Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gösterelden ḳadd-i bālāsın baña bir serv-i nāz
Ṭurmaz artar günde derdüm dimez ey dil ḳış u yaz
Müş‘il-i gerdūn çerāġı berḳ-i āhumdan yaḳar
Yanmaġ ile ḳaçan irer baña şem‘-i cān-güdāz
Ṭurmadan sırr-ı derūnı ḫalḳa fāş itmekdesin
Ey gözüm yaşı degülsin ḥāṣılı sen ehl-i rāz
Nūş-ı cān la‘lüñ şarābından dem-ā-dem teşne dil
Şöyle maḥrūm olmayaydı şāyed olsa ḥırṣ u āz
Zāhid inkār itme ‘uşşāḳa mecāz ehli diyü
Ġāfil olma kim pul-ı ‘ışḳ-ı ḥaḳīḳatdür mecāz
Pādşāhlar da gedālar gibi ‘ālemde Münīr
Mübtelā-yı ‘ışḳ olur mānend-i Maḥmūd-ı Ayāz

In English

1. Ever since a cypress of coquetry (a tall, coy beauty) showed me its lofty stature, O heart, my pain does not stop; it grows day by day and knows neither winter nor summer.

2. The lamplighter of the sky (who kindles the sun and stars in the vault of heaven) lights his lamp from the lightning of my sigh; when could the soul-melting candle ever catch up with me in burning?

3. O my tears, you keep spreading the secret within me among the people; in short, you are no keeper of secrets.

4. The heart, thirsting for the wine of your lip that is a draught of life, would perhaps not have remained so deprived if it had greed and avarice. (Because the heart is not greedy, it has not received its share of that wine.)

5. O ascetic, do not deny the lovers by calling them "people of the metaphor"; do not be heedless, for the metaphor is the bridge to true love. ("Pul" means bridge in Persian.)

6. Münîr, in this world kings too fall victim to love just as beggars do, like Ayaz's Mahmud (like the love of the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud for his slave Ayaz).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and thirty-fourth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 134). 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 "-āz" sound: nāz, yaz, güdāz, rāz, āz, mecāz and Ayāz. Most of the rhyme words are of Persian or Arabic origin; that the Turkish word "yaz" (summer) rhymes with them is our own observation. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 129b). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) begins with the motif of the cypress-like stature. The beloved is a "serv-i nāz", a cypress of coquetry; the height of the stature turns into the height of the lover's pain. In the phrase "ṭurmaz artar" (does not stop, grows) a subtle link is made between the upright standing of the cypress and the pain that never stands still. The cypress being a tree that stays green winter and summer may be connected, through the phrase "ḳış u yaz", with a pain that knows no season; this is our own inference.

The second couplet is an example of poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). The "müş‘il" who lights the lights of the sky kindles his lamp with the lightning that rises from the lover's sigh; the sigh is fiery enough to illuminate heaven. In divan poetry the candle is the symbol of burning and melting; the poet exaggerates by saying that even the candle cannot keep up with him in this burning. In the third couplet the tear is personified: because it carries the inner secret outside, it cannot be "ehl-i rāz", one who keeps secrets.

The fourth couplet contains an unexpected reversal. Greed and avarice are condemned traits in divan poetry; the poet says instead that the heart has remained deprived of the beloved's lip precisely because it is free of them. Virtue thus becomes a cause of deprivation for the lover.

The fifth couplet is the intellectual centre of the ghazal. The words "mecāz" (metaphor) and "ḥaḳīḳat" (truth) recall the Sufi understanding of love: human love is regarded as a path that leads to divine love. The literary section of the article "Aşk" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi explains that the path of true love is entered through metaphorical love, and that beautiful youths, wine and the Magian elder are means on that path. Münîrî makes this idea concrete with the word "pul" (bridge) and defends the lovers against the ascetic.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) alludes to the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud and his slave Ayaz. According to the article in the Encyclopaedia Iranica, Mahmud's love for Ayaz is a recurrent theme in Persian poetry; in Sufi works Ayaz is presented as a model of purity and devotion. King and beggar form a contrast in the couplet: before love the two are the same. The phrase "Maḥmūd-ı Ayāz" presents Mahmud as belonging to Ayaz; a king's falling for his own slave can also be connected with the fifth couplet's idea of metaphor and truth. This last connection is our own inference.

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