Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Cīm-i cemāl noḳṭasını dil dehen bilür
Bilsem ki sırr-ı ġayb iken anı neden bilür
Ol zülf-i ḫam ġamını göñül bilmek isteseñ
Ben ḫasteden ṣor anı kim anı çeken bilür
Baġruma n’olduġın ḳo beni ṣor ḫadengüñe
Dirler yiyen kişi ne bilür ṭoġrayan bilür
Şem‘-i ruḫuña ḳarşu neler çekdügüm benüm
‘Işḳ āteşiyle gice vü gündüz yanan bilür
Benden Münīrī n’oldı diyü ṣorma göñlüñi
Ben n’olduġunı bilmezem anuñ ḥasen bilür

In English

1. The heart knows that the dot of the letter "cim" in beauty (cemâl) is the mouth; I wish I knew how it knows this when it is a secret of the unseen. (The word "cemāl" begins with the letter cim; the dot beneath the cim is likened to the small mouth. Because the mouth is too small to be seen, it is counted a secret.)

2. If you wish to know the grief of that curling lock, ask it of me, the sick one; for he who bears it knows.

3. Do not leave it to me what has happened to my breast; ask your arrow. As they say: what does the eater know? The one who chops knows. (It points to the arrow piercing and cutting up the breast.)

4. What I have suffered facing the candle of your cheek, he knows who burns night and day in the fire of love. (The one who burns is the moth that throws itself into the candle's flame.)

5. Münîrî, do not ask me "what has become of your heart"; I do not know what has become of it, the fair one (hasen) knows. The couplet can be read in two ways: the word "ḥasen" may point to the beloved in the sense of "fair, beautiful", or it may be thought of as a proper name (Hasan); we found no information to support the second reading.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and twenty-third of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 123). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives this ghazal the refrain (redif) "bilür" (knows); the rhyme is the "-en" and "-an" sound before it: dehen, neden, çeken, ṭoġrayan, yanan and ḥasen. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 126a, VY 92a); the apparatus records no variant readings. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a poem of knowledge and witness. The verb "bilür" (knows) in the refrain tells in each couplet by whom something is known: the heart knows the secret of the mouth, the one who bears it knows the grief of the lock, the arrow knows the state of the breast, the one who burns knows the pain before the candle, and the fair one knows the state of the heart. The lover avoids giving information even about himself and leaves the witness to others. This observation on the structure is our own.

The opening couplet (matla) rests on the image of a letter. In the Arabic alphabet the letter "cim" has a dot beneath it; the word "cemāl" (beauty) also begins with cim. The dot in the cim of beauty is the beloved's mouth. In divan poetry the mouth is described as a dot or as non-existence, since it is too small to be seen. The mouth is therefore counted a "sırr-ı ġayb" (a hidden, unseen secret), and the poet wonders how the heart knows this secret.

The second and third couplets lean on popular sayings. "Çeken bilir" (he who bears it knows) says that only one who lives through a pain can understand it. The poet presents the saying in the third couplet, "yiyen ne bilür ṭoġrayan bilür" (what does the eater know, the one who chops knows), as a popular saying with the word "dirler" (they say). We could not find these two sayings in a dictionary. In the third couplet the arrow is like a knife that pierces and chops up the breast; the lover is in the place not of the eater but of what is chopped. The use of the verb "ṭoġramak" (to chop) for the arrow adds a kitchen comparison to the couplet; this reading is our own inference.

The fourth couplet rests on the motif of the candle and the moth. The beloved's cheek is a candle; only the moth that burns night and day in that fire knows what the lover has suffered. In the pen-name couplet the lover does not know what has become of his own heart. As a rhyme the word "ḥasen" means fair and refers to the beloved; the possibility of reading the word also as a proper name might create a double entendre (tevriye) in the couplet, but there is no information to support this.

Bibliography

Online sources