Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Be’nger ey sāḳī-i nūr-ı dīde-i şem‘-i ṭarab
Dökdigüñçün ḳanını ṭutdı bizi ḫūn-ı ‘ıneb
Ḥıżr-ı s̱ānīsin revā görmez bunı bir kimse kim
Pīş-i āb-ı çeşme-i nūş-ı to bāşem ḫuşk-leb
Müşk-i Çīn ger pīş-i zülfet lāf-ı nükhet mī-zened
Türkdür ṣaḥrā-nişīn olsa ‘aceb mi bī-edeb
Fikr-i zülfüñ göñlüme düşdükçe sevdam arturur
Mī-şeved her zaḥmet efzūnter belī der-vaḳt-i şeb
Rūy-ı zerd-i ḫod be-ḫāk-i rāh-ı to z’ān mī-nehem
Her ne deñlü yirde yatsa ḫūb olur reng-i ẕeheb
İrdi biñ cehd ile vaṣla ‘āḳıbet ey dil Münīr
Gofteend ārī der-īn ma‘nī kelām-ı men ṭaleb

In English

1. O cupbearer, light of the eye of the candle of the joyful banquet, look: because you shed the grape's blood, the blood of the grape (wine) has seized us.

2. You are a second Khiḍr; no one would think it right that I should stand with parched lips before the water of the sweet fountain of your lips.

3. If the musk of China boasts of its fragrance before your tresses, (do not wonder): it is a Turk, it dwells in the steppe; is it any wonder if it is ill-mannered?

4. Whenever the thought of your tresses falls into my heart, it increases my melancholy passion; yes, at night every pain grows greater.

5. This is why I lay my yellowed face on the dust of your path: the longer gold lies in the earth, the finer its colour becomes.

6. O heart, with a thousand efforts Münîr at last attained union; it is in this sense that they have spoken the saying "men ṭaleb" (whoever seeks).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet ghazal (gazel) and is the thirteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 13). It is a mixed Turkish and Persian, that is, macaronic (mülemma‘) ghazal: in the couplets one line or phrase is Turkish and the other Persian. The Persian part is in the first line of the first, third and fifth couplets (in the first couplet, the address that opens with the imperative "be'nger") and in the second line of the second, fourth and sixth couplets; thus the lines change language alternately from couplet to couplet. Ersoy gives in the apparatus the meaning of the Persian part of each couplet; this rendering is based on those meanings, while the wording is our own. The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-eb": ṭarab, ‘ıneb, leb, edeb, şeb, ẕeheb, ṭaleb. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 101b), Vienna (VY 82b) and Istanbul University (Ü 19b) manuscripts. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet (matla) the cupbearer is praised as the "light of the eye" of the candle at the banquet. The second line rests on a double entendre (tevriye): the cupbearer has shed the grape's blood, that is, made wine; now the "blood of the grape" (ḫūn-ı ‘ıneb) has seized those who drink. "Being seized by someone's blood" suggests on the one hand the blood of the slain catching up with the killer in a blood feud, and on the other the wine's making drunk. This double reading is our own observation.

In the second couplet the beloved is called "Ḥıżr-ı s̱ānī", a second Khiḍr. Khiḍr is, in divan poetry, the one who found the water of life; the beloved's lips too are a fountain of the water of life. To stay thirsty beside Khiḍr is therefore unseemly. In the Persian line the word "nūş" in its dictionary sense means both a sweet drink and drinking.

The third couplet builds a humorous poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). Musk is a scent brought from the regions of China and Khotan. The poet ascribes the musk's boasting against the tresses to its being a Turk who lives in the steppe, that is, to its lack of manners. In divan poetry the word "Türk" is sometimes used for the beautiful beloved and sometimes for a nomad or rough person; here the second meaning comes to the fore.

In the fourth couplet the word "sevdā" in its dictionary sense means both love and black bile, melancholy; there is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the blackness of the tresses and night. The second, Persian line is a general judgement that every pain grows greater at night. In the fifth couplet the yellow face is likened to gold; by saying that gold's colour grows finer the longer it lies in the earth, the poet explains the lover's laying his face on the dust of the path.

In the last couplet it is said that Münîr attained union with a thousand efforts, and the Persian line cites the saying "men ṭaleb". Ersoy understands this line as the words of those who said that in this phrase the saying of one who seeks has a meaning. Taken together with the word "cehd" (effort), the phrase recalls the well-known Arabic saying meaning "whoever seeks and strives finds"; this link is our own inference.

Bibliography

Online sources