Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

Aṣluñ ey bî-çâre Ādem oldı od
Od olıcaḳ lâ-büd olur anda dûd
Geç cihânuñ varlıġından fâriġ ol
Tâ ki nâruñ nûr ide senüñ Vedûd

In English

1. O helpless child of Adam, your origin became fire; where there is fire, there must be smoke too.

2. Let go of the possessions of the world, of its wealth and property, and cut your ties with it, so that the Most Loving God (Vedûd) may turn your fire into light.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These two couplets, titled "Nâr", that is, fire, are the third piece of the "Çâr-‘Anâṣır" (Four Elements) section at the end of Mihrî Hatun's mesnevi the Tażarru‘-nâme. In Mehmet Arslan's edition the section is given after couplet 461 of the mesnevi as four pieces of two couplets each, with separate headings for earth, water, fire and air. According to Arslan's footnote the section is absent from the F, M and S manuscripts and exists only in the Ü manuscript in the Istanbul University Library; Sabiha Gemici too records in her doctoral study that the four qit‘as appear only in the Ü manuscript and in the text edited by Elena Maştakova.

The piece is written in the same metre as the Tażarru‘-nâme, the remel pattern "Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün". The rhyme scheme is aa xa: "od" and "dûd" rhyme in the first couplet, the last word of the second couplet, "Vedûd", joins this sound, and the line between them stays free with "ol". As in the other pieces of the section, there is no information here on the date of writing or on an addressee. Since Arslan thinks the Tażarru‘-nâme was written in the last years of the poet's life, these small pieces may belong to the same period, but no record settles the matter.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

According to the old view of nature, the realm of being consists of four elements, and the qit‘as in this section trace the origin of man in turn to each of these elements. In this qit‘a Mihrî takes up the fire in man's origin. Gülşen Kaya notes that in the divan fire is mentioned for its brightness and its burning, above all as the fire of love, with lovers thought of as moths burning in this fire, and she quotes these two couplets as well from the four-element section. In this piece, however, the fire can be read as standing for the burning side of the human self (nefs).

The first couplet sets up a plain relation of cause and effect: where there is fire there is also smoke. The smoke is given here as the unavoidable result of fire. Because of the fire in his origin, man cannot be free of smoke, that is, of murkiness and darkness. The poet does not say openly what this darkness is; the counsel of the second couplet suggests that it has to do with attachment to the world. The address "bî-çâre Ādem" ("helpless child of Adam") is an expression of pity and humility that suits the language of supplication in the Tażarru‘-nâme.

The second couplet gives the counsel: the fire of the person who lets go of the world's possessions and withdraws from them is turned into light by the grace of God. Between "nâr" and "nûr" there is a wordplay based on likeness of sound and script, that is, a pun (cinas); written in Arabic letters the two words are separated by only a single letter. The turning of burning fire into illuminating light means that the self is purified and attains a spiritual brightness. The naming of God here as "Vedûd" is also a fitting choice; Vedûd is one of the Beautiful Names (Esmâ-i Hüsnâ) and means the One who loves and is loved by His servants. Kaya counts Vedûd among the names by which God is mentioned in Mihrî's divan. That the One who will turn the fire into light is named by the attribute of love softens the severity of the qit‘a.

The fire piece continues the pattern seen in the other qit‘as of the section: first the place of the element in the creation of man is recalled, and then a lesson for this world and the next is drawn from it. While in the earth piece keeping away from the filth of the world and in the water piece the regret of the day of reckoning come to the fore, here a divine illumination is promised in return for withdrawing from the world.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 227, Çâr-‘Anâṣır: Nâr (Ü) and footnote; introduction, p. 12. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

  • Sabiha Gemici, Mihrî Hatun Divanı: Karşılaştırmalı Metin, Cümle Yapısı ve Cümle Türleri, doctoral thesis, Uludağ Üniversitesi, Balıkesir 1990, pp. 346, 411.
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, pp. 8, 269, 272-274. openaccess.firat.edu.tr

Online sources