Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dâmen-i dilberden olalı başuma tâclıḳ
Ḥamdü-lillah kimseye göstermedüm muḥtâclıḳ
Ruḫları naṭ‘ında şeh-mât olmadan cân oynaram
‘Ālem içre var ise ancaḳ ola Leclâc'lıḳ
Tâcir-i ‘aşḳı olaldan şehr-i dilde her zamân
Ġayriler sîm ile zer ben cân virürem bâclıḳ
Ben kemân-ebrûların göreli ḳurbân olmışam
Ġamzesi tîrine sînem itmişem omâclıḳ
Tâ ebed ẓulmet şebinde ḳalmış idüm dostuñ
Mâh-tâbı ḥüsninüñ ger itmese iḫrâclıḳ
Zehr-i hecriyle helâk olmışdı çoḳdan cân u dil
Luṭf idüp şîrîn lebi ger itmese güllâclıḳ
Bir ġıdâ virmiş durur rûḥına ‘aşḳı Mihrî'nüñ
Görmez ol tâ ḥaşre dek rûy-ı cihânda açlıḳ
Bî-güneh ‘âşıḳları öldürmek ister ẓulm ile
Çeşm-i ḫûn-rîzüñ ki hey di itmesün Ḥaccâc'lıḳ

In English

1. Since the skirt of the beloved became a crown on my head, thanks be to God, I have shown need to no one.

2. I play with my life on the chessboard of her cheeks before I am checkmated (şeh-mât); if there is any mastery of chess in the world, it can only be this. (Ruḫ means both cheek and the rook in chess; Leclâc is the person reputed to have invented chess.)

3. Ever since I became the merchant of her love in the city of the heart, others always pay gold and silver as customs duty, while I pay with my life.

4. Since I saw her bow-like eyebrows I have been a sacrifice; I have made my breast a target (omâc) for the arrow of her glance (ġamze).

5. Had the moonlight of my friend's beauty not brought me out, I would have remained for ever in the dark night.

6. Had her sweet lip not graciously offered a güllaç (a milk dessert of thin starch wafers), my soul and heart would long since have perished of the poison of separation. (Here the güllaç is imagined as an antidote to the poison.)

7. Love has given such nourishment to Mihrî's soul that she will see no hunger on the face of the earth until the Day of Judgement.

8. Say "hey" to your blood-shedding eye, that it should not play the Hajjaj: it wants to kill innocent lovers with cruelty. (Hajjaj ibn Yusuf was a governor of the Umayyad period, famous for his cruelty; his name is used as a symbol of tyranny.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The seventy-eighth ghazal (gazel) of the divan stands in the section Ḥarfü'l-Ḳâf and consists of eight couplets (beyit). It is written in the same metre as the previous ghazal ("Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün"), with the same "-âc" rhyme and "-lıḳ" refrain (tâclıḳ, muḥtâclıḳ, Leclâc'lıḳ, bâclıḳ, omâclıḳ, iḫrâclıḳ, güllâclıḳ, açlıḳ, Ḥaccâc'lıḳ). The opening couplets of the two ghazals are built on the same words "tâclıḳ" and "muḥtâclıḳ," and "açlıḳ" and "Ḥaccâc'lıḳ" are used as rhymes in both. One is a Sufi poem advising the ascetic, the other a love poem praising the beloved; it is striking that the same ground is tried on two different subjects. The ghazal is found only in the Ü manuscript (45a). The couplet containing the pen name (mahlas) is the second from the end; the eighth couplet comes after the pen name. Nothing is known about whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved's skirt becomes a crown on the lover's head. Gülşen Kaya notes that the skirt (dâmen) of the beloved is one of the striking elements in the divan, that holding the skirt, finding bliss in it and not drawing one's hand from that skirt even after death are frequently treated, that the skirt is a symbol of union, and she cites this couplet as an example. The contrast between crown and neediness expresses that attachment to the beloved makes the lover independent of everyone.

The second couplet is the most skilfully constructed couplet of the ghazal. Chess terms are used with two meanings: "ruḫ" is both cheek and the rook in chess; "naṭ‘" is the chessboard; "şeh-mât" is the end of the game; and "cân oynamak" is both to risk one's life and to carry on the game. Kaya notes that in the divan the beloved is described through the double use of chess terms, and that in this couplet too there is a reference to Leclâc, believed to be the inventor of chess. The mention of Leclâc is an allusion (telmih), and the joint use of chess words is the figure of congruence of images (tenasüp).

The third and fourth couplets bring images from the world of trade and archery. The heart is a city, and love is the merchant who comes to that city; others on entering the city pay gold and silver as customs duty (bâc), while the lover pays with her life. Kaya mentions this couplet both in her discussion of merchant and trade and where the heart is likened to a city. In the fourth couplet the eyebrow is likened to a bow and the glance to an arrow; the lover has made her breast the target for that arrow. "Omâc" means the target at which arrows are shot; in Havlioğlu's text it is read "avmâclıḳ."

The fifth and sixth couplets describe two favours that save the lover. The beloved's beauty is moonlight, and it brings the lover out of the endless dark night. Kaya cites this couplet where she says that beauty is thought of as a moonlight that lights the way of the lover left in darkness. In the sixth couplet separation is a poison, and the beloved's sweet lip offers güllaç as an antidote. Kaya notes that of the milk desserts, güllaç occurs in the divan only in this couplet and that it is used for the beloved's lip as an antidote. The contrast between poison and sweetness, and the link that the word "şîrîn" (sweet) makes with güllaç, give the couplet its liveliness.

The closing couplet carries the idea of "hunger" of the previous ghazal to a new meaning. There hunger is a means of disciplining the lower self; here love has given the soul such nourishment that the lover will see no hunger until the Day of Judgement. In the last couplet the beloved's blood-shedding eye is likened to Hajjaj. Kaya says that in one couplet of the divan it is said that the blood-shedding eye, wanting to kill innocent lovers with cruelty, plays the Hajjaj. While in the previous ghazal the ascetic is advised to treat his lower self like Hajjaj, here the same name is directed at the beloved's eye; that the same rhyme word is tied to different things in the two poems makes reading the two ghazals together meaningful.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications (Cultural Works Series 576), 2018, pp. 92-93, Ghazal 78 (only Ü 45a).
  • Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral dissertation, Uludağ University, Balıkesir 1990, pp. 511-512 (ghazal 80 in Gemici).

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat University Institute of Social Sciences, Elazığ 2010, pp. 57, 91, 110, 124 (the fifth couplet is given there under the reference "G. 73-5"), 179, 190, 207, 289. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Books

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ġazeliyyât-ı Mihrî-i Ḥaḳîre, OTAP electronic edition, ghazal 80 (text published on the türkoloji-iran page, 2007).

Online sources