Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gördi kim bī-ḫod yatur düşmiş dil-i bīmārumuz
Ṣu seper merdümlük idüp çeşm-i gevher-bārumuz
Sīnede tīr-i ḫadengüñden ḳalan peyḳān ile
Ṣan ki dürc-i gevher oldı sīne-i efkārumuz
Sırr-ı ‘uşşāḳı beyān itmekdedür cādū gözüñ
Çeşm-i mestüñden bilinür ‘āḳıbet esrārumuz
Dilden āteşden ḫayālüñ dīdeden yaşdan ḳaçar
Derd-i ḥasret birle lā-büd artar āh u zārumuz
Sen gerekse ḫalḳa iẓhār it gerekse ṭınma hīc
Her kişi bilür kim ey dil bī-vefādur yārümüz
Dāstān-ı ‘ışḳuña bismillāh idelden Münīr
Oldı ḫoş ḍarb-ı mes̱el ‘ālemde her güftārumuz

In English

1. Our jewel-raining eye (shedding tears like pearls) saw our sick heart lying fallen, out of itself; acting humanely, it sprinkled water on it. ("Merdüm" means both a human being and the pupil of the eye; "merdümlük" is read here both as humanity and as the work of the pupil.)

2. Because of the arrowheads of your arrow left in my breast, our anxious breast has become, as it were, a jewel casket.

3. Your sorcerer eye is revealing the secret of the lovers; in the end our secrets too are understood from your drunken eye.

4. Your image flees the heart because of the fire and the eye because of the tears; with the pain of longing our sighs and laments are bound to increase.

5. Whether you reveal it to the people or keep entirely silent, O heart, everyone knows that our beloved is unfaithful.

6. Since Münîr began the tale of your love with "bismillah" (in the name of God), every word of ours has become a fine proverb (darb-ı mesel, a saying that passes from mouth to mouth) in the world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and thirty-second of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 132). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the first person plural possessive suffix "-umuz / -ümüz" (listed by Ersoy as "ImUz"). The rhyme is the "-ār" sound: bīmār, gevher-bār, efkār, esrār, zār, yār and güftār. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts: VT 129a, VY 107a, Ü 39a. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets set up the lover's body like a stage. In the opening couplet (matla) the sick heart has fainted and fallen; the eye sprinkles water on it to bring it round. This water is the tear, and the eye is described as "gevher-bār", raining jewels. There is a double entendre (tevriye) in "merdümlük": merdüm is both a human being and the pupil of the eye, so the eye's "acting humanely" grows out of the word itself. In divan poetry the pupil is known as "merdüm-i dīde"; Münîrî uses this term in the fifth couplet of tg 139 as well.

The jewel theme continues in the second couplet. The tips of the arrows shot by the beloved have remained in the breast; the breast is therefore likened to a "dürc", a casket full of precious stones. Turning pain into an ornament is a reversal that divan poetry loves. In the third couplet the beloved's "cādū" (sorcerer) and "mest" (drunken) eye is like a witness that gives away the lovers' secrets: from the languid look of that eye everyone can tell who has fallen for it.

In the fourth couplet two contrasts come together: there is fire in the heart and water in the eye. The image of the beloved can stay neither in fire nor in water, so it finds no place to dwell inside the lover. The flight of the image leaves the lover even more alone, and his sighs and laments increase. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between fire and tears, heart and eye, sigh and lament.

The fifth couplet brings the ghazal close to a popular saying: the beloved's unfaithfulness is not a secret to be kept but something everyone knows. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the poet mentions the fame of his words. Love is a "dāstān", a tale; beginning it with "bismillah" opens this tale as one would open a serious work, a book. The phrase "ḍarb-ı mes̱el" is a boast that the poet's words pass from mouth to mouth like proverbs. Ersoy shows that there are other couplets in which Münîrî describes, with hyperbole, how his poems have spread over the world.

Bibliography

Online sources