Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bu maḳâmuñ ismini gerçi dimişler Göynicek
Dillere virür ḥayât âb-ı revânı göynicek
Gülsitân itmiş bu arayı ser-â-ser nev-bahâr
Ḫâne-ber-ḫâne müzeyyen eylemiş rengîn çiçek
Otı sünbül ḫâki ‘anber âbı kevs̱er ḫalḳı ḫûb
Cennete beñzetdüm anı ben hemân-dem göricek
Rûz u şeb elḥân ider bülbülleri ḫoş şevḳ ile
Gül gibi güler göñül gûşa ṣadâsı iricek
Āsitânını edeb itdük ziyâret itmege
Yüzümüz sürdük ḳadem baṣduġı yire giricek
Bir ‘azîzüñ bu maḳâmıdur ki Mihrî ṣıdḳ ile
Cân u dilden bir muḥibbi sensin anuñ girçek
Müzdine Aḳ Şems-i Dîn'üñ vir ṣalavât ḳıl du‘â
Ḳurtarur ‘iṣyândan ol seni himmet idicek

In English

1. Although they have named this makam (shrine) "Göynicek", its flowing water gives life to hearts when they burn. (The couplet can be read in two ways. In the reading "göynicek" of the edition, the rhyme word repeats the place name and means "when it burns", from the verb "göynemek", to burn inwardly. Gülşen Kaya reads the same word as "göricek"; in that reading the line means "its flowing water gives life to hearts as soon as it is seen.")

2. Spring has turned this whole region into a rose garden; colorful flowers have adorned the houses one by one.

3. Its grass is hyacinth, its soil is ambergris, its water is Kawthar, its people are fair; the moment I saw it I likened it to Paradise. (Kawthar is the name of the river in Paradise.)

4. Day and night its nightingales sing with a sweet ardor; when their voices reach the ear, the heart opens and laughs like a rose.

5. We resolved to visit its threshold with proper courtesy; once inside, we rubbed our faces on the ground where his foot had stepped.

6. This is the shrine of a saint; O Mihrî, you too are truly his lover, in sincerity, from soul and heart.

7. In return for this visit, send a blessing (salavat) upon Ak Şemseddin and pray; once he lends his himmet (spiritual aid), he will save you from sin.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The eighty-third ghazal of the Divan has seven couplets and is written in the remel metre of the aruz, in the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on the sounds "-çek / -cek" (Göynicek, göynicek, çiçek, göricek, iricek, giricek, girçek, idicek). Most of the rhyme words carry the converbial suffix "-ıcak / -icek" ("göricek" on seeing, "iricek" on reaching, "giricek" on entering, "idicek" on doing), which gives the poem a sound pattern that follows the step-by-step course of a visit. The poem is found only in the Ü manuscript.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This ghazal combines a description of a place with the narrative of a pilgrimage. The first four couplets describe a place, the last three the saint who lies there. The word "maḳâm" here means a place of visitation dedicated to the memory of a saint, a shrine. The poet first gives the name of the place: "They have named this makam Göynicek." Then she lists its stream, its flowered houses and its nightingales. In the third couplet the description reaches its peak: its grass is hyacinth, its soil ambergris, its water Kawthar, its people fair, and the poet likened it to Paradise the moment she saw it. Hyacinth, ambergris and Kawthar are words associated with Paradise, and the couplet is built on this congruence of images (tenasüp). Gülşen Kaya notes that Mihrî also uses Paradise to describe a beautiful place and the season of spring, and she cites the description of Göynicek as an example; the same comparison appears, with the expression "ḫuld-ı berîn" (the exalted Paradise), in the murabba (quatrain-stanza poem) that describes Lâdik, the summer pasture of the princes.

The rhyme word of the first couplet carries the finest play in the poem. In Arslan's edition the place name "Göynicek" and the "göynicek" at the end of the line are written in the same form. If the second is read as a converb derived from the verb "göynemek" (to burn, to be inflamed inside), a pun (cinas) arises between place name and verb: Göynicek's flowing water gives life to hearts when they "göynicek", that is, when they burn and are inflamed. The contrast between water and burning also adds a paradox to the couplet. In Kaya's reading the word becomes "göricek" (on seeing) and the pun disappears; which reading is right cannot be settled without checking the manuscripts.

From the fifth couplet on, the poem turns into the narrative of a visit. The threshold is approached with courtesy, and faces are rubbed on "the ground where he stepped". In the sixth couplet the poet addresses herself: Mihrî is a true muhibb, a sincere lover, of this saint. The seventh couplet completes the etiquette of the visit: a blessing is sent, a prayer is said, and the saint's "himmet", his spiritual aid, is hoped for. Kaya cites these three couplets when discussing the importance in the Divan of being remembered with a good prayer. Thus the ghazal closes as a poem of religious visitation, without resorting to the motifs of love and the beloved at all.

Historical Context

It is not known with certainty who the "Aḳ Şems-i Dîn" named in the ghazal was or where "Göynicek" lay. Gülşen Kaya writes that the identity of this person is unclear, that all that can be understood from the poem is that he was a blessed man whose tomb lay in a praised place and that Mihrî visited this tomb and prayed; she adds that it is also unclear where Göynücek is. In the text published by Didem Havlioğlu the place name is read as "Künicek" and the saint's name, in one word, as "Aḳşemseddin".

This name calls to mind Akşemseddin (d. 1459), known as the teacher of Fatih Sultan Mehmed. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Akşemseddin came from Damascus to Anatolia with his father Şeyh Hamza at the age of seven and settled in Kavak, which then belonged to Amasya; he spent the last years of his life in the town of Göynük in Bolu, died there, and his tomb was built about five years after his death. The phonetic closeness of the name "Göynicek" to "Göynük" is striking; however, there is no record showing that Mihrî visited the tomb at Göynük, and no connection between the ghazal and Akşemseddin has been established in the sources. As for the present-day district of Göynücek in Amasya, its official history records that the settlement was founded in its present place and under its present name around 1650, which makes it difficult to match it with the place Mihrî describes. For this reason, whose tomb visit and which place the ghazal describes remains an open question.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 95-96, Ghazal 83 (Ü 47a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 30, 76-77, 79-80, 116. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Official sources

Books

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ğazeliyyāt-ı Mihrī, OTAP electronic edition, 2007 (transliteration published on the türkoloji-iran site, ghazal 85).
  • Orhan F. Köprülü, Mustafa İsmet Uzun, "Akşemseddin", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 2, İstanbul 1989. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Online sources