Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Tīr-i ḫadeng-i ġamzeñe baġrum nişānedür
Ḫūn-ı ciger gözümden anuñçün revānedür
Her şekl-i ḫūb ṣūret-i zībādan ey ṣanem
Sensin murādumuz ḳalanı hep bahānedür
Her geh ki görine göze maḫmūr gözlerüñ
Mest-i ṣabūḥ u ser-ḫoş-ı cām-ı şebānedür
Bālā-bülend ise n’ola gül-şende nārven
Ṭūbā boyuñ yanında be-ġāyet miyānedür
Mest-i ḫarāb-ı sāḳī-i meh-rū olup Münīr
Dilden sürūd-ı ‘ışḳı ḳoma ḫoş terānedür

In English

1. My breast is the target for the arrow of your glance; that is why the blood of the liver flows from my eye.

2. O idol of beauty, in every fair shape and lovely form it is you we long for; all the rest is pretext.

3. Whenever your languid eyes appear to the eye, they are drunk with the morning draught and merry with the evening cup.

4. What if the nārven tree is tall in the rose garden; beside your stature like the Tuba tree it is very middling.

5. Münîr, become the ruined drunkard of the moon-faced cupbearer and do not let the song of love leave your heart; it is a fine melody.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred-and-fifth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 105). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains places the ghazal among those with the refrain (redif) "-dür" (is); the rhyme is the "-āne" sound before it: nişāne, revāne, bahāne, şebāne, miyāne and terāne. The ghazal is found in three manuscripts of the divan and in one anthology of response poems (VT 122a, VY 104b, Ü 36a, MN 123a). According to the apparatus Ü reads "ḫarāb u" for "ḫarāb-ı" in the fifth couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with the image of the arrow and the target. "Tīr" and "ḫadeng" mean arrow, and "nişāne" target; the lover's breast is the target for the arrows of the glance. The blood flowing from the wound comes from the liver and is shed from the eye as tears. This path between breast, liver and eye is the familiar explanation of bloody tears in divan poetry.

The second couplet is the centre of thought of the ghazal. In every fair shape and every lovely form the lover seeks only the beloved; all other beauties are mere pretext. This manner of speaking is close to the idea that behind visible beauties a single true beauty is sought; the couplet may have a side open to a mystical reading. This is an inference. There is a closeness of meaning between "şekl" (shape) and "ṣūret" (form).

In the third couplet the beloved's languid eyes are likened to a drunkard. "Ṣabūḥ" is wine drunk in the morning, and "şebāne" means belonging to the night; the eyes are drunk with the wine of both morning and night. This contrast between morning and night expresses the idea that the eyes never sober up.

In the fourth couplet the tall "nārven" tree in the rose garden is compared with the beloved's stature. The beloved's stature is likened to the Tuba tree of Paradise; beside it the nārven is only of middling height. We have not been able to determine with certainty which tree the word "nārven" denotes. The word "miyāne" means "middle, middling"; the Persian "miyān", however, means waist and may carry an association with the beloved's waist. This last reading is our own inference. There is a contrast between "bālā-bülend" (tall) and "miyāne".

In the pen-name couplet the poet addresses himself. He tells himself to become the ruined drunkard of the moon-faced cupbearer and not to let the song of love be missing from his heart. The words "sāḳī" (cupbearer), "mest" (drunk), "ḫarāb" (ruined), "sürūd" (song) and "terāne" (melody) set up a congruence of images (tenasüp) around the gathering and music. The ghazal begins with an arrow piercing the breast and closes with a song of love.

Bibliography

Online sources