Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Lāle-ḫaddüñsüz ki her gül baña āteş-pāredür
Ṣanki göñlüm gül yüzüñsüz bülbül-i āvāredür
Bāġ-ı ruḫsāruñdan ayru nev-bahār ile göñül
Hīc açılmaz ṣanki mermerdür ya seng-i ḫāredür
Gül gibi gerçi gülümser ṣūretā şeklüm velī
Ġonca gibi yüregüm ma‘nīde pāre pāredür
Ṭurmaz ider gözlerüm yaşı şükūfe seyrini
Kevkeb-i ezherde gūyā encüm-i seyyāredür
Gülden ise bāġbānuñ behresi şimdi Münīr
Bülbülüñ de nāledür kim meyli āh u zāredür

In English

1. Without your tulip cheek every rose is a piece of fire to me; without your rose face my heart is like a vagrant (homeless) nightingale.

2. Parted from the garden of your cheek, the heart does not open at all even with the new spring; it is as if it were marble or hard rock.

3. Outwardly my face does smile like a rose; but in its inner meaning my heart is in pieces like a bud. (The petals of the bud, folded over one another, are imagined as a heart torn to pieces.)

4. My eyes' tears never stop wandering among the blossoms; it is as if they were planets moving among the brightest stars. (The tears move among flowers as the planets move among the stars. "Ezher" means brightest; from the same root "ezhār" means flowers.)

5. Münîr, if the gardener's share now is the rose, the nightingale's share, whose leaning is towards sighs and moans, is lament.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and twelfth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 112). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains places it among the ghazals with the refrain (redif) "-dür"; the rhyme is the "-āre" sound before it: āteş-pāre, āvāre, ḫāre, pāre pāre, seyyāre and zāre. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 123b, VY 104a); the apparatus records no variant readings. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

From beginning to end the ghazal is a garden picture, built on the motif of the rose and the nightingale. In divan poetry the rose stands for the beloved and the nightingale for the lover; the nightingale sings and moans beside the rose. In the opening couplet (matla) the beloved's cheek is a tulip and the face a rose. For the lover, without the beloved's face the roses of the garden turn into pieces of fire; his heart is like a nightingale parted from its rose and left homeless. The likeness in sound between the rhymes "āteş-pāre" and "āvāre" strengthens the music of the couplet.

In the second couplet spring is set against stone. In spring everything opens, but the heart parted from the beloved's cheek stays closed like marble or rock. The verb "açılmak" describes both the opening of a flower and the easing of the heart; it is clear that both senses are used together in the couplet.

The third couplet rests on the contrast between appearance and inner state. There is a contrast between "ṣūret" (outward form) and "ma‘nī" (inner meaning). The face smiles like an opened rose, while the heart is in pieces like a closed bud. The likening of the layered petals of the bud to a heart torn to pieces is our own inference.

The fourth couplet links the garden to the sky. "Şükūfe seyri" means wandering among the flowers, and "encüm-i seyyāre" means the planets; "seyr" and "seyyāre" come from the same root and are related by derivation (iştikak). As the tears wander among the flowers they resemble the motion of the planets among the bright stars. The fact that "ezher" (brightest) comes from the same root as "ezhār" (flowers) builds a bridge between star and flower; this link is our own observation.

In the pen-name couplet the shares of the garden are divided: the rose falls to the gardener, and only lament is left to the nightingale. The poet puts himself in the nightingale's place; it is someone else who gathers the rose, and the lover's share is sighs and moans. The rhyme "āh u zāre" recalls once more the "āvāre" nightingale of the opening couplet.

Bibliography

Online sources