Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bunca bu la‘l ü dür ki dilā çeşm-i terdedür
Şol la‘l-i cān-fezā yolına hep naẓardadur
‘Uşşāḳa uġrayup ne içün yil gibi geçer
‘Ömr-i ‘azīzimüz bilürüz ḫod güẕerdedür
Ser-vaḳtüñ oldum ise n’ola ṣubḥ-dem raḳīb
Her kişi bilür uyḫusı itüñ seḥerdedür
Göñlüm ki vardı çāh-ı zeneḫdān seyrine
Miskīn o cāy-ı mühlikede key ḫaṭardadur
Şemşīr-i āb-dāruña dil-teşnedür Münīr
Sevdā-yı ‘ışḳuñ ile ‘aceb derd-i serdedür

In English

1. O heart, all these rubies and pearls in the wet eye (bloody and clear tears) are watching, every one of them, for the coming of that life-giving ruby lip.

2. Why does it pass like the wind when it falls upon lovers? We know that our precious life is in any case transient. The couplet can be read in two ways: the subject of the first line may be life (life passes like the wind when it comes to lovers) or the beloved (the beloved passes the lovers by like the wind).

3. If I came to visit you at dawn, what of the rival? Everyone knows that the dog's sleep is at dawn. (In divan poetry the rival is the dog that keeps watch at the beloved's door; the lover has chosen the hour at which it sleeps. We have taken "ser-vaḳt" in the sense of "calling on someone, a visit"; this is an inference.)

4. My heart, which went to view the well of the dimple in the chin, poor thing, is in very great danger in that perilous place.

5. Münîr thirsts for your gleaming, well-tempered sword; with the passion of your love he has fallen into a strange trouble of the head (a headache). ("Āb-dār" means both a well-tempered, keen sword and watery, lustrous; its link with thirst comes from this.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and sixteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 116). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives this ghazal the refrain (redif) "-dedür"; by vowel harmony the refrain appears as "-dedür" and "-dadur", and the rhyme is the "-er" and "-ar" sound before it: ter, naẓar, güẕer, seḥer, ḫaṭar and ser. The ghazal is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 124b, VY 106a, Ü 36b); the apparatus records no variant readings. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The suffix "-dadur" (is in) of the refrain names a place or a state in each couplet: in the eye, in watching, in passing, at dawn, in danger and in the head. The ghazal thus proceeds like a series of answers to the question "where?". This structural observation is our own.

In the opening couplet (matla) the tears are jewels: the bloody ones rubies, the clear ones pearls. These jewels watch for the coming of the beloved's ruby lip. The use of "la‘l" (ruby) in two different senses in the two lines, bloody tear and lip, may be counted a pun (cinas). The second couplet carries a thought on the transience of life; but the subject of the first line is uncertain, and the couplet can be tied both to life and to the beloved. There is a closeness of meaning between "yil gibi geçmek" (to pass like the wind) and "güẕerdedür" (is in passing).

The third couplet sets a familiar scene of divan poetry. The rival is conceived as a dog keeping watch at the beloved's door; the lover has come at dawn, when the dog has fallen asleep. The words "everyone knows that the dog's sleep is at dawn" must rest on the observation that a dog which barks all night sleeps towards morning; this is an inference.

In the fourth couplet the dimple in the beloved's chin is likened to a well. In divan poetry "çāh-ı zeneḫdān" (the well of the chin) also recalls the well into which Joseph was cast, and it is a trap into which the heart falls. The heart went there to look, but has fallen into a dangerous place. "Cāy-ı mühlike" (a deadly place) and "ḫaṭar" (danger) reinforce each other.

The pen-name couplet is built on water and thirst. When used of a sword, "āb-dār" means well-tempered and keen; since the word contains "āb" (water), the lover thirsts for this sword. To thirst for the sword means to wish to die. "Derd-i ser" in the second line means both a headache and a trouble that has become a burden on one's head; the word "sevdā" also evokes black bile, which old medicine associated with headaches. This last link is our own inference.

Bibliography

Online sources