Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Veh ki geçdi ḥasret ile nāzenīn ‘ömrüm telef
Bir kez olmadı ḫadeng-i ġamzeñe sīnem hedef
Ḫadd ü ḫāl ü çeşmüñe dil virmemek mümkin midür
Ṭoldı siḥr ü fitne vü şūr u kirişme her ṭaraf
Cān virürdüm heybetinden ġamze-i ḫūn-rīzüñüñ
Remz ile la‘l-i lebüñ ger dimeyeydi lā teḫaf
Şem‘-i bezm-ārā cemālüñdür murādı göñlümüñ
Gerçi ḫoşdur naġme-i çeng ü ney ü ḳānūn u def
Āftāb-ı ḥüsnüñ ile çün muḳārindür Münīr
Ṭāli‘-i sa‘d ile bulsa gün gibi n’ola şeref

In English

1. Alas, my precious life has passed wasted in longing; not once did my breast become a target for the arrow of your glance.

2. Is it possible not to give one's heart to your cheek, your mole and your eye? Magic, sedition, tumult and coquetry have filled every side.

3. I would have given up my life in awe of your blood-shedding glance, had your ruby lip not said with a covert sign "fear not" (lā teḫaf).

4. My heart's desire is your beauty, the candle that adorns the assembly; though the melody of harp, reed flute, kanun and tambourine is pleasant too.

5. Since Münîr is in conjunction (side by side) with the sun of your beauty, is it any wonder if, by an auspicious horoscope, he finds exaltation (şeref) like the sun? ("Muḳārin" and "ṭāli‘-i sa‘d" are terms of astrology.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and forty-sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 146). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the "-ef" sound: telef, hedef, ṭaraf, teḫaf, def and şeref. According to Ersoy's count of rhyme letters, this is the only Turkish ghazal in the divan that rhymes in the letter fe. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts: VT 132a, VY 110a, Ü 40b. According to the apparatus, Ü gives a different reading for the word "la‘l-i" in the third couplet (its letters are printed incompletely in the edition) and reads "mihrüñ ile" for "ḥüsnüñ ile" in the fifth couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) begins with a complaint, but what is complained of is the reverse of the usual: the lover says his life has been wasted because he could never become a target for the arrow of the glance. Since in divan poetry being wounded by the beloved's arrow counts as a favour, the absence of the arrow is a sign of indifference.

The second couplet contains the figure of leff ü neşr (parallel listing). In the first line cheek, mole and eye are listed; in the second line magic, sedition, şûr (tumult) and kirişme (coquetry) follow. The eye may be matched with magic, the mole with sedition and the cheek with coquetry through familiar motifs; since the second line has four elements and the first three, the matching is not exact. This matching is our own inference.

The third couplet uses a Qur'anic expression. The words "lā teḫaf" (fear not) occur in several places in the Qur'an; for example, in verse 68 of Sura Ta-Ha Moses is told "fear not", and in verse 70 of Sura Hud Abraham is told the same. Münîrî gives this reassuring phrase to the beloved's lip: when the awe of the blood-shedding glance is about to kill the lover, the lip calms him with a covert sign. This contrast between glance and lip shows the beloved's killing and reviving faces together. The phrase "remz ile" (with a covert sign) suggests that the lip said this without speaking, perhaps with a smile; this is an inference.

In the fourth couplet the instruments of the gathering are listed: harp (çeng), reed flute (ney), kanun and tambourine (def). The poet finds these melodies pleasant, but his heart's desire turns to the candle that lights the gathering, that is, to the beloved's beauty. The long list of instruments forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) and sets off the beloved's superiority.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) is built in the language of astrology. "Muḳārin" means adjoining, being together; the Kubbealtı dictionary records that "kıran", from the same root, means in astrology the meeting of two stars in the same sign (conjunction). "Ṭāli‘-i sa‘d" is an auspicious horoscope. The word "şeref" (honour, exaltation) may be thought to recall a term of old astrology here as well; we have not been able to verify this in a dictionary. The poet says that since he is close to the beloved's sun-like beauty, his own fortune too will rise. The Ü reading "mihrüñ ile" carries the same meaning, since "mihr" means both sun and love.

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