Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Kendüye felek mihri ki her gün siper eyler
Beñzer ki benüm āhum oḳından ḥaẕer eyler
Kirpüklerüm ile ṭonadup keştī-i çeşmi
Deryāya meger merdüm-i dīde sefer eyler
Göñlüñ ne ḳadar ḳatıyısa raḥm ider idüñ
Bilseñ baña derd ü ġam-ı ‘ışḳuñ neler eyler
Fikr-i leb ü ḫaddüñi göñül cem‘ idüp ey dost
Ben ḫaste-i bī-çāreñe gül-bā-şeker eyler
Ey bedr-i Münīr irmek içün ḫāk-i derüñe
Eşk ile cihānı gözüm āḫir güẕer eyler

In English

1. The sun of the sky makes itself a shield every day; it seems to be guarding against the arrow of my sigh. (The round body of the sun is likened to a shield.)

2. The pupil of the eye (the little person of the eye), having rigged the ship of the eye with my eyelashes, is perhaps setting out on a voyage to the sea. (The eyelashes are the oars or the rigging of the ship, and the sea is the tears.)

3. However hard your heart might be, you would take pity if you knew what the pain and grief of your love do to me.

4. O friend, the heart gathers the thought of your lip and your cheek and makes rose conserve (gülbeşeker) for me, your helpless invalid. (Gülbeşeker is a sweet made by mixing rose petals with sugar; here the cheek is the rose and the lip the sugar.)

5. O radiant full moon (O Münîr: "münīr" means radiant and is the poet's pen name), to reach the dust of your door my eye will at last cross the world with tears.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 108). The metre is "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives this ghazal the refrain (redif) "eyler" (makes, does); the rhyme is the "-er" sound before it: siper, ḥaẕer, sefer, neler, şeker and güẕer. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 122b, VY 165b). According to the apparatus, the second couplet stands third in the VT manuscript; the edition appears to follow the order of VY here, which is our own inference. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets of the ghazal are two broad scenes set between the sky and the sea. In the opening couplet (matla) the sun covers itself with a shield every day; the poet ascribes this to its wish to protect itself from the arrow of his sigh. That the lover's sigh rises to the heavens and burns or pierces the sky is a thought often treated in divan poetry. Here the round, shining appearance of the sun is likened to a shield and a fanciful cause is found for it; this is an example of the device known as hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology). The words "siper" (shield), "ḥaẕer" (guarding against) and "oḳ" (arrow) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) drawn from the battlefield.

In the second couplet the eye turns into a ship. The pupil is the one who steers the ship, the eyelashes are its rigging, and the ship sets out on the sea formed by the tears. "Ṭonatmak" means to fit out a ship with sails and oars. The likening of the row of eyelashes to banks of oars is our own inference.

The third couplet is the plainest in the ghazal; it renders the pain of love as a complaint. In the fourth couplet there is an image from the apothecary's craft. Gülbeşeker is made from rose petals and sugar; because the poet is sick, his heart prepares a remedy for him from the beloved's cheek (the rose) and lip (the sugar). The dictionary of the Turkish Language Association defines gülbeşeker as a jam of paste-like consistency made with roses and sugar. In the couplet this sweet seems to be thought of as a medicine given to the sick; we could not confirm this use of gülbeşeker from a source, so this reading is an inference.

In the pen-name couplet "bedr-i Münīr" (radiant full moon) is an address to the beloved, but the word "Münīr" is at the same time the poet's pen name (mahlas). The pen name can thus be read both as an epithet of the beloved and as the poet's name; this is a double entendre (tevriye) made with the pen name. The tears crossing the world complete the sea-voyage image of the second couplet. The link between these two couplets is our own observation.

Bibliography

Online sources