Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün

‘Arż itdi gülşene yine ruḫsâr-ı yâr gül
Ḫâmûş olma key ṣaḳın ey murġ-ı zâr gül
Ṣaḥrâ yüzini ṭut geçer eyyâm-ı nev-bahâr
Fevt itme furṣatı ki degül ber-ḳarâr gül
Ṣâfî mey ile sâḳî getür câm-ı sâġarı
Bülbül terennüm eyle geçer gül-‘iẕâr gül
Gül mevsiminde gülşene gel ‘ayş u nûş ḳıl
Destinde deste deste ṭutar her nigâr gül
Nergis gözüñ ḫayâlile ser-mest sebzede
Ġonca tebessüm itmege uş intiẓâr gül
Devrân bahârı bir gün irer kim ḫazân olur
Evrâḳını ḳılur ḥaẕer it târ u mâr gül
‘Ömrüñi ḫoş geçür ki geçer Mihrî devr-i gül
Dirsin ki ḳanı bülbüli yâ nev-bahâr gül

In English

1. The rose has once again displayed the beloved's cheek to the rose garden; O lamenting bird (the nightingale), take care not to fall silent, the rose has opened. (The couplet can be read in two ways: "the beloved's rose-like cheek has appeared again in the garden", or "the rose, opening, has resembled the beloved's cheek in the garden". In both readings the arrival of spring and the beloved's beauty merge.)

2. Head for the fields and the slopes; the days of spring pass quickly. Do not miss the opportunity, for the rose is not lasting.

3. Cupbearer, bring the cup filled with clear wine. Nightingale, sing; the rose-cheeked beauty and the rose both pass away.

4. In the season of the rose, come to the rose garden and feast and drink; every beauty holds bunches and bunches of roses in her hand.

5. The narcissus is drunk on the meadow, through the thought of your eye (the narcissus flower is likened to a languid-eyed gaze); the rose is waiting, see, for its bud to smile and open.

6. A day will come in the spring of the age that becomes autumn; then the rose scatters its petals, remember that.

7. Mihrî, pass your life in pleasure, for the season of the rose passes; afterwards you will say, "Where is the nightingale, where is the spring, where is the rose?"

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ninety-sixth ghazal of the divan stands in the section of the letter lâm and has seven couplets. It is composed in the muzâri meter of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Fâ‘ilâtü Mefâ‘îlü Fâ‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "gül", "rose", repeated at the end of every couplet; the rhyme rests on the sound "-âr" (yâr, zâr, ber-ḳarâr, ‘iẕâr, nigâr, intiẓâr, târ u mâr, bahâr). The ghazal is found in all four manuscripts (F 56a, M 77b, S 58a, Ü 50b). The differences between manuscripts are small: F reads "ki" in place of "key" in the first couplet, Ü reads "ider" in place of "irer" in the sixth couplet; F and S say "fâni bülbül" in place of "ḳanı bülbüli" in the closing couplet, and with this reading the line shifts to "the mortal nightingale and the spring and the rose". There is no record of whom or on what occasion it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the ghazal is the shortness of spring and the call to make use of this brief season. In divan poetry the rose is known as both the most beautiful flower and the one that fades fastest; for this reason the season of the rose is often likened to the transience of human life and youth. Mihrî uses both aspects together: in the first couplets the rose is the beloved's cheek, the joy of spring and the invitation of the gathering; in the sixth couplet the same rose stands before the autumn wind that scatters its petals. The mention together of such elements of spring and of the gathering as the rose garden, nightingale, cupbearer, cup, narcissus and bud is a clear example of tenasüp (congruence of images, the use together of related concepts).

The rose garden and the nightingale form one of the best-known mazmuns (conventional images) of divan poetry: the rose stands for the beloved, the nightingale for the lover who laments for her. In the first couplet the nightingale is called "murġ-ı zâr", the lamenting bird, and is told not to fall silent. Examining the bird names in Mihrî's divan, Gülşen Kaya illustrates with this couplet that the nightingale is also mentioned with epithets such as "murġ-ı zâr". Kaya also counts the second couplet among the examples of the idea in the divan that spring passes quickly, that the days of the rose end soon, and that therefore the opportunity must not be missed; and she cites the fifth couplet as one of the places where the narcissus, likened to the beloved's eye, is drunk in the meadow on the thought of it.

In the fifth couplet the flowers behave like human beings: the narcissus is drunk, and the rose awaits the smile of its bud. Likening the opening of the bud to a smile is teşhis (personification), the art of giving human traits to flowers. In the third couplet, the placing of "gül-‘iẕâr" (rose-cheeked) beside the word "gül" makes one feel that both the beauty and the flower pass away at the same speed. In the closing couplet the poet addresses herself and voices a future regret in advance: once the age of the rose has passed, one will look for the nightingale, the spring and the rose, and not find them. This last line, built on the question "kanı" (where is?), turns the counsel of the poem into a sentence of longing.

The same rhyme and refrain appear once more in Mihrî's divan. The twelfth kaside (qasida) of the divan begins with the line "Çünki gösterdi cihâna ruḫlarından yâr gül" and is a spring poem (bahariye) written with the rhyme and refrain "-âr gül"; its metre, however, is different (the remel meter). In his paper comparing the divans of Mihrî and her contemporary from Amasya, Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi, in terms of rhyme and refrain, Sıtkı Nazik shows this ghazal and the twelfth kaside in the same table as a poem with the rhyme and refrain "-âr gül" among Cafer Çelebi's Persian poems. Nazik does not dwell on whether this similarity is a relationship of nazire (response poem); the table only records that the two poets used the same rhyme and refrain.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 102, Ghazal 96 (F 56a, M 77b, S 58a, Ü 50b). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral dissertation, Uludağ Üniversitesi, Balıkesir 1990 (ghazal 99 in Gemici's numbering).

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010 (entries on the narcissus, spring and birds). openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Sıtkı Nazik, "Benzer Redifli Şiirleri Bağlamında Mihrî Hatun ve Tâcî-zâde Cafer Çelebi'nin Karşılaştırılması", Uluslararası Amasya Âlimleri Sempozyumu Bildiriler Kitabı II, Amasya 2017, pp. 133-148 (refrain tables, pp. 136-137, 140).

Books

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ġazeliyyât-ı Mihrî-i Ḥaḳîre, OTAP electronic edition, ghazal 99 (text published on the türkoloji-iran page, 2007).

Online sources