Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Muṣḥaf-ı ḥüsnüñde kimse ḳılmasun diyü ġalaṭ
Kātib-i ḳudret ḳılupdur ḫaṭṭuña ḫāli nüḳaṭ
Kim boyun ṭutmazdı tīġ-i ġamzeñe yüz döndürüp
Ḫūn-ı ‘uşşāḳa n’iderdi getürüp ḫaddüñde ḫaṭ
Görüben göñlüm miyān-ı cānda mihr-i ḥüsnüñi
Didi ḥaḳ sözdür bu kim lā-ḫayra illā fī’l-vasaṭ
Her ne deñlü nām-dār ise cihānda her biri
Yaşlarum seyline irmez Dicle vü Ceyḥūn u Şaṭ
Şem‘ gibi tīġ ile başumı kesse ey Münīr
Yārdan döndürmezem yüzüm sözüm budur faḳaṭ

In English

1. So that no one should make a mistake in reading the Mushaf (the copy of the Qur'an) of your beauty, the scribe of divine power has made your moles the dots of your down (your script). ("Ḫaṭ" means both handwriting and the fine down on the face.)

2. Who would not have bowed his neck to the sword of your glance, turning his face to it? Then what was it to do with the lovers' blood by bringing down (script) onto your cheek? The couplet can be read in two ways: since everyone bowed anyway, there was no need for the glance to bring a script (like a death warrant) onto the cheek in order to kill the lovers; or the down on the cheek is a document written concerning the lovers' blood.

3. My heart, seeing the sun of your beauty in the middle of the soul, said: the saying "there is no good except in the middle" is a true saying.

4. However famous each of them may be in the world, the Tigris, the Oxus (Ceyhun) and the Shatt (Shatt al-Arab) cannot even come near the flood of my tears.

5. O Münîr, even if she cuts off my head with a sword as one trims a candle, I will not turn my face from the beloved; this alone is my word.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and forty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 141). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the "-aṭ" sound: ġalaṭ, nüḳaṭ, ḫaṭ, vasaṭ, Şaṭ and faḳaṭ. According to Ersoy's count of rhyme letters, this is the only Turkish ghazal in the divan that rhymes in the letter tı. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 131a, VY 109a, Ü 40a); it also appears in the Pervâne Bey anthology (PB 292a). In Ü the second and third couplets are in a different order, and both lines of the third couplet show differences of reading in Ü. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) is built on the motif of "muṣḥaf-ı ḥüsn", which likens the beloved's face to a copy of the Qur'an. The fine down on the face (ḫaṭ) is the script and the moles are the dots of this script; the "Kātib-i ḳudret", the divine power that created the face, has placed the dots so that readers should not misread. Since in Arabic script the position of the dots determines the letter, this comparison rests on a real concern for correct reading. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among Mushaf, scribe, script, dot and error. The PB manuscript reads "ḫālüñ" (your mole) for "ḫāli".

The second couplet plays on the sense of "ḫaṭ" as writing. The script can also be a document, a decree; it recalls a warrant written concerning the lovers' blood. This reading is our own inference; the couplet is obscure and can be understood in two ways.

The third couplet is the intellectual centre of the ghazal. "Lā ḫayra illā fī'l-vasaṭ" is an Arabic maxim meaning "there is no good except in the middle". The poet links this saying to the sun being seen in "miyān-ı cān", the middle of the soul: since the beloved's beauty stands at the very centre of the soul, the good lies there. A saying that recommends the middle way turns into praise of a beauty that has settled at the centre of love; this interpretation is our own observation. In the Ü manuscript the first line of this couplet is different, and its letters are printed incompletely in the edition; judging by the legible words, this line seems to speak of seeing the beloved with rivals on both sides. In that reading "what is in the middle" becomes the beloved herself; this too is an inference.

The fourth couplet contains hyperbole (mübalağa): the famous rivers of the world cannot match the flood of the lover's tears. Naming the Tigris, the Oxus and the Shatt together draws on these rivers as symbols of greatness in divan poetry. The choice of "Şaṭ" as a rhyme word is notable when one considers how hard it is to build a rhyme on the letter tı.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) uses the candle and the sword together. The wick of a candle is cut, its head is taken off; the lover too says that even if his head is cut off like a candle's he will not turn his face from the beloved. The same image of the candle with its head cut off appears in the second couplet of tg 137; this is our own observation. The phrase "sözüm budur faḳaṭ" (this alone is my word) closes the ghazal with a firm oath.

Bibliography

Online sources