Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Biz ki müştāḳ-ı tecellī-i ruḫ-ı meh-pertevüz
Ey dil ol şevḳ ile bes şeb-zinde-dār u şeb-revüz
Her ne derd ü ġam ki var sīnemdür anuñ meskeni
Ṣan ki miḥnet-ḫānedür diyü yapılmış bir evüz
Sīneme zaḫm urduġın ṭurmış raḳībe añladur
Ey göñül it gösterür ya‘nī ki oḫlanmış avuz
Dil şarāb-ı ‘ışḳuñuñ bir cür‘asın nūş ideli
Ser-ḫoş u lā-ya‘ḳıl ü mest ü ḫarāb u levlevüz
Āteş-i şevḳ ile her dem yanmaġa kül-ḫan gibi
Şöyle görmez kim Münīrī bir çaḳım ṣan kim ḳavuz

In English

1. We who long for the manifestation (the appearing) of the moon-bright face; O heart, with this longing we are ones who keep vigil by night and walk by night.

2. Whatever pain and grief there is, its dwelling is my breast; it is as if we were a house built to be a "house of affliction".

3. He keeps telling the rival that he has wounded my breast; O heart, the dog points (to the quarry), that is to say, we are game struck by an arrow. (The rival is likened to the hunting dog that points to the game the hunter has shot. The VY manuscript reads "götürür", carries off, for "gösterür", and Ü reads "uḫlanmış" for "oḫlanmış".)

4. Since the heart drank a draught of the wine of your love, we are drunk, senseless, beside ourselves, ruined and "levlev". (We could not determine the meaning of the word "levlev"; from the context it must express drunkenness or being beside oneself. The VT manuscript reads "mest-i" for "mest ü".)

5. To burn at every moment like a bathhouse furnace with the fire of longing, Münîrî does not even need to see a spark; it is as if we were tinder (kav, which catches fire quickly). The couplet is obscure; this reading is our own inference.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and twenty-sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 126). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains places it among the ghazals with the refrain (redif) "-Uz"; this is "-uz/-üz", the suffix of the first person plural ("we are"). The rhyme is the "-ev" and "-av" sound before it: pertev, şeb-rev, ev, av, levlev and ḳav. The ghazal is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 127b, VY 106b, Ü 37a). According to the apparatus, VY reads "götürür" for "gösterür" in the third couplet, Ü reads "uḫlanmış" for "oḫlanmış" in the same couplet, and VT reads "mest-i" for "mest ü" in the fourth. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain of the ghazal is a personal suffix, and each couplet is a defining sentence ending in "we are such": we are night-walkers, we are a house, we are game, we are drunk, we are tinder. Some of the rhymes are built on Persian words (pertev, şeb-rev), some on Turkish ones (ev, house; av, game; ḳav, tinder). When the personal suffix is added to the Turkish words, sounds such as "evüz" (we are a house), "avuz" (we are game) and "ḳavuz" (we are tinder) arise. The same rhymes "avuz" and "ḳavuz" are also used in tg 129; this comparison is our own observation.

In the opening couplet (matla) the lover is a creature of the night, waiting for the moon-bright face of the beloved to appear. "Tecellī" is a word also used in Sufism for the manifestation of divine beauty; a likeness is drawn between the moon appearing at night and the manifestation of the face. The words "şeb-zinde-dār" (one who keeps vigil by night) and "şeb-rev" (night-walker) describe this waiting.

In the second couplet the breast is a house in which the pains dwell. "Miḥnet-ḫāne" (house of affliction) is the name of this house. The third couplet sets up a hunting scene. The beloved has wounded the lover's breast with an arrow and tells this to the rival; the rival, like a hunting dog, points to the game that has been shot. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among game, arrow, dog and hunter. The VY reading "götürür" (carries off) brings to mind the dog that fetches the game in its mouth; both readings fit the hunting scene.

In the fourth couplet words expressing drunkenness are lined up one after another: "ser-ḫoş" (tipsy), "lā-ya‘ḳıl" (senseless), "mest" (drunk), "ḫarāb" (ruined) and "levlev". This accumulation describes with exaggeration the great drunkenness that a single draught has caused. We could not determine the meaning of the last word.

In the pen-name couplet the lover is likened to a külhan, that is, the furnace that heats the water of the bathhouses. The dictionary of the Turkish Language Association defines kav as a spongy substance that catches fire quickly; çakım means spark. The lover is so ready to catch fire that he does not even need to see a spark in order to burn. The syntax of the couplet is obscure, and this reading is our own inference.

Bibliography

Online sources