Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Ṣanmañ ki ġam-ı ‘ışḳa bugün bāşlaruz biz
Ferhād ile bu fende sebaḳ-dāşlaruz biz
La‘lüñ var iken gevher añan kimseyi ey dost
‘Uşşāḳ arasında sürüben ṭāşlaruz biz
Bir ḳaṭre şarāba virürüz naḳd-i dü kevni
Meyḫāne-i ‘ışḳ içre o ḳallāşlaruz biz
Nerd-i ġam-ı ‘ışḳ içre metā‘-ı dil ü cānı
Bir ad ile ṣarf idici evbāşlaruz biz
Mecnūn ile Vāmıḳ gibi ‘ālemde Münīrī
Dīvānelerüz pes niçe yoldāşlaruz biz

In English

1. Do not think that we are beginning the grief of love today; in this art we are fellow pupils of Ferhad.

2. O friend, while your ruby lip exists, we drag among the lovers and stone anyone who speaks of a jewel.

3. For a single drop of wine we give the cash of both worlds (this world and the next, as if paying in ready money); we are those rogues (penniless vagabond rinds) in the tavern of love.

4. In the backgammon of love's grief we are the vagabonds who spend the capital of heart and soul in a single throw (or for the sake of a name, a reputation). (The wordplay is uncertain; "ad" may mean here both a throw of the dice and a name or fame.)

5. Münîrî, like Mecnun and Vâmık we too are madmen in the world; what companions we are.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This ghazal is not found in any of Münîrî's three divan manuscripts (VT, VY, Ü); according to Ersoy's apparatus it is recorded under Münîrî's name only in the Pervâne Bey anthology (PB 238b). In his introduction Ersoy says that he included in the text a ghazal that is not in the divan but appears only in this anthology, since no other Münîrî is known to have lived up to 1560; in the apparatus, however, three ghazals are in this situation. The attribution therefore rests on the anthology record. Ersoy quotes the ghazal in full in his study of Münîrî and takes it as a clue to the poet's character.

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and thirty-fifth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 135). The metre is "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". The refrain (redif) is "-laruz biz" (we are ...); the rhyme is the "-āş" sound: bāş, dāş, ṭāş, ḳallāş, evbāş and yoldāş. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the ghazal is the identity of the rind and the lover. Ersoy describes Münîrî as a rind and a lover and quotes this ghazal in full as a poem that gives a clue to his character. In the opening couplet (matla) the poet says that he is no novice in love: he has studied the same lesson as Ferhad, one of the greatest masters of love. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains "sebak" as lesson and "sebak-daş" as fellow pupil. Thinking of love as a "fen", a craft taught like a school subject, also fits Ferhad's skill in cutting through the mountain.

In the second couplet the ruby lip is compared with the jewel. While the beloved's lip exists, praising any other jewel is a crime among lovers, and its punishment is stoning. In the word "ṭāşlaruz" (we stone) there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between stone and jewel: the one who praises a precious stone has ordinary stones thrown at him. The third and fourth couplets describe the rind's indifference to the world through two images: the "ḳallāş" who sells both worlds for a drop of wine in the tavern, and the "evbāş" who spends all his capital in a single throw in the backgammon of love. The Kubbealtı dictionary gives "kallâş" as the old and original form of "kalleş" (treacherous, rogue), and "evbaş" as the plural of the word meaning vagabond. The rind's calling himself by these reproachful names is a form of boasting.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) mentions Mecnun and Vâmık; both are examples in divan poetry of lovers who lost their reason and their home because of love. The ghazal thus begins with Ferhad and ends with Mecnun and Vâmık; the three famous lovers are the poet's "yoldaş" (companions) and fellow pupils. This frame is our own observation.

The sound pattern of the ghazal is also notable. Ersoy says that Münîrî lengthens the first syllable of some Turkish words and some suffixes (med), and as examples he points to "baş" in the first couplet of this ghazal, "taş" in the second and the suffix "-daş" in the fifth. Ersoy mentions this as one of the notable features of Münîrî's handling of the quantitative metre (aruz). All three of the lengthenings he cites fall in rhyme words, on the "-āş" sound; this is our own observation.

Bibliography

Online sources