Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Neyledüm nitdüm günâhum bilmezem bu ben ġarîb
Gördügince yüz çevürür yüzime baḳmaz ḥabîb
Gâh ki bir göz ucıyla merḥabâ eylerdi yâr
Yine beñzer ki araya fitne bıraḳdı raḳîb
Cân ża‘îf oldı firâḳuñdan meded ḳıl dostum
Ḫaste-dil derdine luṭf it gel ‘ilâc it ey ṭabîb
Zülfüñüñ çengâline urma raḳîbi ḫışm idüp
Hey bu bir kelb-i la‘îndür ṭaḳ bunuñ boynına ip
Ṭâli‘uñ yoḳdur güzellerden i Mihrî çâre ne
Ḳısmet-i rûz-ı ezelde saña bu olmış naṣîb

In English

1. What have I done, what have I committed? I do not know my fault, I, this poor stranger. Whenever the beloved sees me she turns her face away and does not look at me.

2. From time to time the beloved used to greet me with the corner of her eye. It appears that the rival has again sown discord between us.

3. My friend, my soul has grown weak from your separation; help me. O physician, come and, showing favour, find a medicine for the pain of the sick heart.

4. Do not, in anger, hang the rival on the hook of your hair. He is an accursed dog; put a rope round his neck. (The curled ends of hair are likened to a hook. Since hanging the rival on the hair would give him the honour of being close to the beloved, the lover says that his place is the rope round his neck.)

5. O Mihrî, you have no luck with the beautiful; what is to be done? On the day of pre-eternity this share was written for you. (Rûz-ı ezel means the beginningless time when God decreed the destiny of all things.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The seventh ghazal of the divan is the only ghazal of the Harfü'l-Bâ section, which holds the poems ending in the letter "be", and has five couplets. It is written in the pattern "Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün" of the remel metre. The poem has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-îb": ġarîb, ḥabîb, raḳîb, ṭabîb, naṣîb. The word "ip" at the end of the fourth couplet does not fit this series exactly in sound; in the edition the text is given in this form. The ghazal is in all four manuscripts. For whom it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem shows together the three basic persons of divan poetry: the lover from whom a face is turned away, the beloved who turns her face away without cause, and the rival who spoils things between the two. The words "Neyledüm nitdüm" (what have I done, what have I committed) in the first couplet come from spoken language and give the lover's bewilderment in a sincere voice. The rhyme words each correspond to one of these persons: the lover is ġarîb (a stranger, wretched), the beloved ḥabîb (friend), the rival raḳîb, the beloved is at the same time ṭabîb (physician), and the lover's fate is called naṣîb (share). Thus the series of rhymes in itself summarizes the story of the poem.

In the second couplet the beloved's former "greeting with the corner of the eye" is remembered. This small sign is a favour to the lover, and the reason for its loss is the rival's discord. In the third couplet the familiar divan relationship of physician and patient is set up: the lover is sick with separation and her physician is the beloved. Kaya cites this couplet among the places where the beloved is mentioned as the sole cure and sole physician of the sick lover and of her heart. That the one who gives the pain and the one who would give the medicine are the same person adds a bitter irony to the couplet.

The fourth couplet is the harshest and liveliest of the poem. The beloved's curled hair is likened to a hook, and lovers are imagined as hearts caught on this hook. If the beloved, in anger, hangs the rival on this hook, she may think she is punishing him, but in fact she gives him the privilege of being close to her own hair. For this reason the lover says that what befits the rival is a rope put round his neck, and calls him "kelb-i la'în", that is, an accursed dog. Kaya notes that the rival is likened to a dog in the divan by such features as never leaving the beloved's door and being regarded as accursed and ill-omened, and she summarizes the meaning of this couplet as "the beloved should not, in anger, hang the rival, who is an accursed dog, on her hair; what he deserves is a rope put round his neck". That the verb "to hang" evokes both fastening something somewhere and executing adds a second layer of meaning to the couplet.

In the last couplet the lover ties her own ill luck to fate. She has not been lucky with the beautiful, and this is the share set aside for her on the day of pre-eternity. In divan poetry "rûz-ı ezel" rests on the idea that destiny was written before creation; the lover's misfortune is therefore presented as something that cannot be changed. The lover who in the first couplet says she does not know her fault completes her speech in the last couplet by tying what has befallen her to a share written in pre-eternity.

Bibliography

Online sources