Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fa‘ûlün

Nice İskenderi laʿlüm zülâli
Ṣuya iletdi vü ṣusuz getürdi

In English

1. The sweet, pure water of my ruby lip has led many an Alexander to the water and brought him back thirsty. (The lip is likened to the water of life, which confers immortality: in the legend Alexander sought the water of life and did not find it, and many an Alexander who wishes to reach the lip likewise returns empty-handed. The idiom "to take someone to the water and bring him back thirsty" also means to outwit someone by cleverness and cunning.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This single couplet is not found in Mihrî Hatun's divan; it is absent from all four manuscripts on which Mehmet Arslan's edition of the divan is based. In the form in which we know it today it survives only in the tezkires, that is, the biographical anthologies of poets that collect poets' lives and samples of their verse. Latîfî, Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, Beyânî and Gelibolulu Âlî all report the couplet as Mihrî's. It is the only couplet of Mihrî's that lies outside the divan and whose attribution rests on the tezkire tradition.

The couplet conforms to the hezec metre, in the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "Mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fa‘ûlün"; this pattern is not given in the edition but has been determined from the text. A couplet standing alone in this way is called a müfred in divan poetry. The tezkires give the couplet different headings: Latîfî and Âşık Çelebi say "beyt", while two manuscripts of Âşık Çelebi have the heading "kıt‘a"; Kınalızâde gives the couplet under the heading "matla‘". The two lines do not rhyme with each other, so the heading "matla‘" does not stand in its technical sense. The heading "kıt‘a" suggests that the couplet may be the remainder of a longer piece, but in no source is there another couplet accompanying it. Among the sources there are only small spelling differences: Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde write "Niçe", Beyânî and Âlî write "susız", and Beyânî writes "zülâlî".

Historical Context

The couplet is tied to the best-known account of Mihrî's life. According to the tezkires, Mihrî fell in love with İskender Çelebi, the son of Sinan Paşa, and wrote many poems about him; the closing couplet of the divan's ghazal "Ḫâbdan açdum gözüm…", which ends "İrdi çün âb-ı ḥayâta Mihrî ölmez ḥaşre dek / Gördi çün ẓulmet şebinde ol ‘ıyân İskenderi" (Since she reached the water of life, Mihrî will not die until the Resurrection; since in the night of darkness she saw that Alexander plainly), is cited as evidence of this tie. İsmail E. Erünsal notes that Âşık Çelebi, Latîfî and Kınalızâde hint at this love and cite as evidence the conceit of Alexander in Mihrî's poems.

Latîfî describes the moment at which the couplet was spoken as follows: when Mihrî was put under suspicion in connection with İskender, the refined people and poets in the assembly of Sultan Ahmed, that is, of Prince Ahmed, who was then governor of the sancak of Amasya, made witty remarks at her, and she answered with this couplet. Âşık Çelebi too gives the couplet as a saying uttered when they cast the aspersion of illicit love upon her with İskender, and records immediately before it that Mihrî came into the world a girl and went out of it a girl. Beyânî and Kınalızâde write that it was said in the face of an imputation concerning a youth named İskender. Gelibolulu Âlî, for his part, relates that Mihrî entered the assembly of Sultan Ahmed and traded witticisms with the poets of her day, that she was put under suspicion with a silver-bodied youth named İskender, but that no one could lay a hand on her chastity, and he gives the couplet with the words "bir gün bedîhe dimişdür", that is, said on the spur of the moment, extempore. Gönül Ayan also reports the account in the same way and reminds us that İskender, the water of life and the dark night are common conceits of divan poetry, but that the presence of an İskender Çelebi in Mihrî's circle led to these poems being interpreted as a sign of passion for him. The occasion of the couplet is therefore entirely an account told by the tezkires; there is no other document that confirms it.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet's strength comes from its working the same word on three different levels at once. The first level is the legend. According to the narrative in Islamic literatures, Alexander went to the land of darkness to seek the water of life, which confers immortality; his companion Khidr found the water and drank it, while Alexander did not find it. In divan poetry the beloved's lip is most often likened to this water of life. By setting the words "la‘l" (ruby, the lip) and "zülâl" (pure, sweet water) side by side, Mihrî puts her own lip in the place of the water of life: many an Alexander has come as far as this water but returned without drinking from it. The fate of the Alexander of the legend is multiplied in the couplet and spoken of as a type, "nice İskender" (many an Alexander).

The second level is the idiom. "To take to the water and bring back thirsty" means, in Turkish, to outwit someone with intelligence and cunning. The second line of the couplet uses this idiom almost as it stands. Thus Mihrî both draws a legendary scene and tells those in the assembly who teased her that she has always outwitted those who wished to approach her. The antithesis between water and thirst places at the centre of the couplet a contradiction already present in the idiom itself.

The third level is the historical person. According to the account, the couplet was spoken because she was named in connection with a youth called İskender; the word "İskender" thus calls to mind both the legendary ruler and the İskender Çelebi whom the tezkires mention. In divan poetry the use of a word in both a near and a far meaning is called tevriye (double entendre); here the second meaning is, moreover, a real person who is the target of gossip. Mihrî's reply is therefore less a defence than a counter-witticism. Instead of rejecting the insinuation aimed at her, she turns the name to her own advantage: contrary to what was said, those who bear the name İskender have not got what they desired from her. In the divan's couplet "İrdi çün âb-ı ḥayâta", Mihrî describes the one who sees İskender as having reached immortality; in this müfred, the water of life is her own lip, and it is İskender who fails to reach it. The two couplets use the same legend from two different directions.

Bibliography

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