Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ayaġuñ ṭopraġı olmaḳ şehâ devlet nişânıdur
Velî ben ḫâk kimyâ cevheri olmaḳ ne şânıdur
Hidâyet nûrı keşf olsa bedî‘ olmaya ḥüsnüñden
Muṭavvel zülfüñüñ zîrâ ma‘ânîsi beyânıdur
Güneş ḥüsnüñ ḳamer alnuñ görelden oldı ser-gerdân
Müjeñ sehm oḳudur bildi ḳaşuñ çarḫuñ kemânıdur
Ḳaçan serv olısar hem-ser ḳad-i ṭûbâña ey meh-rû
Cihân gül-zârınuñ ḳaddüñ bugün serv-i revânıdur
Ruḫuñda gülşen-i cennet muṣavver olsa ṭañ mıdur
Ḥayâtuñ çeşmesidür çün lebüñ kevs̱er nihânîdür
Benefşe zülf ü ḫaṭṭuñdan urursa dem n'ola her dem
Ki viren ‘âleme ḫoş-bû anun ‘anber-feşânıdur
Ḫayâli ḫaddüñüñ iki gözümden olmasa ḫâlî
Bitüpdür âbı içinde n'ola serv-i revânıdur
Züḥal çün pâs-bân oldı irişmez pây-ı ḳadrüñe
Egerçi nüh-felek her demde anuñ nerdübânıdur
Gözüñe ḳarşu cân u dil gidüp ḳaldı muḳâbil ten
Atılsa oḳı elbette gerekdür çün nişânıdur
Gözüñ ḳanuma ḳaṣd itdükçe la‘lüñ remz ider câna
Ecelden ya‘ni ‘Īsâ-veş bize emn-i emânıdur
Ṭapuña tuḥfe getürdi vücûdum tâciri cânın
Hele ma‘ẕûr ṭut ḫânum faḳîrüñ armaġanıdur
Seni bu ḥüsn-i ḫulḳ ile görenler dir ki ey ḫusrev
Melâḥatde leṭâfetde bu ḫod Yûsuf-ı s̱ânîdür
Ki ya‘nî Şeh Süleymân ol cüvân-baḫt-ı Ferîdûn-dehr
Başına gerçi bir şehdür yedi iḳlîm ḫânıdur
Olaldan ‘adl-i destinde nigîn-i ḫâtem-i devlet
Cihânuñ ḫalḳınuñ kârı ser-â-ser şâd-mânîdür
Ne var emri berâtına muṭî‘ olursa ins ü cân
Bugün rûy-ı zemînüñ çün Süleymân-ı zamânıdur
‘Aceb mi yer yüzi dâ’im bezense cûdı ḫânından
Felekdür ṣofrası her dem ḳamer şems ile nânıdur
Muḥîṭ-i ḳulzüm-i ‘ummân olunmaz cûdına teşbîh
Kim anuñ luṭfı deryâsı cihânda bî-kerânîdür
Serîr-i salṭanat üzre budur İskender-i devrân
Zamânuñ Rüstem-i Zâl'i cihânuñ pehlevânıdur
Ṣaḳın devrinde yâd itme Minûçihr'i Nerîmân'ı
Ki ey şeyyâd bu dehrüñ bu şeh ṣâḥib-ḳırânıdur
Anuñ luṭfı ḫazâyîninden umsa n'ola her ḫusrev
Bilürler âsitânını ki genc-i şâyegânîdür
Nice Cemşîd-i ‘âlemdür görüñ kim ‘adl-i devrinde
Ḳoyun ḳurd ile yürürler zihî ḫoş zindegânîdür
N'ola ḫalḳ-ı cihân sürse yüzini kûy-ı râhına
Bulara farż vâcibdür ki zîrâ kehkeşânîdür
Kemâl-i ‘ilm ü ḥilm ile ḫıred-mend ü mükemmeldür
Güzîni Āl-i ‘Os̱mân'uñ bu ḫalḳuñ mihribânıdur
Cemâlinden żiyâ bulsa ‘aceb mi ḫalḳ ile ‘âlem
Semânuñ âfitâbıdur zemînüñ şem‘-dânıdur
Kelâmı cânlar elinden göñüller alsa ṭañ mıdur
Muḥibb iden ḳamu ḫalḳı anuñ şîrîn zebânıdur
Viṣâlinden ḫaber geh geh getürür bu dil ü câna
Bi-ḥamdillâh ki bizümle ḫayâli yâr-ı cânıdur
Görinen ‘îd-i vaṣlında hilâl ebrûsıdur anuñ
Velî ‘îd ayıdur dirlerse bu ḫalḳuñ gümânıdur
Nice şeh-zâdedür gör kim anuñ ‘âlî cenâbında
Melekler perde-dârıdur felekler sâye-bânıdur
Zemistân şiddetinden ġuṣṣa mı çekse gerek cânum
Ki bu dil ‘andelîbinüñ cemâli gülsitânıdur
‘Aceb mi ġamzesi tîġı vücûdum nâle döndürse
Tenümi ḳıl ḳılan ey dil anuñ fikr-i miyânıdur
Gicesin gündüzin yâ Rab hemîşe ḳadr ile ‘îd it
Penâh-ı devlet-i dünyâ vü ḫalḳuñ kâm-rânıdur
Faḳîrüñ dest-gîridür aña Ḥaḳ dest-gîr olsun
Bugün ben düşmüşinüñ bu cihânda dîde-bânıdur
İlâhî ḥaşre dek yâ Rab ḥayâtını mezîd eyle
Ża‘îfe Mihrî miskînüñ ki ‘ömr-i câvidânıdur
Serîr-i salṭanat üzre vücûdın müstedâm eyle
Bu mürde cismümüñ her demde ol rûḥ-ı revânıdur

In English

1. O king, to be the dust of your foot is a sign of good fortune and state. But I, who am dust, how could I presume to be the substance of alchemy? (The couplet can be read in two ways: either the poet shows modesty, saying "I am a handful of dust, it does not befit me to turn into the elixir", or she means "to be the earth your foot touches is an honour that turns earth into elixir". In alchemy the elixir is the substance that turns base metal into gold.)

2. If the light of guidance were to come to light, it would be no wonder that it was born of your beauty; for it is that light which explains the meanings of your long tresses. (In the couplet "Hidâye", "Keşf", "Bedî'", "Mutavvel", "Me'ânî" and "Beyân" are the names of books or disciplines of jurisprudence and rhetoric taught in the madrasa; the poet describes the beloved's beauty through these book titles.)

3. Since the sun saw your beauty and the moon your brow, they have been dizzy and keep turning in the sky. They have understood that your lashes are the arrow and your brows the bow of the heavens.

4. O moon-faced one, when can the cypress measure itself against your stature, which resembles the Tuba tree of paradise? Today your stature is the swaying cypress of the world's rose garden.

5. Is it any wonder if the picture of the garden of paradise appears on your cheek? Your lip is the spring of the water of life, for it is a hidden Kevser (the river of paradise).

6. What if the violet at every moment boasts, speaking of your hair and the down on your cheek? It is the amber scattering of that hair that gives the world its fragrance.

7. What if the image of your cheek never leaves my two eyes? It is a swaying cypress that has grown in water. (The cypress grows by water; the image standing in tears is likened to a cypress at the water's edge.)

8. Though Zuhal (Saturn) is the guardian of the palace of heaven, it cannot reach the foot of your standing; yet the nine heavens are at every moment its ladder.

9. Before your eye, life and heart have gone and vanished; only the body is left before you. If you shoot your arrow, it is surely that which is needed, for it is the target.

10. Whenever your eye intends to enter my blood, your red lip secretly signals to the soul; that is, your lip, like Jesus, is the pledge of safety that protects us from death. (Jesus is believed to have raised the dead with his breath; the beloved's lip, too, grants life.)

11. The merchant of my being has brought his life to your door as a gift. Lady (my lord), forgive; it is the offering of this poor servant.

12. Those who see you with this fine character say: "O sovereign, in charm and refinement this is a second Joseph."

13. That is, Shah Süleyman: that young and fortunate one, the Feridun of the age (the just king of Iranian legend). Although he is a prince in his own right, he deserves to be khan of the seven climes. (The line can also mean "though he is only a prince, he is like the ruler of the seven climes".)

14. Since the seal of the ring of state has been in his just hand, the affairs of the people of the world have been joy from beginning to end. (There is an allusion to the seal ring of the Prophet Solomon, which gave him his sovereignty.)

15. What if men and jinn bow to his command and diploma of appointment? For today he is the Solomon of the earth in his time. (Solomon is told to have ruled over men and jinn.)

16. Is it any wonder if the earth is ever adorned and furnished from the table of his generosity? His table is the heavens, and his bread is the moon and the sun.

17. Even the ocean that encircles the world cannot be compared to his generosity; for in this world the sea of his bounty is without a shore.

18. On the throne of sovereignty this is the Alexander of the age; the Rüstem son of Zal of his time, the champion of the world.

19. Do not mention Minuchihr or Neriman (heroes of the Shahnameh) in his time. O deceiver, the sahib-kıran (the great ruler favoured by fortune) of this age is this king. (The one addressed as şeyyâd, "deceiver", may be the heavens, known as treacherous and false, or someone who puts forward the rulers of the past.)

20. What if every ruler hopes for something from the treasures of his bounty? They know that his threshold is a royal treasury like the famous treasure of Khusrau.

21. See what a Jamshid of the world he is, that in his just reign the sheep and the wolf walk together. What a pleasant way to live.

22. What if the people of the world rub their faces on the road of his quarter? It is an obligation for them, both farz and vacib, for that road is the Milky Way in the sky.

23. He is a person who has reached perfection in learning and gentleness, wise and mature. The chosen one of the House of Osman, the compassionate friend of the people.

24. Is it any wonder if the world and its people find light from his beauty? He is the sun of the sky and the candelabrum of the earth.

25. Is it anything to wonder at if his word takes hearts from the hands of souls? It is his sweet speech that makes all people love him.

26. From time to time it brings the heart and soul news of union with him. Praise be to God that his image is with us, the beloved of the soul.

27. The crescent that appears on the festival of union with him is his brow. But if they call it the moon of the festival, that is the opinion of the people.

28. See what a prince he is, that in his exalted presence the angels are curtain-keepers and the heavens a canopy.

29. Does my soul ever worry about the severity of winter? For the rose garden of this nightingale of the heart is his fair face.

30. Is it any wonder if the sword of his languid glance makes my body groan and thins it into a reed? O heart, what thins my body like a hair is thinking of his slender waist. (Nâle means "lament, groan"; by its sound it also recalls nâl, "slender reed".)

31. O Lord, make his night the Night of Power and his day a festival. He is the refuge of the world's state, the fortunate one who has attained the people's desire.

32. He is the one who takes the poor by the hand; may God take him by the hand too. Today in this world he is the watcher and protector of me, who have fallen.

33. O God, O Lord, prolong his life until the day of resurrection. For he is the eternal life of Mihrî, a poor and weak woman.

34. Make his existence lasting on the throne of sovereignty. He is the soul, ever flowing, of this dead body of mine.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is the fourteenth of the seventeen kasides in Mihrî Hatun's divan, and with its thirty-four couplets it counts as medium in length among the kasides. It is written in the hezec metre of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün"; this pattern, made of four equal feet, gives the lines an even and flowing gait. The rhyme is on the sound "-ân" (nişân, şân, beyân, kemân, revân), and the following suffix "-ıdur" serves as the redif (refrain word). The kaside is, in divan poetry, the long poem written to praise a person of standing; its first couplet (matla) rhymes within itself, while in the following couplets only the second hemistichs repeat this rhyme. In the edition its heading is "Kasîde-i Sultân Süleymân". According to Arslan's finding, the poem is found among the four manuscripts only in the M copy in the Ankara National Library; it is absent from the other three.

The kaside bears traces of the classical division into sections but does not follow it with firm lines. The first eleven couplets praise a beauty whose name is not yet given; built from the images of sun, moon, cypress, Kevser, violet and bow and arrow, this part is less a separate prelude (nesib) than a "tegazzül" section close to the speech of the ghazal. The statement in the twelfth couplet, "Those who see you with this fine character call you a second Joseph", is the transitional couplet (girizgâh), and the thirteenth couplet, which follows at once, gives the name of the person praised with the words "Ki ya'nî Şeh Süleymân". From the thirteenth couplet to the twenty-eighth the eulogy continues. The twenty-ninth and thirtieth couplets turn for a moment back to the language of the lover, and with the thirty-first couplet the prayer section begins. The poet's pen name (mahlas) appears in the thirty-third couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most striking aspect of the poem is that the boundary between the person praised and the beloved is deliberately left blurred. Even within the eulogy, the stock phrases of the language of the ghazal are used, such as "Viṣâlinden ḫaber" (news of union), "yâr-ı cân" (beloved of the soul) and "ġamzesi tîġı" (the sword of his glance). This attitude is also seen in the kasides that Mihrî presented to Şehzade Ahmed; the master's thesis on the divan prepared by Gülşen Kaya notes that the poems written to princes "give the impression of having been written to a beloved", and that in the kasides written to Süleyman, too, similar intimate expressions to those addressed to Ahmed are used. Addressing the person praised as a beloved is a widespread tradition in divan poetry; Mihrî carries this tradition so far that the framework of the kaside is loosened.

The second couplet is the most learned of the poem. The words "hidâyet", "keşf", "bedî'", "muṭavvel", "ma'ânî" and "beyân" stand in the sentence with their everyday meanings, while at the same time recalling madrasa textbooks and the branches of the science of rhetoric. This is an example of tevriye (double entendre) and tenasüp (congruence of images, the bringing together of words related in meaning) used together, and it shows the education received by Mihrî, who was the daughter of a kadi. The contrast between earth and the substance of alchemy in the first couplet also rests on the alchemical belief of the period: the elixir turns base metal into gold, and the earth touched by the sovereign's foot elevates a person.

The eulogy section lists the familiar cast of heroes and rulers of the kaside tradition. The person praised is the Feridun, the Alexander, the Rüstem son of Zal and the Jamshid of the age; Minuchihr and Neriman are not even worth mentioning beside him. Most of these names come from Firdawsi's Shahnameh and are heroes of the Iranian epic tradition. That the name of the person praised is Süleyman gives the poet a further opportunity: in the fourteenth and fifteenth couplets allusions are made to the seal ring of the Prophet Solomon and to his rule over men and jinn. In this way a play is set up between name and meaning. The expression "the sheep and the wolf walk together" (couplet 21) is an old formula used for a just ruler; "the heavens are his table, the moon and sun his bread" (couplet 16) is a fitting example of hyperbole (mübalağa). Kaya notes from these couplets that Jamshid is used here as the emblem of justice, and that "genc-i şâyegân" is mentioned as one of the seven treasures of Khusrau Parviz.

Heavenly images recur often throughout the kaside. In the eighth couplet Zuhal (Saturn), because it sits in the seventh heaven and its colour is considered dark, is likened to the watchman on the palace roof (pâsbân); even so, it cannot reach the foot of the standing of the person praised. In the twenty-eighth couplet the angels are his curtain-keepers and the heavens his canopy. The hüsn-i talil (the invention of a fair cause) in the twenty-seventh couplet is noteworthy: what people take to be the crescent of the festival is in reality the beloved's brow. This couplet, together with the prayer in the thirty-first, "make his night the Night of Power and his day a festival", suggests that the kaside was presented on the occasion of a festival. Since the "severity of winter" is mentioned in the twenty-ninth couplet, the festival in question must have fallen in the winter months; Kaya, too, points to this couplet as one of the few places in the divan where winter is mentioned.

In the prayer section the poet calls herself "Ża'îfe Mihrî". "Ża'îfe" is the feminine form of the Arabic word for "weak, frail" and is used for a woman; with this adjective Mihrî places her own gender beside her pen name. The words "Today he is my watcher, I who have fallen" (couplet 32) and "he is the soul of this dead body of mine" (couplet 34) turn the usual formulas of wish and prayer in kasides into a personal request for protection.

Historical Context

The heading in the edition and the thirteenth couplet give the name of the person praised as "Şeh Süleymân"; in the twenty-eighth couplet he is also plainly called "şeh-zâde" (prince). Arslan's e-book edition does not explain who this Süleyman is. The doctoral thesis completed by Sabiha Gemici in 1990 says that one of the kasides in the divan was written "to Şehzade Süleyman". Gülşen Kaya, relying on the study section of Arslan's edition printed in Amasya in 2007, writes that in her last years Mihrî attended the gatherings of Şehzade Süleyman, the son of Şehzade Ahmed, and presented to him three kasides (the 14th, 15th and 16th kasides) and three ghazals. One of these ghazals is the 79th ghazal, in which the first letters of the couplets, read from top to bottom, give the name "Süleymân"; another describes a musical gathering lasting until morning in the prince's hilltop pavilion at Eğribük, one of the villages of Amasya.

That Şehzade Ahmed had a son named Süleyman, that this prince served as sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) between 1509 and 1513, and that in 1513, after the struggle for the throne between Selim I (Yavuz Sultan Selim) and Ahmed, he crossed to Egypt with his brother Alâeddin and died there, is recorded in some sources. If this information is correct, the kaside must belong to the last period of Mihrî's life, the final years of the reign of Bayezid II. The kaside bears no date; the adjective "young and fortunate" (cüvân-baht) and the statement that he is "worthy of being khan of the seven climes" are consistent with praise addressed to a young prince, but the year of composition cannot be determined from documents.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 43-45, Kaside 14 (M manuscript 40a). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, p. 58-61, 69, 86, 253, 267. openaccess.firat.edu.tr
  • Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral thesis, Uludağ Üniversitesi, Balıkesir 1990, p. 346-349.

Books

Other sources

  • "Şehzade Ahmed (son of Bayezid II)", Wikipedia (based on Nevin Zeynep Yelçe, The Making of Sultan Süleyman, 2009, p. 48-49, 64-65). en.wikipedia.org

Online sources