Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Ruḫuñ envârı şevḳinden ṭolupdur bu cihân âteş
Vücûdum mülkini yaḳsa ‘aceb mi her zamân âteş
Yaḳup ‘aşḳuñ odın sînemde dâ’im ṣaḳlaram cânâ
Anuñçün ḫâne-i dilde yanar her dem nihân âteş
Firâḳuñla viṣâlüñle dil-i mehcûr ey dilber
Olur her nâr bir gülşen olur her gülsitân âteş
İlâhî gülşen-i ḥüsnin gözüm yaşıyla sen ṣaḳla
Ṭolupdur gerçi âhumdan zemîn ü âsumân âteş
Çıḳar cân raḫtını şehr-i bedenden Mihrî dil-ḫaste
Fedâ ḳıl yâr yolında k'ider nâ-geh ziyân âteş

In English

1. This world is filled with fire from the longing born of the radiance of your cheek; would it be surprising if this fire always burned the realm of my being?

2. O beloved, I light the fire of your love in my breast and always keep it hidden; therefore a secret fire burns at every moment in the house of the heart.

3. O beauty, through your separation and your union, for the heart that has fallen far from you every fire becomes a rose garden and every rose garden a fire. (In union the fire turns into a rose garden, in separation the rose garden turns into fire. There is an allusion to the story of the fire into which the Prophet Abraham was cast turning into a rose garden.)

4. O God, protect the rose garden of her beauty with my tears; for from my sigh the earth and the sky are filled with fire. (It is asked that the tears water and protect the garden of beauty, lest the fire of the sigh burn it.)

5. O Mihrî, sick of heart, take the goods of your soul out of the city of the body and sacrifice them on the beloved's path; for fire does harm suddenly. (Like one who saves his belongings from a city on fire, the lover should dedicate his soul to the beloved before the fire of love destroys him.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The sixty-sixth ghazal (gazel) of the divan has five couplets (beyit) and is composed in the hezec metre of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün". The rhyme is the sound "-ân" (cihân, zamân, nihân, gülsitân, âsumân, ziyân), and the redif (refrain word) is "âteş". It is in the section Ḥarfü'ş-Şın, where the poems ending in the letter "ş" are collected in the divan. The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts (F 47b, M 67a, S 49b, Ü 42b); among the manuscripts the only difference is "mehcûr/mehcûrı" in the third couplet. There is no information about to whom it was addressed.

In describing how widely fire is worked in the divan, Gülşen Kaya also notes that fire is the redif of a ghazal and gives this ghazal as the example. According to Kaya's summary, a relation between love and fire is set up in the poem: the fire of love lights the house of the heart, with union every flame turns into a rose, and with the fire of the sigh earth and sky are filled. According to the table in Sıtkı Nazik's study comparing the redifs of Mihrî Hatun with those of her contemporary from Amasya, Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi, the redif "âteş" is used also in a kaside (qasida) in Cafer Çelebi's divan (K.24); Nazik does not compare these two poems separately.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The redif shows a different fire in each couplet, and this builds the order of the ghazal. In the first couplet the fire is the light spreading from the beloved's cheek, and it has filled the whole world; since the lover's body is a part of this world, his burning is not counted as surprising. The compound "vücûdum mülki" (the realm of my being) meets "şehr-i beden" (the city of the body) in the fifth couplet; the poet thinks of the body as a place burning from end to end.

In the second couplet the fire is hidden. Kaya says that in the divan the heart is imagined as a house in which the lover lives and in which at times the beloved's image is a guest, and that the fire that warms this house is the fire of love; she gives this couplet as an example. The same thesis cites the couplet also in the section where the fire of love is described as an element that lights the house of the heart and is the lover's most precious treasure. The words "ṣaḳlaram" (I keep) and "nihân" (hidden) stress secrecy twice: the fire of love is one that does not spill out but burns within.

The third couplet is the most artful couplet of the ghazal. In the first line separation is mentioned first and then union; in the second line the fire turning into a rose garden is mentioned first and then the rose garden turning into fire. Union turns the fire into a garden, separation turns the garden into fire; that is, the order in the second line is the reverse of that in the first. The giving of related concepts in mixed order is an example of the device of leff ü neşr (enumeration followed by distribution). Kaya notes that in this couplet an allusion is made to the event of the fire into which the Prophet Abraham was cast turning into a rose garden. The antithesis between nâr (fire) and the words gülşen and gülsitân (rose garden) builds the couplet like a cycle.

The fourth couplet is a prayer. The lover says that with the fire of his sigh he has filled earth and sky, and asks God to protect the beloved's garden of beauty with his own tears. Sigh and tears are two opposed elements, like fire and water; where the lover's sigh could burn the garden, his tears protect it. The antithesis between zemîn and âsumân (earth and sky) and the sigh's filling the whole universe are examples of mübalağa (hyperbole).

In the closing couplet the poet addresses herself as "Mihrî dil-ḫaste" (Mihrî, sick of heart). Kaya gives this couplet among the conceptions concerning the body: the body is a house and a city in which the soul and heart dwell; the lover's heart is sick, and the fever of this sickness is the fire of love and separation, which burns the city of the body; therefore the city must be emptied and the soul's possessions taken out of it. The word "raḫt" means the traveller's goods, his load; the state of one who saves his belongings from a city seized by fire is likened to the lover who dedicates his soul to the beloved's path. The word "nâ-geh" (suddenly) also reminds that fire can do harm at an unexpected moment, and so counsels haste.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 86, Ghazal 66 (F 47b, M 67a, S 49b, Ü 42b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 17, 205, 216, 239, 273. 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, pp. 133-148 (redif tables, pp. 136-137).

Online sources