Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Çīn-i zülfüñle ḫaṭuñ k’ol ḫad-i zībāya geçer
Rūma ṣan şāh-ı Ḥabeş Şām ile Yaġmāya geçer
Mecma‘-ı dilde ki derd olmış idi ṣadr-nişīn
Nālem andan oladur kim daḫı bālāya geçer
Gözlerüm sāġarı ḳan ile ṭolup iñledigüm
Meclis-i ġamda sürūd u mey-i ṣahbāya geçer
Açılur ġonca-i şādī çemen-i cānda meger
Dideden aġzı ḫayāli dil-i şeydāya geçer
Dilde cāy itdi ḫayāli diyü yirinme gözüm
Ṭıfldur ḫāne-i rengīne temāşāya geçer
Öldürem dimiş idüñ derdüme dermān diyicek
Dönmegil başuñ içün ol da müdāvāya geçer
Tīr-i gamzeñ göricek didi Münīrī bu ḫadeng
Siper-i sīne degül mermer-i ḫārāya geçer

In English

1. As the curl (the China) of your lock and your down pass onto that lovely cheek, it is as though the king of Abyssinia, with Damascus and Yaghma, were passing over into Rum (marching into the land of Rum).

2. Because of the pain that has taken the seat of honour in the gathering of the heart (and within the breast), my lament passes higher still, up to the skies.

3. My eyes' cup filling with blood and my moaning pass for song and red wine in the gathering of sorrow.

4. If the image of your mouth passes from the eye into the frenzied heart, it seems the bud of joy opens in the meadow of the soul.

5. O my eye, do not regret that his image has taken a place in the heart; (it) is a child, it passes into the coloured house to look at the sights.

6. When I said "a cure for my pain", you had said "I will kill you"; by your head, do not go back (on your word), that too passes for a cure.

7. Seeing the arrow of your glance, Münîrî said: this arrow, let alone the shield of the breast, passes even through hard marble.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundredth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 100). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives the ghazal the refrain (redif) "-a geçer" (passes into); the rhyme is the "-ā" sound before it: zībā, Yaġmā, bālā, ṣahbā, şeydā, temāşā, müdāvā and ḫārā. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 121a, Ü 35a); it is not in the VY manuscript. According to the apparatus Ü reads "ḫaṭ-ı" for "ḫad-i" (cheek) in the first couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The verb "geçer" (passes) in the refrain takes on a different sense in each couplet: to pass over into a country, to pass upward, to pass for something (take its place), to pass from one place to another, and to pierce through an obstacle. The variety of the ghazal springs from the breadth of meaning of this verb.

The opening couplet (matla) builds a simile of geography and war. "Çīn" means both the land of China and a curl; this is a pun often used for the lock in divan poetry. As the black lock and the down spread towards the white cheek, the poet likens this to the king of Abyssinia marching into the land of Rum with Damascus and Yaghma. In divan poetry Abyssinia and the Zanj are used to express blackness, and Rum whiteness; the word "Şām" (Damascus) also evokes darkness through its Persian sense of evening. "Yaġmā" appears here as a place name; the word also recalls "yağma" (plunder) and suits the image of war. Reading these plays on names together is our own inference.

In the second couplet the word "ṣadr" means both the seat of honour in a gathering and the breast; pain has taken the seat of honour in the gathering of the heart, that is, in the lover's breast. The identification of this double entendre (tevriye) is ours. In the third couplet the wine of the gathering of sorrow is bloody tears and its song is moaning; a likeness is drawn between cup and eye in roundness and in filling to overflow.

In the fourth couplet the beloved's mouth resembles a bud; when the image of the mouth enters the heart, the bud of joy opens in the meadow of the soul. The fifth couplet carries a gentle simile: the image is a child, and just as children love colourful things, it goes into the "coloured" house of the heart, dyed with blood, to look at the sights. The heart's being coloured with blood may be the basis of this image; this is an inference.

In the sixth couplet death is thought of as a cure. When the lover asked for a remedy, the beloved said "I will kill you"; the lover asks him not to go back on his word, for death too is a cure for pain. The pen-name couplet describes the power of the glance's arrow with hyperbole: piercing the shield of the breast is an easy matter for that arrow; it pierces even hard marble. There is a gradation of hardness among the words "ḫadeng" (arrow), "siper" (shield) and "mermer-i ḫārā" (hard marble).

Bibliography

Online sources