 240. openaccess.firat.edu.tr