Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫarc it dir iseñ ‘aşḳum içün ‘ömr ile cânı
Olsun begüm olsun
Terk it dir iseñ ‘aşḳum içün iki cihânı
Olsun begüm olsun
Ḳaddüm var iken ḳâmetini bâġ-ı cihânda
Her ṣaḥn-ı çemende
Zinhâr görüp añma ṣaḳın serv-i revânı
Olsun begüm olsun
Bülbül gibi sen zârlıġ it ḫâr-ı cefâda
Gülzâr-ı cihânda
Gördükçe bu ben ḫaddi gül ü ġonca-dehânı
Olsun begüm olsun
Ṣandûḳını dâyim sineñüñ imdi nişân it
Beste aña cân it
Atduḳça müjem tîrini ebrûm kemânı
Olsun begüm olsun
Cân levḥasına eyle cemâlümi muṣavver
Bulsun dilüñ enver
Tâ görse ḥased ide anuñ naḳşına Mânî
Olsun begüm olsun
Metâ‘ına ger ‘aşḳımuñ olduñsa ḫarîdâr
Cândur bahâ al var
Aṣṣ'ile bu bâzârda hîç añma ziyânı
Olsun begüm olsun
‘Aḳl u dil ü cânuñ baña virmişdüñ ezelde
Neyler daḫi sende
Tîz vir beri anları gerekdür baña ânı
Olsun begüm olsun
Öl derdüm ile olma daḫi ḫûblara mâ’il
Ol cevrüme ḳâ’il
Maḥbûb-ı cihân ger ola itme nigerânı
Olsun begüm olsun
Nâ-gâh girür ise elüñe dâmen-i vaṣlum
Bir vaḳt-i şerefde
Sür yüzüñi vü gözüñ ayaġuma revânı
Olsun begüm olsun
Gerçi bu cihânda bulınur ṭâlibe maṭlûb
Sevdüg'ola bir ḫûb
Yâd eyleme ‘aşḳumda daḫi sen o zamânı
Olsun begüm olsun
Düketmiş imiş ‘ömrüñi ey Mihrî güzeller
Cevr ile cihânda
Şimden girü ‘aşḳumla benüm gel ola fânî
Olsun begüm olsun

In English

1. If you wish to spend your life and soul for my love ("spend", if you say), so be it, my lord, so be it; if you wish to forsake both worlds for my love, so be it, my lord, so be it.

2. While I have my stature, in the garden of the world, seeing the cypress's stature in the middle of every meadow, do not mention that swaying cypress; so be it, my lord, so be it.

3. In the rose garden of the world, upon the thorn of torment, moan like a nightingale whenever you see me, rose-cheeked and rosebud-mouthed; so be it, my lord, so be it.

4. As the bow of my brow shoots the arrow of my eyelash, make the chest of your breast (your rib cage) your constant target from now on and bind your soul to it; so be it, my lord, so be it.

5. Paint the beauty of my face on the tablet of your soul (your heart) so that your heart may be lit; so that even Mânî (the famous painter), seeing the picture, would envy it; so be it, my lord, so be it.

6. If you have become a buyer of the goods of my love, the price is the soul, take it and go; in this market think of your profit, never mention loss; so be it, my lord, so be it.

7. You gave me your mind, your heart and your soul in pre-eternity; what business have they with you now; give them here quickly, I need them at once; so be it, my lord, so be it.

8. Die of my grief, and from now on do not incline to other beauties; consent to my torment; even if she is the beloved of the world, do not look at her; so be it, my lord, so be it.

9. If the hem of my union comes suddenly into your hand at an honoured moment, at once rub your face and eyes on my feet; so be it, my lord, so be it.

10. Although in this world one who seeks finds what he seeks, and there may be a beauty you love, while you are in my love do not mention that time again; so be it, my lord, so be it.

11. O Mihrî, the beauties have spent their lives in the world in torment; from now on, come and be annihilated (fânî) in my love; so be it, my lord, so be it.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is the only mustezad in Mihrî's divan and it consists of eleven stanzas. A mustezad is a verse form in which, after each of the long lines built like a ghazal, a short line (the ziyade) written in a shortened form of the same metre is added. The long lines are written in the hezec metre in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fa‘ûlün", the short lines in the pattern "Mef‘ûlü Fa‘ûlün". The introduction of the edition counts the poem as "1 Müstezâd (11 couplets)", that is, each stanza consists of a couplet with two short lines added to it. The second of the long lines rhymes in all the stanzas on the sound "-ânı" (cânı, cihânı, revânı, dehânı, kemânı, Mânî, ziyânı, ânı, nigerânı, zamânı, fânî). The last short line of each stanza is an unchanging refrain: "Olsun begüm olsun". In most of the stanzas the first long line and the short line that follows it also rhyme with each other (cihânda / çemende, muṣavver / enver, ḫarîdâr / var, mâ’il / ḳâ’il, maṭlûb / ḫûb, and so on).

The poem is found only in the Ü manuscript. Sabiha Gemici, in her comparative text based on this manuscript, notes that the mustezad is arranged within the ghazals section, together with the ghazals. Nothing is known of whom the poem was written for or on what occasion.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

What distinguishes the mustezad from Mihrî's other poems is who is speaking. The one who takes the word in the poem is not the lover but the beloved. Words such as "ḳaddüm" (my stature), "cemâlüm" (the beauty of my face), "müjem" (my eyelash), "ebrûm" (my brow), "vaṣlum" (union with me) and "‘aşḳum" (love for me) show that the elements of beauty which the lover praises in divan poetry are here counted in the beloved's own voice. The beloved issues commands to the lover: not to mention any other cypress, to engrave her beauty on his heart, to surrender his mind, heart and soul to her, and not to look at other beauties. The refrain "olsun begüm olsun" after each command gives these demands both a tone of consent and one of coquettish indifference.

The address "begüm" (my lord) in the refrain is also remarkable. Sıtkı Nazik, comparing the similarly-refrained poems of Mihrî and Tâcîzâde Cafer Çelebi, places this mustezad on the same line as Cafer Çelebi's ghazal with the redif "olsun begüm". Nazik notes, of Cafer Çelebi's ghazal, that the redif "olsun begüm" gives at first glance the impression that the person addressed is a man, and that if Mihrî Hatun had spoken these words one could strongly think that the addressee was a man. In Mihrî's mustezad the speaking beloved calls her lover "my lord", while in the closing stanza this lover is called by name: "ey Mihrî". The stanza can therefore be read in two ways. Either the poet, mentioning her pen name (mahlas) in the last stanza as the tradition requires, has made herself the addressee of the beloved; or the address "begüm" in the refrain is used as a stock endearment independent of the lover's identity. Mehmet Arslan observes that Mihrî, in a male-dominated literary milieu, had to write with the identities of both lover and beloved and so appears with different discourses; this mustezad can be counted among the examples that make the beloved's voice speak directly.

In the poem the familiar imagery of divan poetry is rebuilt in the beloved's voice. In the second stanza the beloved sets her own stature against the cypress and asks the lover not to mention the cypress. In the third stanza the lover is a nightingale wailing among thorns, while the beloved is a rose with rose cheeks and a rosebud mouth. In the fourth stanza the brow is a bow, the eyelash an arrow and the lover's breast the target; the word "ṣandûḳ" makes one think of the rib cage as a chest. In the fifth stanza the beloved asks that the beauty of her face be painted on the tablet of the soul so that even Mânî would envy that picture. Mahmut Başaran mentions this stanza among the traces of persons from the Shahnameh in Mihrî's divan and explains it as saying that with the beauty of the face the heart too will become beautiful and that even Mânî, seeing these designs, would envy them.

The sixth stanza describes love as a market transaction. Gülşen Kaya cites this stanza as an example in her study of market and trade elements in the divan: whoever becomes the buyer of the goods of love will pay with the soul as the price. The word "aṣṣ" in the line is the old Turkish word "assı", meaning "benefit, profit", and sets up an antithesis (tezat) with "ziyân" (loss). The seventh stanza appeals to the belief in pre-eternity: the lover gave her mind, heart and soul to the beloved "in pre-eternity", that is, before creation, and now the beloved asks for them back. In this stanza the word "ânı" is used in the rhyme position in the sense of "at once".

In the last stanzas the beloved's demands turn into an oath of fidelity. The lover will not look at other beauties, will rub her face on the beloved's feet if she finds an opportunity for union, and will not mention former loves. The closing stanza tells the lover to spend what is left of a life worn out by the beauties' torment being "fânî" (annihilated) in the beloved's love. The expression "fânî olmak" also recalls the concept of "fenâ" in Sufism, which describes passing away from one's own being; the poem thus begins with the coquettish speech of the beloved and closes with a call to ecstatic self-annihilation in love.

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