Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ûlün

Ey dost seni yâr-ı vefâ-dâr ola ṣandum
Bilmezlik ile gör ki nice odlara yandum
İnanmaz idüm kimseye öldüm dise el-ḥaḳ
Yalan dilüñe aldanup ey yâr inandum
Dûr itme ṭapuñdan beni aġyâr söziyle
Allâh'a ḳodum anı vü ben saña ṭayandum
Göz yaşı gibi sen de naẓardan düşürürseñ
Derdâ vü dirîġâ vü hezâr âh efendüm
Biñ dürlü cefâñ ile bu cân ḥulḳuma geldi
Çıḳmaz nideyin ben ḫo bu ‘âlemden uṣandum
Bir mûyuñı virmez bu cihân mülkine Mihrî
Vallâhi vü billâhi inan kim budur andum

In English

1. O friend, I took you to be a faithful beloved; see how many fires I have burned in, through not knowing.

2. I would not have believed anyone, truly, had they said "I am dying (of love for you)"; O beloved, I was deceived by your lying tongue and believed.

3. Do not drive me away from your door with the words of rivals; I have left them (or the matter) to God, and I have leaned on you, trusted in you.

4. If you too make me fall from your sight like a tear, alas, what a pity, a thousand sighs, my lord. (A tear falls from the eye; "to fall from the eye" also means to be no longer loved, to lose worth. The couplet uses both meanings together.)

5. With your thousand kinds of cruelty my soul has come up to my throat; but it does not leave, what can I do, I am weary of this world. (For the soul to come to the throat is to be on the threshold of death.)

6. Mihrî would not exchange a single hair of yours for the whole realm of this world; by God, by Allah, believe me, this is my oath.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ninety-ninth ghazal of the divan is the first poem of the section of the letter mîm and has six couplets. It is composed in the hezec meter of the aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ûlün". The ghazal has no redif; the ending "-dum" seen at the ends of the lines is a repetition of a suffix that can be counted as a redif, and the rhyme rests on the sound "-an" (ṣandum, yandum, inandum, ṭayandum, uṣandum, andum). In the fourth couplet the word "efendüm" enters the rhyme in place of a verb; in sound it falls close to the others. The ghazal is found only in manuscripts M (78a) and Ü (51a); the edition records no differences between manuscripts. There is no information about whom it was written for.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is the reproach of a lover who has realized she was deceived. The opening couplet sums up the whole story: the beloved was taken for faithful, and the price of this error was burning in fires. The second couplet continues the same regret with a confession. The lover is one who does not believe when others say "I am dying", one not easily taken in; yet she was deceived by the beloved's lying tongue. This contrast brings out how convincing the beloved's words were.

The language of the ghazal is very close to spoken language. Phrases such as "gör ki" (see), "el-ḥaḳ" (truly), "nideyin" (what can I do), "derdâ vü dirîġâ" (alas, what a pity) and "vallâhi vü billâhi inan" (by God, by Allah, believe me) give the poem the voice of someone in distress speaking to the person facing her. The oath in the last couplet especially carries the warmth of everyday speech rather than the dignified manner of divan poetry. In her thesis examining the sentence structure of Mihrî, Sabiha Gemici gives the opening couplet and the third and fifth couplets of this ghazal among her sentence examples.

In the third couplet the trio of divan poetry, that is, lover, beloved and ağyâr (rivals, strangers), come together. The lover asks the beloved not to heed the words of the rivals and says "Allâh'a ḳodum anı", "I have left it to God". This can be understood in two ways: she has committed the rivals to God and given up dealing with them; or she has left the whole situation to God and leaned on the beloved alone. In both readings the word "ṭayandum" (I leaned, I trusted) shows that a deceived lover still remains attached to the beloved.

The fourth couplet is the most artful couplet of the ghazal. A tear falls from the eye; if the beloved too makes the lover fall from her eye, that is, does not value her, the lover's state turns into that of a tear. The idiom "naẓardan düşürmek" is used with both its literal meaning (to drop from the eye downward) and its figurative meaning (to cause loss of esteem). This use is a phrasing in which simile and tevriye (double entendre) combine. The idiom "cân ḥulḳuma geldi" (the soul came to my throat) in the fifth couplet describes the moment of death; but the soul does not leave, and the lover can neither die nor live. In the closing couplet a single hair of the beloved is weighed against the whole realm of the world; this hyperbole lets the ghazal begin with reproach and end with an oath of devotion.

The address to the beloved as "efendüm" (my lord) draws attention. In divan poetry the gender of the beloved is mostly left unspecified; however, forms of address such as "efendi" and "bey" are used for men in everyday language. Sıtkı Nazik says, speaking of some poems of Mihrî, such as another ghazal of hers with the refrain "a efendicigüm", that one meets expressions that reflect the poet's femininity. The address in this ghazal too, with its reproachful and intimate tone, lends itself to being read in the voice of a woman poet; but there is no record showing that it was written to a particular person.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, pp. 103-104, Ghazal 99 (M 78a, Ü 51a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral dissertation, Uludağ Üniversitesi, Balıkesir 1990 (ghazal 102 in Gemici's numbering).

Academic studies

  • 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 (especially p. 138).

Books

  • Didem Havlioğlu (ed.), Ġazeliyyât-ı Mihrî-i Ḥaḳîre, OTAP electronic edition, ghazal 102 (text published on the türkoloji-iran page, 2007).

Online sources