Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Şem‘-i seḥer gibi n’ola cān ḳalsa bir nefes
Mihr-i cemālüñ idi murādum hemīn ü bes
Biñ dürlü intiẓār ile cān irdi çün lebe
Götür niḳābuñı görelüm bārī bir nefes
Ḳand-i nebāt-ı la‘lüñe irdügi ẕevḳına
Her dem sürer yüzine elin şükr idüp mekes
Rūḥ-ı revānın añmaġa ġonca getürdi zer
Gül ḥasretiyle öldügiçün bülbül-i ḳafes
Mihr-i cemālüñi göreli ṣubḥ-dem Münīr
Bād-ı ṣabā gibi bu hevāda yiler heves

In English

1. Is it any wonder if, like the candle at dawn, my life is left with a single breath? My only wish was the sun of your beauty, nothing more. (The candle that burns all night goes out when the sun rises; the lover too will give his last breath on seeing the beloved's face.)

2. Since, after a thousand kinds of waiting, my soul has come up to my lip (the moment of death is near), lift your veil so that at least we may see you for one breath.

3. For the delight of reaching the rock-candy of your ruby lip, the fly keeps rubbing its hands over its face in thanksgiving.

4. Because the caged nightingale died of longing for the rose, the rosebud brought gold to commemorate its departed soul. (The yellow pollen inside the bud is likened to the gold given out for the soul of the dead.)

5. Münîr, since seeing the sun of your beauty at dawn, desire (heves) runs in this air like the morning breeze. ("Hevā" means both air and desire.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and thirty-sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 136). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif) and does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains; the rhyme is the "-es" sound: nefes, bes, mekes, ḳafes and heves. The word "nefes" (breath) in the first line of the opening couplet is used again as the rhyme word at the end of the second couplet. According to Ersoy's count of rhyme letters, only two Turkish ghazals in the divan rhyme in the letter sin; this ghazal and tg 137, which immediately follows it, share most of their rhyme words (nefes, bes, ḳafes, heves). This comparison is our own observation. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts: VT 130a, VY 108a, Ü 39b. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The central image of the ghazal is the dawn. The "şem‘-i seḥer" in the opening couplet (matla) is the candle that has spent the night burning and is about to be used up; it is expected to go out when the day breaks. The poet likens his own life to this candle and says that his only wish is the sun that rises from the beloved's beauty. The candle goes out with the morning sun; the lover too will die on seeing the beloved's face, but this death is his wish. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among sun, candle and dawn; since the word "mihr" means both sun and love, the phrase "mihr-i cemāl" carries both meanings at once.

In the second couplet "cān lebe irmek" means the soul's coming up to the lip at the moment of death. While the lover's soul is at his lip, the beloved's lip is behind the veil; with his last breath the poet asks for the veil to be lifted. That the word lip calls up both the lover's and the beloved's lip across the two couplets is our own observation.

The third couplet brings an everyday observation into the poem: the fly seems to rub its forelegs over its face. The poet interprets this movement as a prayer of thanks; the fly's joy comes from being able to settle on the rock-candy of the beloved's lip. This is poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil), which sets aside the real cause and offers a poetic one. Likening the lip to sugar is common in divan poetry; the fly swarming to sugar completes the comparison.

There is a second poetic aetiology in the fourth couplet. The yellow pollen visible inside the rosebud is imagined as gold brought for the soul of the dead nightingale. The nightingale dying in its cage of longing for the rose is a melancholy variation on the motif of the rose and the nightingale. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas), the double entendre (tevriye) between the morning breeze (bād-ı ṣabā) and "hevā" (air, desire) closes the dawn imagery of the ghazal: the desire of the poet who has seen the beloved's sun keeps blowing like the morning breeze.

Bibliography

Online sources