Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bunca dür kim gözüme la‘lüñ ḫayāli buldurur
Ġālibā dükkān-ı sīnemde cevāhir bol durur
Çeşm-i ḫūn-rīzini gördüm baġlamış didüm nedür
Didi mest oldı be-ġāyet nā-geh ādem öldürür
Rūzgār ider ḥavāle başına anda da tīġ
Şöyle şem‘-i ḫīre-ḫandı bir nefes kim güldürür
Āstānına yüzüñ sürmege yol bulmaz iseñ
Gözlerüñ yaşını vir pey ey dil ol da yol durur
Cān daḫı isterse teslīm eyle la‘line Münīr
Yoḫsa yoġ idüp seni de kendülügin bildürür

In English

1. The image of your ruby lip makes my eye find so many pearls (makes it shed so many tears); it seems jewels are plentiful in the shop of my breast. (There is a play on sound between "buldurur" (makes find) and "bol durur" (is plentiful).)

2. I saw that he had bound (bandaged) his bloodshedding eye and asked, "What is it?"; he said, "It has become exceedingly drunk; it might suddenly kill a man."

3. Time (or the wind) brings a sword down on its head there too; it is such a brazenly laughing candle that it makes one laugh for a single breath. The couplet is obscure; the trimming of the candle's wick or the wind putting out the flame may be meant. ("Rūzgār" means both time and wind.)

4. O heart, if you cannot find a way to rub your face on his threshold, give the tears of your eyes behind you (as a track); that too is a way. The couplet can be read in two ways: the word "pey" may mean track, footprint, or it may mean earnest money, a deposit; on the second reading it says "give your tears as earnest money".

5. Münîr, if he asks for your soul too, surrender it to his ruby lip; otherwise he will annihilate you too and make his own power (who he is) known.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and nineteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 119). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives this ghazal the refrain (redif) "-dürür"; the rhyme is the "-l" sound before it: bul, bol, öl, gül, yol and bil. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 125b, VY 91b); the apparatus records no variant readings. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The chief art of the ghazal lies in its rhymes. The refrain can be read both as a verbal suffix ("buldurur", makes find; "öldürür", kills; "güldürür", makes laugh; "bildürür", makes known) and as the copula "durur" (is) ("bol durur", is plentiful; "yol durur", is a way). The same sequence of sounds is thus a causative verb in one place and a noun with a copula in another. The play is plain between "buldurur" and "bol durur" in the opening couplet (matla) and in "yol durur" in the fourth couplet; it is a play on sound of the type known as cinas-ı mürekkeb (compound pun). The TDV article writes that Münîrî applied every kind of pun (cinas) with success; this ghazal is a clear example. This analysis of the rhymes is our own observation.

In the opening couplet the tears are pearls; they are so many that the poet likens his breast to a jeweller's shop. The second couplet is a small scene of dialogue. The beloved's eye is bound; the poet asks why and receives the answer, "it has become too drunk, it kills a man". In divan poetry the beloved's eye is languid and drunk, and its glance is deadly. The binding of the eye is told like the restraining of a drunk to make him harmless; this reading is our own inference.

The third couplet is the most obscure place in the ghazal. "Şem‘-i ḫīre-ḫand" means a brazenly laughing candle; the candle's flame is likened to a laugh. Since "rūzgār" means both time and wind, the sword falling on the candle's head may be both the punishment dealt by time and the wind that puts out the flame. It is also possible that the trimming of the wick with snuffers is described as "a sword falling on the head". We could not choose any of these readings with certainty.

In the fourth couplet a way is shown to the lover: if he cannot rub his face on the threshold, he should send his tears after the beloved. The two meanings of the word "pey" give the couplet two faces. In the pen-name couplet the soul is a trust that must be surrendered to the lip. There is a contrast between "yoġ idüp" (annihilating) and "kendülügin bildürür" (makes himself known): the beloved shows his own being by annihilating the lover.

Bibliography

Online sources