Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Vezin: Feʻilātün feʻilātün feʻilātün feʻilün

Nice ḳan aġlamayam derd ile ben ḥasret güç
Nice çāk itmeyeyim sīnemi ben fürḳat güç
Yār-ı hicrāna taḥammül de ḳatı müşkil iken
Her zamān vuslat içün dil-bere de sıḳlet güç
Hele bī-hūde hevesdir bu bizim itdigimiz
Böyle bir dil-ber-i zībāya dilā vuṣlat güç
Ruḫ-ı yārı göricek baḳmamaḳ olmaz ammā
Nigeh-i çeşm-i füsūn-sāz yine de ṭāḳat güç
Bilmedi Ꜥaşḳımı daḫı o şemāʾil-pīşe
Mihriyā böyle bir Ꜥāşıḳ-keş ile ülfet güç

In English

1. With longing so hard, how could I not weep blood over my grief? With parting so hard, how could I not tear open my breast?

2. Although enduring the beloved's separation is already very difficult, it is also hard, in seeking union at every moment, to weigh upon the beloved and wear the beloved out. The couplet can be read in two ways: "sıḳlet" (heaviness) may mean the lover becoming a burden to the beloved, or the weight and distress borne for the sake of union.

3. What we are doing is plainly a vain desire; O heart, union with such an adorned, graceful beauty is hard.

4. On seeing the beloved's cheek one cannot help but look; yet to bear the glance of the enchanting eye is hard as well.

5. That fair-faced, gentle-natured beloved still did not understand my love; O Mihrî, friendship with one who kills lovers like this is hard.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

That this ghazal belongs to Mihrî Hatun is not certain. The poem is found in none of the four known manuscripts of Mihrî's divan; it appears under the pen name "Mihrî" on folio 47a of a poetry miscellany (mecmua) registered as 43 Va 2871 in the Kütahya Vahid Paşa Provincial Public Library. Mutlu Muhammet Aktaş, who published the miscellany and the twenty ghazals under the pen name Mihrî in it in 2023, states plainly that his comparisons of language, style and vocabulary strengthen the possibility that the ghazals belong to Mihrî Hatun but do not lead to a firm judgment. The compiler of the miscellany and the date of its copying are unknown; it also contains poems by poets of later centuries such as Bâkî, Nâbî and Mehmed Râgıb Paşa. The observations below are therefore made on the assumption that the poem may belong to Mihrî Hatun.

The ghazal has five couplets and is written in the remel metre, in the pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün". Aktaş states that of the twenty ghazals in the miscellany, fifteen are in this pattern and five in the hezec pattern "Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün", and that both are patterns used in the poet's divan. By Mehmet Arslan's count, this remel pattern is the second most frequent in Mihrî's divan. The refrain word (redif) of the ghazal is "güç" and its rhyme (kafiye) rests on the "-et/-at" sounds in the words ḥasret, fürḳat, sıḳlet, vuṣlat, ṭâḳat and ülfet. In the miscellany the ghazal carries the heading "Mihrī-i Ġam-ḫ˘ār", that is, "Mihrî who grieves." Aktaş thinks such headings were written by the compiler rather than the poet, to suit the subject of the ghazal. For whom and on what occasion it was written is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the couplets of the ghazal, around the refrain "güç", list one by one the difficulties the lover meets. In the opening couplet (matla) longing and separation come first among them; the lover weeps blood and tears open his breast. Weeping blood and tearing the breast or collar are two familiar images of the pain of love in divan poetry. The second couplet describes the lover's impasse: it is hard to bear separation, but constantly knocking at the beloved's door to reach union also wearies the beloved. In the third couplet the poet finds his own desire "bî-hûde", vain, and admits how hard it is to unite with such a beauty.

The fourth couplet carries the subtlest utterance in the ghazal. When the beloved's face is seen, not looking is beyond one's power; on the other hand, the glance that comes from the beloved's bewitching eye wounds one unbearably. In divan poetry the beloved's eye is often likened to a sorcerer and the glance to an arrow; the compound "çeşm-i füsûn-sâz", the spell-making eye, rests on this tradition. The lover is thus caught between looking and not looking. In the closing couplet (makta) the beloved is called "şemâ'il-pîşe" and "‘âşıḳ-keş": beauty and a pleasing nature are the beloved's trade, and killing lovers is the beloved's habit. The poet, addressing herself as "Mihriyâ", acknowledges how hard it is to form a friendship with such a person.

Among the clues supporting the attribution of the miscellany ghazals to Mihrî, Aktaş also counts the choice of refrain: he notes that "güç" is used as a refrain in the divan as it is in the miscellany ghazals. Indeed, the eleventh ghazal of the divan is written with the refrain "olmaḳ ne güç", and there too the difficulty of being kept far from the beloved's beauty and of being driven from the beloved's door is described. Another similarity Aktaş identifies is a plain language that gives little room to Arabic and Persian compounds. In this ghazal too, plain, near-colloquial phrasings such as "nice ḳan aġlamayam" and "baḳmamaḳ olmaz" stand out. But as Aktaş himself reminds us, most of these clues are common expressive elements that could appear in other poets of the same tradition; the attribution of the ghazal will therefore remain open to debate unless a new manuscript or record is found.

Bibliography

  • Mutlu Muhammet Aktaş, "Mihrî Hatun'un Yayımlanmamış Gazelleri", Hikmet-Akademik Edebiyat Dergisi 9/18 (Spring 2023), pp. 105-126, doi:10.28981/hikmet.1200789, ghazal 1 (Kütahya Vahid Paşa Provincial Public Library 43 Va 2871, fol. 47a); study, pp. 109-112.
  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism Publications (Cultural Works Series 576), 2018, introduction, pp. 11-12; Ghazal 11, pp. 56-57.

Online sources