Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ruḫlaruñ nârıyla dil yandı kebâb oldı yürek
Çeşmüñüñ ḳaṣdı eger cân ise alsun tîzrek
Yâreler urduḳça ġamzeñ sîne-i mecrûḥuma
Dökmese seylâb-ı eşkim bâri üstine nemek
Dostum cevr ü cefâdan öldürem dirseñ beni
Degme bir derd ile ölmez ‘âşıḳam ben cânı pek
Ḫûblar zülfi hevâsına yeler çoḳdur velî
Yoḳ durur illâ benüm gibi yele virmiş emek
Ḳılmaduñ bir gün ḥabîbüñ zülfine hem-ser beni
Neyleyelüm bu cihândur saña da ḳalmaz felek
Cân u dilden oldı bir meh-rûya Mihrî mübtelâ
Cânıdur bir kimsenüñ kim adını olmaz dimek

In English

1. The heart burned in the fire of your cheeks and the soul became a kebab. If your eye's intent is to take my life, let it take it without delay. (In the F manuscript the first line reads "derdiyle yandı dil", that is, "the heart burned with the pain of your cheeks".)

2. As your ghamze (sidelong glance) wounds my wounded breast, wound upon wound, at least let the flood of my tears not pour salt over those wounds. (Tears are salty; tears flowing onto a wound increase the pain like rubbing salt into it.)

3. My friend, if you say "I will kill you with cruelty and torment", know that I do not die of just any pain; I am a lover hard of soul. ("Canı pek" means one who does not die easily, who is resilient; torment cannot finish him easily.)

4. There are many who run after the desire of the beauties' locks, but there is none who has given his labor to the wind as I have. ("Yeler" is understood both as "those who run" and as "winds"; "hevâ" means both desire and air. To give one's labor to the wind is to waste one's effort.)

5. O fate, you never once made me a companion to the beloved's lock. What can we do, this is the world; it will not remain for you either. ("Hem-ser" means partner and equal; the word "ser", head, is thought of together with the hair.)

6. Mihrî has fallen for a moon-faced one with all her soul and heart. She is the beloved of someone whose name it is not possible to utter. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the beloved is the favorite of someone so exalted or so guarded that his name cannot be spoken; or the beloved is someone whose name it is not permissible to take on the tongue, whose secret must be kept.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The eighty-eighth ghazal of the Divan has six couplets and is written in the remel metre of the aruz, in the pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The ghazal is a verse form that treats love and beauty, whose first couplet has both lines rhymed, and whose last couplet carries the poet's pen name. In this ghazal there is no redif; the poem proceeds on a rhyme with the sound "-ek" alone (yürek, tîzrek, nemek, pek, emek, felek, dimek). It is among the divan's ghazals ending in the letter kâf and is found in all four manuscripts (F 53a, M 74b, S 55a, Ü 48b). There is no record of whom or on what occasion it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets of the ghazal link the best-known burning images of divan poetry. The beloved's cheek is fire, the heart burns in this fire, and the soul becomes a kebab. Then the eye and the ghamze come into play: the eye intends to take the life, and the ghamze opens wound upon wound in the breast. The image of salt in the second couplet is the real subtlety of the couplet. With the knowledge that tears are salty, it is said that, where weeping should console, it makes the wound ache all the more. The words kebab and salt, taken from the kitchen, build a hidden congruence of images (tenasüp) in these first two couplets.

The third couplet turns the lover's endurance into a kind of boasting. If the beloved wants to kill her with cruelty and torment, she will labor in vain, because the lover is "canı pek", hard of soul. Gülşen Kaya cites this couplet when she says that cruelty and torment give rise in the lover to patience and submission, and that the lover's superiority comes from this endurance. That the colloquial idiom "canı pek" is used so plainly in a ghazal couplet is an example of the closeness to speech often seen in Mihrî's poetry.

The fourth couplet is built on wordplay. "Hevâ" means both desire and air, and "yel" is both wind and a word from the verb "yelmek", to run. Many run with the desire of the beauties' locks, but none has given her labor to the wind, that is, wasted it, as the poet has. The words air and wind call each other, and the idiom "yele vermek" gains a new sense inside this wind imagery. In the F and S manuscripts the first line ends with "çoḳdan beri"; then the couplet is understood as "I have been running for a long time with the desire of the beauties' locks".

In the fifth couplet the speech turns to the lover's fortune. Fate has never once made the lover "hem-ser" with the beloved's lock. Kaya draws attention through this couplet to the relation set up between the beloved's black hair and the lover's black fortune. In the second line the lover answers fate with a kind of consolation: the world is like this, fate too finally changes, it will not remain for you either. This sentence ties the reproach together with the calm of a proverb.

In the closing couplet Mihrî speaks of herself in the third person. She has fallen for a moon-faced beloved with all her soul and heart; the beloved, however, is "the soul of someone whose name cannot be spoken". This expression is the most obscure place in the ghazal. Hiding the beloved's name is a known courtesy in divan poetry; in this couplet, however, the one whose name is hidden is another person who regards the beloved as his "soul". Since there is no record in the sources that the couplet points to a particular person, the question of who is meant remains open.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 97-98, Ghazal 88 (F 53a, M 74b, S 55a, Ü 48b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 146, 232-233. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Books

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ğazeliyyāt-ı Mihrī, OTAP electronic edition, 2007 (transliteration published on the türkoloji-iran site, ghazal 91).

Online sources