Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün

Sen rûḥ-ı revân ey Ḫân dil-mürdeme cân ancaḳ
Gül-ruḫlaruñuñ şevḳi gün gibi ‘ayân ancaḳ
Lâle ḫadüñi bülbül gülşende görüp eydür
‘Ālemde gül-i ter çoḳ bu ġonca-dehân ancaḳ
Yaylañ ile ḥüsnüñi her kim göre dir şâhâ
Kendüsi durur ġılmân yaylaḳı cinân ancaḳ
Meylüm sañadur ḫânum ḳurbân yoluña cânum
Gerçegi sözümüñ bu ġayrısı yalan ancaḳ
İtüñle işigüñde çün her gice hem-demdür
‘İzzet ise Mihrî'ye yeter bu hemân ancaḳ
Ne vaḳt-i feraḥ-devrân ‘âlem bu deme ḥayrân
Biñ câna deger bir ân ne ḫoşça zamân ancaḳ

In English

1. O Khan, you are the flowing spirit; for my dead heart you alone are life. The longing for your rose-cheeks is as plain as the sun. (The Ü manuscript reads "ey cân" (O soul) in place of "ey Ḫân.")

2. Seeing your tulip-like cheek in the rose garden, the nightingale says: there are many fresh roses in the world, but this bud-mouthed one is unique.

3. O king, whoever sees you with your summer pasture and your beauty says: he himself is a youth of paradise (ġılmân), and his pasture is none other than paradise. (The M manuscript reads "yaylası" in place of "yaylaḳı"; the meaning does not change.)

4. My inclination is toward you, my lady (my lord, my sovereign); may my life be sacrificed on your path. This is the truth of my words; anything else is only a lie.

5. Since Mihrî is every night a companion and friend to your dog at your threshold, this alone is enough for her as honour. (To be a companion of the dog at the door of the beloved or master is, in divan poetry, an expression of the most humble devotion.)

6. What a time of joyful revolution this is; the world is amazed at this moment. One instant is worth a thousand lives; what a pleasant time it is.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The seventy-ninth ghazal (gazel) of the divan has six couplets (beyit) and is written in the hezec foot of aruz (quantitative metre) in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlün." This pattern divides each line into two equal halves; accordingly, the lines "Meylüm sañadur ḫânum / ḳurbân yoluña cânum" in the fourth couplet and "Ne vaḳt-i feraḥ-devrân / ‘âlem bu deme ḥayrân" in the sixth also rhyme within themselves. The redif (refrain word) of the ghazal is "ancaḳ," and the rhyme is the sound "-ân" (cân, ‘ayân, dehân, cinân, yalan, hemân, zamân). The poem is found in only two manuscripts, M and Ü. In the M manuscript the heading appears only as "Muvaşşaḥ"; Arslan's edition gives the heading as "Muvaşşaḥ Be-İsm-i Süleymân," that is, "a muvashshah in the name of Süleymân."

The muvashshah (muvaşşah) is the art in divan poetry of forming a hidden name or phrase with letters placed at the beginning, middle or end of couplets or lines; today it is called an acrostic. According to Mehmet Arslan's study of Mihrî's artful compositions, in this ghazal the initial letter of the first word of each couplet gives, in Arabic script, the letters sîn (Sen), lâm (Lâle), yâ (Yaylañ), mîm (Meylüm), elif (İtüñle) and nûn (Ne) in turn; placed side by side they read the name "Süleymân." Arslan notes that there are three muvashshahs in the divan: the second kaside, written for Bayezid II, which yields from the initials of its couplets the prayer "Sulṭân Bâyezîd Edâmallâhu ‘Ömrehû" (may God prolong the life of Sultan Bayezid), a kaside in the name of Prince Ahmed, and this ghazal. To cover a six-letter name fully in a short ghazal of six couplets is a constraint that fixes the number of couplets in advance; that the ghazal stays within the usual number of couplets is noteworthy for this reason.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a text in which praise and love poem are interwoven. The person addressed is called "Ḫân," "şâh" and "ḫânum"; these words suit both the way in divan poetry the beloved is called the ruler of the land of beauty and the fact that the poem was really written to a member of a ruling family. In the first couplet "rûḥ-ı revân" (flowing, walking spirit) is set against "dil-mürde" (one whose heart is dead): the person praised is the only being that gives life to the dead heart. In the same couplet the cheeks' being as plain as "the sun" brings rose and sun together and joins images of light and colour.

In the second couplet the word is given to the nightingale. The nightingale, seeing a tulip-like cheek in the rose garden, says that there are many fresh roses in the world but there is only one "bud-mouthed" one. The words tulip, rose, bud and nightingale belong to the same garden, and the couplet is built on this congruence of images (tenasüp). Gülşen Kaya notes that the tulip is mostly likened to the cheek in the divan and shows this couplet among the examples of this use.

The third couplet turns on the word "yayla" (summer pasture). The person praised is seen with the pasture and with beauty; whoever sees him likens himself to the serving youths of paradise (gılmân) and the pasture to paradise. Kaya says that, owing to Mihrî's being a woman poet, in some couplets the beloved is likened not to a houri but to a gılmân, and she cites this couplet as an example. In Mihrî's divan there is also a separate murabba that describes Lâdik as a summer pasture where the princes' summer palace stood; where the pasture in this ghazal is, however, is not said.

The fourth couplet is the plainest and most direct word of the ghazal: "My inclination is toward you, my life a sacrifice on your path; this is the truth of my words, the rest is lies." In the fifth couplet the poet mentions her own name and draws a picture of complete humility. To spend the night at the threshold with the dog rests on the conceit in divan poetry that even the dog at the door is counted nearer than the lover; Mihrî presents this condition as an "‘izzet," that is, an honour, that is enough for her. The last couplet ties the praise to a time: "feraḥ-devrân," a joyful age. Kaya notes that in this couplet the aim is to praise the person's time and to stress that it is an age of relief and happiness. The saying "one instant is worth a thousand lives" forms a congruence of images with the words ân and zamân in the couplet.

Historical Context

Arslan's e-book edition does not explain who the Süleyman is whose name is hidden in the ghazal. Basing herself on the introduction of Arslan's edition printed in Amasya in 2007, Gülşen Kaya writes that in the last years of her life Mihrî took part in the gatherings of Prince Süleyman, son of Prince Ahmed, and presented to him three kasides (kasides 14, 15 and 16) and three ghazals. According to Kaya, one of these ghazals is this muvashshah, and the poem tells of the prince's beauty and of Mihrî's love for him. The other two are ghazal 150, which describes a musical gathering held in the prince's hilltop pavilion at Eğribük, one of the villages of Amasya, and ghazal 205, in which the name is hidden by ebced reckoning.

That there was a Süleyman among the sons of Prince Ahmed, that this prince served as sanjak governor between 1509 and 1513, and that after the struggle for the throne in 1513 he passed to Egypt and died there are recorded in some sources. If the ghazal is accepted as written to this Süleyman, the poem must belong to the last period of Mihrî's life; no date is given in the ghazal, and the year of its composition cannot be established from documents. It is also consistent with the prince's young age, the gılmân comparison in the couplets, and epithets such as "bud-mouthed," which suit a young beauty.

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. 93-94, Ghazal 79 (M 73a, Ü 45a).

Academic studies

  • Mehmet Arslan, "Mihrî Hâtun Divanı'nda Sanatlı Manzumeler", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya 2017, pp. 25-30.
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat University Institute of Social Sciences, Elazığ 2010, pp. 31, 60-61, 78-79, 263, 286. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Other sources

  • "Şehzade Ahmed (son of Bayezid II)", Wikipedia (based on Nevin Zeynep Yelçe, The Making of Sultan Süleyman, 2009). en.wikipedia.org

Online sources