Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Mû-be-mû gîsûlarun kılmış ihâtâ gerdenün
Mâhtâbı sanasun kim kaplamışdur hâleler
Bağrumı pergâle pergâle kılupdur tîg-ı gam
Muhlisî çeşmümden akan kandur ol pergâleler

In English

1. Your locks have encircled your neck hair by hair; whoever sees it would think haloes (the rings of light around the moon) had enveloped the moonlight.

2. The sword of grief has cut my breast to pieces; O Muhlisî, those pieces flowing from my eye are blood (the pieces of my breast flow from my eye as bloody tears).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These two couplets come from a ghazal (gazel) of which only this fragment is known today. Because the lines of the first couplet do not rhyme with each other, this couplet is not the opening couplet (matla) of the ghazal; the second couplet is the closing couplet (makta), in which the pen name (mahlas) appears. The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-ler", and the rhyme is formed by the sound "-âle" in the words "hâle" and "pergâle". The source does not state the metre; the couplets fit the "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), and this identification is our own. The text is given in the form in which the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü quotes it from Ahdî's Gülşen-i Şuarâ, relying on Süleyman Solmaz's edition; we were not able to see Solmaz's edition directly. Kınalızâde and Beyânî do not include these couplets in the prince's entry. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet is a description of beauty. The beloved's white neck is likened to the moon, and the black hair encircling the neck strand by strand to the halo around the moon; the comparison is not stated outright but left to the reader with the word "sanasun" (you would think). The phrase "mû-be-mû" (hair by hair) conveys that the hair encircles the neck strand by strand. In the second couplet grief is likened to a sword through the phrase "tîg-ı gam" (the sword of grief), and this sword cuts the lover's breast to pieces. The word "pergâle" (piece) occurs twice in succession in the first line and once more in the second; this repetition gives the fragment a tidy sound. In divan poetry the lover's tears are often bloody; the poet presents the blood flowing from his eye as the torn pieces of his breast. A contrast can also be sensed between the two couplets: the beloved, whole and radiant like the moon in the first couplet, stands opposite the lover torn to pieces in the second; this contrast is our own reading.

Historical Context

This fragment recorded by Ahdî is the only known surviving trace of a second ghazal by the prince, distinct from the "Rif’at istersen" ghazal given by Kınalızâde and Beyânî. The Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü states that the prince used his own name in some ghazals and the pen name Muhlisî in others; in this closing couplet the pen name appears openly. The prince's life, his other ghazal and his circle of poets in Amasya are described in the article Şehzade Mustafa (Muhlisî): His Poems and the Poets of His Amasya Circle.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Books

  • Şerife Ördek, "Muhlisî, Şehzâde Mustafâ b. Kânûnî Sultân Süleymân", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, 2014 (updated 2020), "Eserlerinden Örnekler". https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/muhlisi-sehzade-mustafa-kanuni
  • Süleyman Solmaz, Ahdî ve Gülşen-i Şuarâsı, Ankara: AKM Yay., 2005, p. 33 (as quoted in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü).

Online sources