Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün

Çünki gönderdi Ḫudâ devlet ile râha seni
Mübtelâ ḳılsun İlâhî yine bir şâha seni
Ḳomayalum hele var âh-ı seḥer-gâha seni
Yüri şâhum yüri ıṣmarladum Allâh'a seni
Bir zamân şehr-i Amâsiyye'de İskender idüñ
Ḫıżr-veş âb-ı ḥayât isteyene rehber idüñ
Ḫûblar içre ṣanemâ sen daḫi bir server idüñ
Yüri şâhum yüri ıṣmarladum Allâh'a seni
Varalum kûyuña her demde fiġânlar idelüm
Yaşum ırmaġını her câya revânlar idelüm
Yüzümüz sürüp işigüñde mekânlar idelüm
Yüri şâhum yüri ıṣmarladum Allâh'a seni
Ḳanı ol dem ki bizümle dün ü gün hem-dem idüñ
Dil-i mecrûḥumuzuñ yâresine merhem idüñ
Hey benüm begcegizüm sen daḫi bir âdem idüñ
Yüri şâhum yüri ıṣmarladum Allâh'a seni
Seni heyhât ki bir daḫi görince gözümüz
Āh u zâr ile geçiser gicemüz gündüzümüz
Cânumuz ḥulḳa irişince bu olsun sözümüz
Yüri şâhum yüri ıṣmarladum Allâh'a seni
Ḳaşlaruñ yâsına ḳanı ki nişân idi sîne
Ġamzeñ oḳların atarduñ dil ü cân pûtesine
Dil-i âşüfte unıtmaz seni varınca sine
Yüri şâhum yüri ıṣmarladum Allâh'a seni
Āşinâ olmış iken çün bizi yâd itdi felek
Yâreler üstine dâġ urdı yine dertlü yürek
Ḳaldı fikrüñle ḫayâlüñ bize ey dost belek
Yüri şâhum yüri ıṣmarladum Allâh'a seni
Bâġ-ı ḥüsnüñe ḫazân irmesün ey lâle-‘iẕâr
Bulınur Mihrî gibi saña ne ġam günde hezâr
Dostı yâd itmek imiş ‘âdetüñüz âḫir-i kâr
Yüri şâhum yüri ıṣmarladum Allâh'a seni

In English

1. Since God has sent you on your way with good fortune and prosperity, may God make you fall in love again with some beauty (may you too taste what parting is). Let us not leave you to the sighs of dawn that we utter; go, then. Go, my lord, go; I commend you to God. (The third line can be read in two ways: either the poet does not want her sigh to touch the one who departs, or she says she will not leave him alone with the sighs of the morning and will go on weeping after him.)

2. Once, in the city of Amasya, you were an Iskender (Alexander); like Khidr, you were a guide to those who sought the water of life. O idol-fair one, you too were a leader among the beautiful. Go, my lord, go; I commend you to God. (The story is told of Iskender and Khidr seeking the water of life in the land of darkness; here the name "İskender" recalls both this legendary ruler and the poem's addressee.)

3. Come, let us go to your street and cry out at every moment; let us make the river of our tears flow everywhere; let us rub our faces on your threshold and make a dwelling there. Go, my lord, go; I commend you to God.

4. Where are those days when you were our companion night and day, a salve for the wound of our injured heart. Hey, my dear little lord, you too were once one of us, a man with a heart. Go, my lord, go; I commend you to God. (The third line can be understood in two ways: the beloved was once close and approachable like anyone else, or he once behaved humanely and with compassion.)

5. Alas, until our eyes see you once more, our nights and days will pass in sighs and lamentation. When our soul reaches our throat, that is, at our last breath, let this be our word too: Go, my lord, go; I commend you to God.

6. Where are those times when our breast was the target for the bow of your brows; you shot the arrows of your glance at the target of heart and soul. The infatuated heart will not forget you until it reaches the grave. Go, my lord, go; I commend you to God. (The brow is likened to a bow, the lash and the glance to an arrow; "pûte" means the target at which arrows are shot, and "sine" means the grave.)

7. When fate had made our acquaintance, it cast us aside; the sorrowing heart branded fresh marks on top of its wounds (added a new pain). O friend, as a gift to us only your thought and your image have remained. Go, my lord, go; I commend you to God. ("Belek" means a gift or present in Old Turkish; a brand is the mark left by hot iron on a wound.)

8. O tulip-cheeked one, may autumn not come to the garden of your beauty. What grief is it to you; a thousand like Mihrî can be found every day. It seems that in the end it is your custom to treat a friend as a stranger. Go, my lord, go; I commend you to God. ("Hezâr" means both "thousand" and "nightingale"; together with the words "garden" and "tulip", the sense that a thousand nightingales will be found in the beloved's garden can also be felt.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The murabba, which stands eighth in Mehmet Arslan's edition, consists of eight stanzas of four lines each and is written in the remel metre in the pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün". The murabba is a verse form of the musammat type in divan poetry, built of four-line stanzas. In this example the first three lines of every stanza rhyme among themselves, while the fourth line is a refrain that repeats unchanged in all the stanzas: "Yüri şâhum yüri ıṣmarladum Allâh'a seni." In the first stanza the refrain too ends in the same sound as the other lines (râha seni, şâha seni, seḥer-gâha seni, Allâh'a seni); in the later stanzas the rhyme changes each time: "-er idüñ", "-ânlar idelüm", "-em idüñ", "-üzümüz", "-sine", "-ek", "-âr". Of the four manuscripts the poem is found only in the Ü manuscript (Istanbul University, 70a); for this reason there is no possibility of comparing the text with another manuscript.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the murabba is a send-off. The beloved has set out on a journey, and has been sent "with devlet", that is with good fortune, perhaps with an appointment. The poet offers him anger and good wishes together: in the first stanza she wishes that he fall in love with a beauty and taste separation himself; in the last stanza she prays that autumn not come to the garden of his beauty. The plain, near-colloquial wording of the refrain ("Yüri şâhum yüri") gives the poem the liveliness of a scene of farewell. In her thesis on the divan, Gülşen Kaya describes this murabba as one of the rare poems that, written with a sincere longing, with the theme of seeing off the one who departs with prayers and of parting, give a sense of having been lived.

The second stanza is the centre of the poem. In divan poetry the name "İskender" recalls the ruler who went with Khidr to the land of darkness in search of the water of life; the poet makes an allusion by saying that the beloved was an İskender in Amasya and, like Khidr, guided those who sought the water of immortality. Because the same name can also be read as the name of the poem's addressee, the couplet contains a double entendre (tevriye). The words "ṣanem" (idol) and "server" (chief, leader) raise the beloved like a sovereign among the beautiful.

The sixth stanza uses the familiar conceit of bow and arrow in divan poetry: the brow is a bow, the glance an arrow, and the breast the target of these arrows. Between "pûte" (target) and "nişân" there is a congruence of images (tenasüp), and between "sîne" (breast) and "sine" (to the grave) a pun based on similarity of sound. In the seventh stanza fate is described as an enemy that casts aside the one it has become acquainted with; because the word "yâd" carries both the meaning of "stranger" and that of "remembrance", it offers the reader a double meaning. The word "belek" (gift) in the same stanza is an Old Turkish word and fits the plain language of the poem. The "hezâr" in the last stanza makes one think of the number a thousand and of the nightingale together: a thousand lovers, a thousand nightingales like Mihrî will be found in the beloved's garden. That the poet places her own name inside this belittling sentence expresses her hurt with a delicate mockery. The address "begcegizüm" (my dear little bey) in the fourth stanza is also an endearing diminutive not often seen in the language of the divan, and strengthens the intimate air of the poem.

Historical Context

Among the tezkires that give information about the life of Mihrî Hatun, Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi imply that there was a bond of the heart between the poet and İskender Çelebi, the son of Sinan Paşa, and as evidence cite the name İskender that occurs in Mihrî's poems. The entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi relates this story in the same way. The poem that the tezkires put forward as evidence is ghazal 189, in whose closing couplet İskender is mentioned. The line "Bir zamân şehr-i Amâsiyye'de İskender idüñ" in this murabba is tied to the same circle. Gülşen Kaya notes that this murabba is one of the poems written to İskender, and says that the poem contains expressions suggesting that İskender had been sent off on a duty. Enes İlhan, in explaining that Mihrî does not shrink from naming in her poems persons about whom gossip had arisen, such as İskender Çelebi and Hâtemî, gives this stanza as an example.

That said, it is not documented by a heading or a manuscript note that the murabba was written to İskender Çelebi; the link arises from putting together the name in the poem and the story that the tezkires tell. The phrase "Bir zamân" (once) suggests that the addressee was for a time in Amasya and has now left it; the words of the first stanza, "gönderdi Ḫudâ devlet ile râha seni" (God has sent you on your way with good fortune), suggest that the departure came about through good fortune or an assignment. Where and when the departure was is not known. According to what Gönül Ayan relates from the tezkires, the poets in Prince Ahmed's assembly teased Mihrî with witty remarks over the name İskender, and she answered with the couplet "Nice İskenderi la‘lüm zülâli / Ṣuya iletdi vü ṣusuz getürdi" (the pure water of my ruby lips took many an İskender to the water and brought him back without water). This account shows that the name was a subject of wit in the literary circle in Amasya.

Bibliography

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