Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Mest-i ṣabūḥ olup yaḳasın ġonca çāk ider
Kendüyi ‘andelīb anuñ-çün helāk ider
Sen gül-‘iẕāruñ irgüre diyü izi tozın
Bād-ı ṣabā yolına yüzin lāle ḫāk ider
Ḫaṭṭ u ‘iẕāruñ añduġum āb-ı revān u sebz
Jengār-ı ġamdan āyīne-i ḳalbi pāk ider
Sāḳī-i gül-‘iẕār ile mest-i ḫarāb olan
Ḫalḳuñ ne ṭa‘nın işidür andan ne bāk ider
Ol göñli ḳatı ġonca-dehāna meger Münīr
Te’s̱īr iderse bu ġazel-i sūz-nāk ider

In English

1. Drunk with the morning wine, the bud tears open its collar; and for its sake the nightingale destroys itself. (The opening of the bud is likened to the tearing of a collar.)

2. Saying "let it carry the dust of its track to your rose cheek", the tulip makes its face dust on the path of the morning breeze. (The tulip lays its face on the ground so that the dust the wind carries may touch the beloved's cheek.)

3. The flowing water and greenery by which I recall your down and your cheek cleanse the mirror of the heart of the rust of grief. (The down is likened to greenery and the bright cheek to flowing water; the VY manuscript reads "revān-ı" for "revān u".)

4. He who is drunk to ruin with the rose-cheeked cupbearer neither hears the reproach of people nor fears it.

5. Münîr, if anything is to affect that hard-hearted, bud-mouthed beauty, perhaps it will be this burning ghazal.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and fifteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 115). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives this ghazal the refrain (redif) "ider" (does, makes); the rhyme is the "-āk" sound before it: çāk, helāk, ḫāk, pāk, bāk and sūz-nāk. The ghazal is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 124b, VY 105b, Ü 36b). According to the apparatus, VY reads "revān-ı" for "revān u" in the third couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets of the ghazal take place in a spring garden and widen the motif of the rose and the nightingale with the tulip. In the opening couplet (matla) the bud tears open its collar like a reveller (rind) drunk with the morning wine. The opening of the bud is likened to the tearing of the collar by someone beside himself; this is a hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology) often found in divan poetry. The nightingale, for its part, destroys itself for the sake of this bud. In the second couplet the tulip lays its face on the ground. The poet explains this gesture with a wish: the tulip wants the morning breeze to carry its dust to the beloved's cheek. A link is made here between the downward-bending posture of the tulip and humility; this is our own inference.

The third couplet is built on colours. The down is green, the cheek bright and flowing; with the greenery and flowing water by which he recalls them, the poet cleanses the mirror of the heart. Old mirrors were made of metal and could rust; "jengār" is the green rust (verdigris) that forms on metal. That green rust is cleansed by greenery makes a subtle play of colour in the couplet; this observation is our own.

The fourth couplet voices the attitude of the rind: he who is drunk with the rose-cheeked cupbearer pays no heed to the reproach of people. The words "ṭa‘n" (reproach) and "bāk" (fear, hesitation) express this indifference. The phrase "mest-i ḫarāb" (drunk to ruin) in the couplet recalls once more the bud drunk with the morning wine in the opening couplet.

The pen-name couplet mentions the ghazal itself. In the introduction to the edition, Ersoy says that Münîrî describes his own ghazal as "sūz-nāk" (burning) and gives this couplet as the example. The beloved's heart is hard and the mouth a small bud; the poet says that if anything is to affect that heart, it can only be this burning ghazal. The phrase "ġonca-dehān" (bud-mouthed) recalls the bud of the opening couplet: the ghazal begins with a bud and ends with the bud-mouthed beloved. This link is our own observation.

Bibliography

Online sources