Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Dökdügi dīde yüregümüñ gerçi ḳanıdur
Ṭınmañ ḳo döksün anı ki ḥasret nişānıdur
Nā-geh ḫayālüñ üzre kimesne gele diyü
İki gözüm ḥarīm-i dilüñ dīde-bānıdur
La‘lüñ ḫayālini dil-i bī-çāre sīneden
Bir laḥẓa gitdügin dilemez ṭut ki cānıdur
Gitmişdi ḥüsnüñ iline dil geldi didiler
Bu derd ü ġam bize bes anuñ armaġanıdur
Ḫalvet-serāy-ı dilden anuñ ‘ışḳı ey Münīr
Gitmezse n’ola kend’özinüñ ḫānedānıdur

In English

1. What the eye pours out is indeed my heart's blood; say nothing, let it pour, for that is the token of longing.

2. Lest someone should suddenly come upon your image, my two eyes are the watchmen of the heart's inner sanctum.

3. The helpless heart does not wish the image of your ruby lip to leave the breast for a single moment; suppose it is its very soul.

4. The heart had gone to the land of your beauty; they said "it has come back"; this pain and sorrow is its gift to us (from that journey).

5. O Münîr, is it any wonder if his love does not leave the private palace of the heart? (That place) is its own household (its own home).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred-and-second of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 102). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is "-ıdur" (is its); the rhyme is the "-ān" sound before it: ḳan, nişān, dīde-bān, cān, armaġan and ḫānedān. Ersoy's list of refrains gives the numbers 66 and 101 for the refrain "-ıdur"; since tg 101 has a different refrain, it appears that 101 here should be 102; this is our own observation. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 121b, Ü 24b); it is not in the VY manuscript. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is woven around the image of a house and a palace. The breast and the heart are a palace; the beloved's image and love are its residents, and the eyes are its guards. The words "ḥarīm-i dil" (the heart's inner sanctum) in the second couplet, and "ḫalvet-serāy-ı dil" (the heart's private palace) and "ḫānedān" (household) in the fifth, carry this image.

In the opening couplet (matla) the bloody tears flowing from the eye are blood coming from the heart. The poet tells those around him to be silent and not to stop the eye from pouring out this blood, for tears are the token of longing. Bloody tears are in divan poetry the visible sign of the lover's pain.

In the second couplet the eyes are the "dīde-bān" of the heart's inner sanctum, that is, its lookout and sentry. There is a play on words between "dīde" (eye) and "dīde-bān" (lookout). The eyes keep watch so that no one may suddenly enter the inner chamber where the beloved's image resides. In the third couplet the image of the lip is like the heart's soul; just as the soul does not wish to leave the body, the heart does not wish this image to go.

The fourth couplet is a scene of travel. The heart went to the land of the beloved's beauty and came back; the gift it brought on its return is pain and sorrow. The custom of a returning traveller bringing a gift has turned into suffering in the couplet.

The apparatus shows that in the Ü manuscript the order of the couplets and some of the lines differ. In Ü the third couplet of the base text stands in fifth place and is written so as to contain the pen name, in the form "La‘l-i lebüñ ḫayālini bu sīneden Münīr"; the fifth couplet of the base text stands in fourth place and reads "iñen luṭf idüp ġamuñ" for "anuñ ‘ışḳı ey Münīr". Ü also omits the word "dīde" in the first couplet and reads "tā kim" (so that) for "nā-geh" (suddenly) in the second. Accordingly, the pen name stands in different couplets in the two manuscripts; this is our own observation.

Bibliography

Online sources