Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün
Gören görmiş vefâsın bu kerîmüñ
Süren sürmiş ṣafâsın bu kerîmüñ
İrişdük biz de âḫir meyyitine
Hele ḳılduḳ du‘âsın bu kerîmüñ
İrüp ‘uşşâḳuñ âhı ḳıl ḳalmış
‘Aceb bozmış liḳâsın bu kerîmüñ
Bile yanup yaḳılup aġlayaydum
Bulaydum mübtelâsın bu kerîmüñ
İ Mihrî şimdi saña ḥiṣṣe yoḳdur
Gören görmiş ṣafâsın bu kerîmüñ
İ Mihrî sâde-rû olsaydı yüz yıl
Çeker idüm cefâsın bu kerîmüñ
In English
1. Whoever has seen the faithfulness of this generous one has seen it; whoever has spent time in pleasure with him has spent it.
2. We too finally reached his dead body; at least we said a prayer for this generous one. (This alludes to the funeral prayer and the prayer recited after a death.)
3. When the sighs of the lovers reached him, only a hair was left; strangely, it has spoiled the face of this generous one. (The couplet can be read in two ways: through the idiom "kıl kalmak" it could also be taken to mean "because of the lovers' sighs, he came within a hair of death"; but the phrase "spoiled his face" and the last couplet suggest that the hairs are the down that grows on the face, that is, the beard.)
4. If only I too had wept along with him, burning and being burned; if only I had found one of this generous one's devotees (to mourn with).
5. O Mihrî, you have no share left now; whoever has seen the pleasure of this generous one has seen it.
6. O Mihrî, had he stayed smooth-faced for a hundred years, I would have borne this generous one's cruelty for a hundred years.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The eighty-first ghazal of the Divan has six couplets and is written in the hezec metre of the aruz, in the pattern "Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün". Its redif is "bu kerîmüñ" (of this generous one) and its rhyme is the sound "-âsın" (vefâsın, ṣafâsın, du‘âsın, liḳâsın, mübtelâsın, cefâsın). The poem is found only in the M manuscript. An unusual feature of the ghazal is that the pen name occurs in two couplets: both the fifth and the sixth begin with the address "İ Mihrî". The second line of the fifth couplet repeats almost exactly the first line of the first couplet, "Gören görmiş ṣafâsın"; this repetition gives the poem the air of an elegiac refrain. It is not known whom the ghazal was written for.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
On a first reading the ghazal is an elegy. "Kerîm" means a generous, noble, open-handed person, and it is repeated in the redif of every couplet. In the second couplet the speaker says that he reached this generous one's "meyyit", that is, his dead body, and that he at least said a prayer for him. Gülşen Kaya reads the ghazal this way too, presenting it as a poem in which Mihrî speaks of the death of someone she calls "kerîm". The line "Bile yanup yaḳılup aġlayaydum" (if only I had wept along with him, burning and being burned) in the fourth couplet sustains the mood of mourning.
Yet the third and sixth couplets show that the ghazal is open to a second reading. In the third couplet, when the sighs of the lovers reach him, "ḳıl ḳalmış" (a hair remains) and this has spoiled the face (liḳâ) of the generous one. In the sixth, Mihrî says that if this beauty had stayed "sâde-rû" for a hundred years she would have borne his cruelty for a hundred years. "Sâde-rû" means a youth on whose face no down has yet grown. As Kaya shows, in Mihrî's Divan the down on the face (ḫaṭ) is likened to a cloud covering the moon-like face, and the lover's sigh is likened to a cloud covering the beloved's face. Here too the lovers' sighs have reached the face and left "hair" behind; the beloved's face has grown hairy and its former beauty is spoiled. Seen this way, the words "meyyit" and "du‘â" can be read as parts of a playful elegy for the death of beauty rather than for a real death. That the words work in two senses at once brings the couplets close to double entendre (tevriye). The text does not say which of the two readings is meant; both meanings stand within the poem.
The figure that stands out in the ghazal is tekrir, repetition. "Gören görmiş" and "süren sürmiş" are built twice with the same structure in the first couplet, and the same expression returns in the fifth. These repetitions strengthen the feeling that a period has passed: those who saw this beauty's faithfulness and delight have seen them, while for Mihrî no "ḥiṣṣe", no share, remains. The arrangement of "vefâ", "ṣafâ", "cefâ" and "du‘â" in the same sound pattern also carries the harmony of the poem through the rhyme.
Bibliography
- Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 94-95, Ghazal 81 (M 74b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
- Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 35, 146, 227. openaccess.firat.edu.tr
