Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Rīşte-i cānumdan aṣlā hīc elüm gitmez Münīr
Ṭut ki devr-i ‘ışḳ-ı yār içre benem çengī-i pīr
La‘l-i nābuñ yolına dürr ü cevāhir dökmede
Bir de birdür merdüm-i çeşmüm ḳatında biñ de bir
Pāy-māl itmişdi bendeñ gibi ġam göñlümi de
Bizi ṭopraḳdan götürdi zülfüñ olup dest-gīr
Gül-şen-i kūyuñda dil midür hemān efgān iden
Ṣad hezār anuñ gibi bülbül ḳılur her dem ṣafīr
Ḫāne-i dilde ḫayālüñdür muḳīm olan hemīn
Sen de bilürsin ki ma‘lūmuñ durur mā-fī’ż-żamīr
Kime beñzetsün Münīrī āftāb-ı ḥüsnüñi
Hīc dünyāda ‘adīmü’l-mis̱le olur mı naẓīr

In English

1. Münîr, my hand never, never leaves the string of my soul; suppose that in the cycle of the beloved's love (both its age and the rhythmic cycle of music) I am an old harper. ("Rīşte" means thread, string; the player does not take his hand from the string.)

2. In scattering pearls and jewels on the path of your pure ruby lip, in the sight of the pupil of my eye one is a thousand and a thousand is one (there is no difference between one and a thousand).

3. Grief had trampled my heart too underfoot like one of your servants; your lock, becoming one who takes us by the hand, lifted us from the dust. (The lock reaching to the ground is imagined as a hand held out to someone who has fallen.)

4. Is it only the heart that keeps lamenting in the rose garden of your street? A hundred thousand nightingales like it sing at every moment.

5. It is only your image that dwells in the house of the heart; you know this too, for what is in the heart is known to you.

6. To whom should Münîrî liken the sun of your beauty? Can there ever be a peer in the world for one who has no like?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and twentieth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 120). 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 "-īr" and "-ir" sound: Münīr, pīr, bir, dest-gīr, ṣafīr, żamīr and naẓīr. 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.

A notable feature of the ghazal is that the pen name (mahlas) also occurs in the opening couplet. The first line ends with the address "Münīr", and this word becomes the rhyme of the opening couplet; in the last couplet the pen name is used again in the form "Münīrī". The presence of the pen name in both the first and the last couplet is our own observation.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) sets up an image from music. The lover is an old harper; "rīşte-i cān" (the string of the soul) is the string of his instrument, and his hand never leaves it. The word "devr" means both age, time, and a cycle of the rhythmic pattern (usul) in music; the age of love turns into the rhythm the player is playing. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among "rīşte" (string), "çeng" (harp), "devr" and "çengī" (harper). We think the image of the old harper may recall the story of the old harper in Rumi's Masnavi; this is an inference, and there is no open reference to this story in the couplet.

The second couplet plays with numbers. The pupil, while scattering pearls and jewels (tears) on the path of the beloved's lip, makes no distinction between one and a thousand. The words "bir de birdür, biñ de bir" (one is one, and a thousand is one) recall a popular saying; we could not find this saying in a dictionary.

In the third couplet grief has trampled the heart underfoot like a servant. The lock, however, becomes a "dest-gīr" (one who takes by the hand, a helper) and lifts the lover from the dust. The long lock reaching down to the ground is likened to a hand held out to someone who has fallen. Between "pāy-māl" (trampled underfoot) and "dest-gīr" (taking by the hand) there is a congruence and a contrast of foot and hand; this observation is our own.

In the fourth couplet the heart is one of a hundred thousand nightingales in the beloved's street; the lover admits that his lament is not the only one. In the fifth couplet "mā fi'ż-żamīr" is an Arabic expression meaning "what is within, in the heart". The heart is a house, and only the beloved's image dwells in it; the beloved knows this too.

In the pen-name couplet the beloved's beauty is likened to the sun, but the poet says that even this comparison falls short: a being that is "‘adīmü'l-mis̱l" (without a like) can have no "naẓīr" (peer) in the world. The impossibility of comparison is thus expressed through a comparison.

Bibliography

Online sources