Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Vezin: Feʻilātün feʻilātün feʻilātün feʻilün

Yoluña naḳd-i dil ü cānı da itsek itlāf
Yine itmez yine ol gözleri āhū inṣāf
Gelmez āġūş-ı viṣāle ne ḳadar saꜤy itsek
Sīm ü zerr itmeyicek dil-bere ey dil itḥāf
Kimse dūş [...] cefā endīşe
Ben helāk oldum [...] Ꜥaşḳımı lāf
İctināb itmege bāꜤis nedir ey kebk-i ḫırām
Cilvegāh olsa Ꜥaceb mi saña bu sīne-i ṣāf
Ḳadriñi bilmez eyā Mihrī-i ġam-ḫ˘ār bilmez
Yolıña naḳd-i dil ü cānı da itsek itlāf

In English

1. Even if we spend and use up the ready capital of heart and soul on your path, that gazelle-eyed beloved still shows no mercy.

2. O heart, however hard we strive, the beloved does not come into the embrace of union unless silver and gold are offered as gifts.

3. Part of this couplet could not be read because it is erased in the miscellany. From the words that can be read, one senses in the first line that someone has fallen, or has not fallen, into a worry about cruelty, and in the second line that the poet has perished and that her love is regarded as idle talk (lâf); the full meaning of the couplet cannot be established. ("Dûş" in Persian can mean both "last night" and "shoulder", so how the incomplete line should be completed is also unclear.)

4. O beloved who walks swaying like a partridge, what is the reason for your shunning me? Would it be strange if this pure, clear breast were a place for you to sway and show your coquetry?

5. O grieving Mihrî, (that beloved) does not know your worth, does not know it, even if we spend and use up the ready capital of heart and soul on the beloved's path.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

That this ghazal belongs to Mihrî Hatun is not certain. It is found in none of the four known manuscripts of Mihrî's divan; it appears under the pen name "Mihrî" on folio 48b of a poetry miscellany registered as 43 Va 2871 in the Kütahya Vahid Paşa Provincial Public Library. Mutlu Muhammet Aktaş, who published the twenty ghazals under the pen name Mihrî in the miscellany, finds it likely that they belong to Mihrî Hatun, but writes plainly that the comparisons of language and style he made do not lead to a firm judgment. According to Aktaş there is also no information showing that these ghazals belong to another poet with the pen name Mihrî. Because the compiler, date of copying and sources of the miscellany are unknown, the question of attribution remains open.

The ghazal has five couplets and is written in the remel metre, in the pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün". It has no refrain; the rhyme rests on the "-âf" sound in the words itlâf, inṣâf, itḥâf, lâf and ṣâf. According to Aktaş's note, the writing area of this folio of the miscellany is faded, so some words of the third couplet could not be read; in the article the unreadable places are given with the image of the miscellany, and here they are shown by three dots in square brackets. The last line of the ghazal repeats the first line; Aktaş records this as redd-i matla. Redd-i matla is the repetition in the closing couplet, verbatim or with very slight change, of a line from the opening couplet, closing the ghazal by tying it back to where it began. That the first line has "Yoluña" and the last "Yolıña" is a difference of spelling in the edition; the meaning is the same. The ghazal has no separate heading in the miscellany; for whom and on what occasion it was written is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the ghazal is a sacrifice left unrequited. In the opening couplet the lover is ready to spend his heart and soul like capital on the beloved's path; the compound "naḳd-i dil ü cân" likens heart and soul to ready money. But this spending is not repaid, and the gazelle-eyed beloved still shows no mercy. In divan poetry the beloved's eye is often likened to the large, shy eye of the gazelle; the expression "gözleri âhû" recalls both beauty and the gazelle's nature of fleeing and keeping away.

The second couplet carries the most striking and realistic utterance in the ghazal. The beloved does not come into the embrace of union unless silver and gold are offered as gifts. The "naḳd", money, used as a metaphor in the first couplet, here turns into real silver and gold; it is said that the capital of heart and soul does not suffice to win the beloved, who can be had only with material gifts. This is a bitter complaint about the beloved's faithlessness and self-interest. Among the words "naḳd", "sîm ü zer", "itlâf" and "itḥâf" there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) belonging to the sphere of money and spending.

In the fourth couplet the beloved is called "kebk-i ḫırâm", the partridge that walks swaying. The partridge's gait is an image likened, in divan poetry, to the beloved's coquettish, swaying walk. The lover asks the reason for the beloved's fleeing from him and offers his own breast as a clean place where the beloved might stroll with coquetry. There is a harmony between the partridge and "cilvegâh", the place of swaying and coquetry. In the closing couplet the poet addresses herself as "Mihrī-i ġam-ḫ˘âr", the grieving, sorrowful Mihrî; the same expression appears in the compiler's heading to the first Mihrî ghazal of the miscellany. That the beloved does not know the poet's worth is stressed by the repetition of "bilmez", and the ghazal returns to where it began with the repetition of the first line.

Aktaş shows that there are similarities between the miscellany ghazals and the divan, such as plainness of language, shared compounds and shared metres. In this ghazal too, though there are Arabic and Persian words, the diction is fluent and understandable. Still, as Aktaş warns, since most of these features can be found in other poets of the same tradition, the ghazal can be attributed to Mihrî Hatun only with caution.

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 3 (Kütahya Vahid Paşa Provincial Public Library 43 Va 2871, fol. 48b) and footnotes 2-3; 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. 11-14.

Online sources