Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Gözümüñ merdümin gör kim nice fikr-i viṣāl eyler
Vücūdumı virüp seyle ḳapuñdan yaña ṣal eyler
Varup la‘lüñe geldükçe virür şīrīn ḫaberlerden
Ṣanasın bir mekesdür kim derūn-ı cānda bal eyler
Meger kim ḳalbdür göñlüm ki her dem ‘ışḳuñ üstādı
Eridüp pūte-i ġamda firāḳ odıyla ḳāl eyler
Yavaşlıġına aldanma ġazāle beñzedüp çeşmin
Ṣaḳın dīvānesin ey dil saña ol nā-geh al eyler
Baña her dem delü göñlüm ṭanuḳluḳ şöyle virür kim
Büküp zülf-i ḫamuñ āḫir elif ḳaddümi dāl eyler
Dehānuñ fikrile göñlüm ‘amelden ḳaldı hīc oldı
Bu ḥāliyle miyānuñda nice ince ḥayāl eyler
Münīrī yanma iñende yüzi mihrini gör yārüñ
Ki mihr ü māha mülk-i ‘ālemi dār-ı zevāl eyler

In English

1. Look at the pupil of my eye, how it plans for union: giving my being to the flood, it makes it a raft and sends it towards your door. ("Ṣal eylemek" suggests both making a raft and letting go, sending off.)

2. Whenever (the pupil) goes and reaches your ruby lip, it brings back sweet news; you would think it a bee making honey within the soul.

3. Perhaps my heart is a debased coin (kalb), so that the master of your love melts and refines it every moment in the crucible of grief with the fire of separation. ("Ḳalb" means both heart and counterfeit coin; "ḳāl" means melting and refining metal.)

4. O heart, do not be deceived by the gentleness of his eye by likening it to a gazelle; beware, it will suddenly play a trick on you, its madman.

5. My mad heart bears witness to me at every moment thus: your curling lock will in the end bend me and make my stature, straight as the letter elif, crooked as the letter dal.

6. With the thought of your mouth my heart has given up all work and become nothing; in this state, what a fine fancy it weaves about your waist. (In divan poetry both mouth and waist are all but non-existent in their smallness and slenderness; "hīç" (nothing) answers to the mouth and "ince ḫayāl" (fine fancy) to the waist. This couplet is missing from VT and VY.)

7. Münîrî, do not burn so much; behold the sun (the love) of the beloved's face, which turns the realm of the world into a place of decline for the sun and the moon. (Before the beloved's face the sun and the moon grow dim.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and tenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 110). The metre is "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives this ghazal the refrain (redif) "eyler" (makes); the rhyme is the "-āl" and "-al" sound before it: viṣāl, ṣal, bal, ḳāl, al, dāl, ḫayāl and zevāl. The ghazal is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 123a, VY 103b, Ü 27b). According to the apparatus, the sixth couplet is missing from VT and VY and is found only in Ü; VY reads "ḫaberler di…" for "ḫaberlerden" in the second couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The rhymes of the ghazal are worth noting: long "ā" and short "a" sounds are used together (viṣāl, ḳāl, dāl, ḫayāl, zevāl beside ṣal, bal, al). The overlap in sound between the last syllable of "viṣāl" (union) in the opening couplet and the rhyme "ṣal" (raft) works like a play on sound; this is our own observation. The image of the opening couplet (matla) suits it: the pupil puts the lover's being on the flood of tears like a raft and sends it to the beloved's door.

In the second couplet the pupil is a bee. The bee goes from flower to flower and brings back honey; the eye likewise goes to the beloved's lip and brings back sweet news. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among "şīrīn ḫaber" (sweet news), "mekes" (bee) and "bal" (honey). The subject is not stated in the couplet; our taking it to be the pupil of the first couplet is an inference.

The third couplet is built on the terms of the goldsmith's craft. "Ḳalb" means both heart and counterfeit coin, "pūte" is the crucible in which metal is melted, and "ḳāl" is the melting and refining of metal. Because the heart is a false coin, the master of love melts it in the fire of separation and purifies it. Münîrî uses this pun on "kalb" in other ghazals as well; the same pun appears in the pen-name couplet of tg 107.

In the fourth couplet the beloved's eye is likened to a gazelle. The gazelle is a shy and gentle animal; but this gentleness is deceptive. "Al" means trick in Old Turkish; behind its gazelle-like look the eye hides a ruse. The fifth couplet rests on the image of letters: elif is a straight stroke, while dal is a bent letter. The curling lock bends the lover's straight stature and turns it into the letter dal.

The sixth couplet, found only in the Ü manuscript, describes the smallness of the mouth with the word "hīç" (nothing, non-existence) and the slenderness of the waist with the phrase "ince ḫayāl" (fine fancy); "‘amelden ḳalmak" means both to give up all work and to become useless. In the pen-name couplet "mihr" means both sun and love. The beloved's face makes the sun and the moon grow dim and turns the world into a "dār-ı zevāl" (a place of decline and fading) for them. The word "zevāl" also means the sun's beginning to descend from its zenith; we take this sense to be evoked in the couplet, which is an inference.

Bibliography

Online sources