Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gördi şehdüñ yüregin ṣu itdi bu güftār-ı ter
Başın alup gitdi yüzin ṭolayup lā-büd şeker
Seng-dil maḥbūblar göñliyle ṭoldı yollaruñ
Na‘l-i esbüñ anlara ṭoḳunduġıçün od çaḳar
Gitmek ister gözüme yine ḫayālüñ sīneden
Ṭut ki od almaġ içün gelmiş durur şöyle k’iver
Bilmezem sevdā-yı zülfüñle ki n’ola ḥāl-i dil
İtme didükçe ben aña oldı ol daḫı beter
Derd-i ‘ışḳuñdan şikāyet ḳıldı dirlerse Münīr
Dostum inanma işitdigüñ gibi olmaz ḫaber

In English

1. Seeing the heart of honey, this fresh (sweet and moist) speech turned it to water (the heart of the honey melted with fear); sugar too, surely, wrapped its face, took itself off and left. (Before your speech, honey and sugar were put to shame and fled.)

2. Your roads have filled with the hearts of stone-hearted beauties; because the shoe of your horse strikes them, it strikes fire (sparks).

3. Your image wants once more to leave my breast for my eye; it is as if it had come to fetch fire, it is in such a hurry.

4. I do not know what the state of the heart will be with the passion for your lock; whenever I told it "do not", it grew even worse. ("Sevdā" means both love and black bile, melancholy; it is connected with the black colour of the lock.)

5. My friend, if they say that Münîr complained of the pain of your love, do not believe it; news is not as you hear it. (The VT manuscript reads "Sōz-ı", the burning of, for "Derd-i".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and thirteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 113). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif) and does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains; the rhyme is the "-er" sound: ter, şeker, k'iver, beter and ḫaber. The rhyme of the second couplet, "çaḳar", however, has the back vowel, "-ar"; this small difference in sound is our own observation. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 124a, VY 90b). According to the apparatus, VT reads "Sōz-ı" for "Derd-i" in the fifth couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) sets the beloved's speech in competition with honey and sugar. In divan poetry the beloved's speech and lips are likened to honey and sugar for their sweetness; here, however, honey and sugar cannot measure up to this speech. When honey sees it, its heart turns to water; sugar too covers its face and takes itself off. The word "ter" (fresh, moist) in "güftār-ı ter" also suggests a moisture that melts honey. Sugar wrapping its face may recall the sugarloaf wrapped in paper; this is an inference.

In the second couplet there is a scene on the road. The roads along which the beloved passes are full of the hearts of stone-hearted beauties who have fallen for him. As the horse's shoe strikes these stones, sparks fly. The observation that fire is struck from stone and iron is combined with the idiom "taş yürek" (stone heart). The stone heart, a figure of speech, is thus treated as a real stone.

The third couplet rests on a Turkish expression. The dictionary of the Turkish Language Association records "ateş almaya mı geldin?" (did you come to fetch fire?) as a reproach said to someone who wants to leave at once the place he has just dropped in on. The beloved's image likewise drops in on the lover's breast but wants to leave at once for the eye. That "od almak" (fetching fire) and "k'iver" (hurry) fit this expression is our own observation.

In the fourth couplet the word "sevdā" means both love and, in old medicine, the illness arising from a predominance of black bile. Since the lock is black, the passion for the lock carries both senses at once. That the heart grows worse whenever it is told "do not" reflects the condition of someone who has fallen ill.

The pen-name couplet is a denial. The lover does not complain of the pain of love; if such words are heard, they are said to be groundless. The phrase "news is not as you hear it" has the air of an aphorism; we could not find this expression in a dictionary. The TDV article notes that Münîrî was successful in the tradition of setting proverbs and idioms into poetry; the third and fifth couplets of this ghazal are examples of that side of his work.

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