Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yaḳasuz seni ḳodı ṣanma güzeller Mihrî
Nice senüñ gibi bunda yeler oñmaz bulunur

In English

1. O Mihrî, do not think that you alone have been left collarless, torn and disordered by the beautiful ones; many like you, who run and run and never recover, are to be found here (on the path of love). The couplet can be read in two ways: "yaḳasuz" can describe a lover who has torn his collar in grief, or a person who has been left without a collar to hold on to, that is, without anyone to turn to, abandoned. ("Yelmek" means to run, to hurry along; "oñmak" means to recover, to be healed, to attain one's wish.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This single couplet is the sixth müfred in Mehmet Arslan's edition. A müfred is a single couplet regarded as a poem in its own right, and in divans such poems are usually gathered at the end under the heading "Müfredler". According to Arslan, of the four manuscripts of Mihrî's divan, F, M and S each contain one müfred, while the Ü manuscript in the Istanbul University Library has eight. This couplet too is recorded only in the Ü manuscript, on folio 77a. Its metre is the remel pattern "Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilâtün Fe‘ilün"; according to Arslan this is the second most frequently used pattern in the divan and occurs in 48 poems. The poet's pen name "Mihrî" appears in the first line. The second line ends with the word "bulunur"; since in a single-couplet poem the first line is not required to take part in the rhyme, the couplet has no rhyme. To whom it was addressed, and on what occasion, is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is built on the poet addressing herself. In divan poetry a poet's addressing herself by her pen name is a habit seen mostly in the final couplet of ghazals, and like the closing couplet (makta) of a ghazal this müfred speaks in a tone of counsel and consolation. Mihrî says to herself: "Do not think the beautiful ones have left you ruined and wretched alone; there are many on this road who, like you, run and never reach their wish." That the lover takes his pain to be his alone and then remembers the crowd of those who suffer the same grief is a consolation often met in divan poetry.

The word "yaḳasuz" is the key to the couplet. In divan poetry the lover, from grief and the pain of separation, tears his collar and even his breast; a lover with a torn collar is the familiar picture of one whom love has ruined. The word clearly evokes this scene. On the other hand, in Turkish the collar is also the symbol of turning to someone and claiming one's right from them; to seize someone's collar means to call them to account. In this respect "yaḳasuz ḳomaḳ" can also be taken to mean leaving a person with nothing to hold on to, without a protector. Since the edition offers no explanation for the couplet, it is more correct to give the two readings together.

The word "yeler" in the second line comes from the verb "yelmek". The line "Yel gibi yıllar ile hevâsında yelmişem" ("Like the wind, for years I have run in desire of you"), quoted in Gülşen Kaya's study of the divan, shows that Mihrî uses this verb elsewhere to describe running for years after the beloved. "Oñmaz" comes from the verb "oñmak", used in Old Anatolian Turkish in the sense of not recovering, of not reaching a good outcome. The line thus describes, in a few plain words, those who run after love and arrive nowhere. That the couplet leaves no room at all for Arabic or Persian compounds is a good example of the plain Turkish diction that has been noted in Mihrî's poems.

That the pen name belongs to a woman poet makes the situation in the couplet interesting as well. Although in divan poetry the beautiful ones and the lovers are spoken of within conventional patterns, here the voice that takes on the role of the lover ruined by the beautiful ones is Mihrî's own. Since the sources contain no anecdote about this couplet, it cannot be tied to any particular event or person.

Bibliography

  • Mehmet Arslan (ed.), Mihrî Hâtun Dîvânı, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yayınları (Kültür Eserleri Dizisi 576), 2018, p. 185, Müfred 6 (Ü 77a); introduction, pp. 11-14. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gülşen Kaya, Mihrî Hâtun Divânı'nın Tahlili, master's thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2010, p. 274. openaccess.firat.edu.tr