Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün

Habîbüm naḳş-ı rûyuñdan göñül buldı muṣavverlik
Cemâlüñ âfitâbından cihân ṭoldı münevverlik
‘Aceb mi la‘l-i nâbuñdan senüñ yâḳût reng alsa
Dehânuñ noḳṭasından dür bulupdur çün müdevverlik
Egerçi bû durur her dem Ḫıṭâ'nuñ miski ‘âlemde
Ṣaçuñ bûyından irmişdür aña daḫi mu‘aṭṭarlik
Ḫudâ ḫalḳ itdi ‘âlemde velî gül yüzli dilberler
Senüñ ẕâtuñda cem‘ itmiş güzellik tâzelik terlik
Raḳîbüñ lâf urup dirmiş anı öldürürin bir gün
Er ise gelsün ol nâ-merd aña göstereyin erlik
N'ola meydân-ı ‘aşḳuñda senüñ cân oynasa Mihrî
Ki tîġ oldı aña ġamzeñ ider zülfüñ de çenberlik

In English

1. My beloved, from the image of your face the heart has learned painting; from the sun of your beauty the world has been filled with light. (The heart has become a painter who portrays the beloved's face within itself.)

2. Is it any wonder if the ruby takes its color from your pure ruby lip? For the pearl too has found its roundness from the dot of your mouth. (The beloved's mouth is imagined as small and round as a dot; the pearl took its roundness, and the ruby its redness, from it.)

3. Although the musk of Khotan is always the world's fragrance, even it received its perfume from the scent of your hair. (Khotan, the Hıtâ of the text, is a region of Central Asia known for its musk deer.)

4. God created rose-faced beauties in the world, but beauty, freshness and tenderness are gathered in your being alone. ("Terlik" is a noun formed from "ter", fresh: freshness, tenderness.)

5. The rival has boasted and said, "One day I will kill him"; if he is a man, let that coward come, and I will show him what manliness is.

6. Is it any wonder if Mihrî stakes her life in your arena of love? For your coquettish glance has become a sword for her, and your lock performs the hoop-trick. ("Cân oynamak" means both to risk one's life and to play, showing one's skill in the arena; sword and hoop are the implements of those who perform in the arena.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The eighty-fourth ghazal of the Divan has six couplets and is written in the hezec metre of the aruz, in the pattern "Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün". Its redif is the suffix "-lik"; the rhyme rests on the sounds "-er / -ver" that precede this suffix (muṣavverlik, münevverlik, müdevverlik, mu‘aṭṭarlik, terlik, erlik, çenberlik). Attaching the Turkish suffix "-lik" to adjectives of Arabic origin ("muṣavver" depicted, "münevver" illuminated, "müdevver" round, "mu‘aṭṭar" perfumed) determines the sound pattern of the ghazal, while in the fourth and fifth couplets the same rhyme is answered by the Turkish words "ter" and "er". The poem is found only in the Ü manuscript. Nothing is known about whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first four couplets of the ghazal praise the beloved's beauty through a series of comparisons and, in each couplet, show another side of her beauty as the source of the beautiful things of the world. The heart learned painting from the beloved's face, and the world took its light from her sun-like face. The ruby found its color in her lip, the pearl its roundness in her mouth, the musk of Khotan its scent in her hair. This pattern comes close to the figure known in divan poetry as hüsn-i talil (the fanciful aetiology): the real cause of a quality in nature is left aside and an imagined cause tied to the beloved is given in its place. Gülşen Kaya mentions the second couplet, in which the ruby takes its color from the beloved's ruby lip and the pearl its roundness from the dot of her mouth, and the third, in which the source of musk is shown to be the beloved's hair, among her examples of precious stones and perfumes in the Divan. Kaya reads the first couplet within the same framework: the heart has found "muṣavverlik", the painter's art, through the image of the beloved's face.

The fourth couplet gathers up these praises: God created many rose-faced beauties in the world, but beauty, freshness and tenderness are united in the beloved's being. Kaya gives this couplet as an example of the beloved being portrayed as the center of beauties and the shah of beauties. In the second line of the couplet, the successive words "güzellik tâzelik terlik" line up three words carrying the same suffix side by side and create an accumulation of sounds.

In the fifth couplet the tone of the ghazal suddenly changes. It moves from praise to challenge: the rival has boasted that he will kill the beloved or the lover one day, and the poet answers him, "if he is a man, let that coward come, and I will show him manliness." The words "er", "nâ-merd" and "erlik" build a wordplay around one root. Kaya draws attention to the fact that in this couplet Mihrî Hatun challenges her rival "as a man would". That the words come from the pen of a woman poet gives the word "erlik" a separate weight within the couplet.

The closing couplet carries this challenge into a scene of an "arena of love". The words arena, "cân oynamak", sword and hoop form a congruence of images (tenasüp) belonging to the world of performers and acrobats in the arena. Kaya notes that in this couplet a sword drill takes place in an arena of love in which the lock is the hoop and the coquettish glance the sword. Likening the ghamze, the beloved's sidelong glance, to a sword is a familiar simile of divan poetry; here, together with the lock curled like a hoop, it becomes part of an arena game. The idiom "cân oynamak" is used with double entendre (tevriye), meaning both to disregard one's life and to show skill in the game.

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 96, Ghazal 84 (Ü 48a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 82, 91, 128, 149, 162, 250, 291-292. openaccess.firat.edu.tr