Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṭutmış ‘arūs-ı ḥüsne ḫaṭuñ ‘anberīn tutuḳ
Āyīne-i dil oldı bu vech ile bes ṭonuḳ
Ḫūn-ı ciger yirine mey-i la‘l umar idüm
Olmadı umduġın yimez imiş göñül ḳonuḳ
Görüp bu vech ile gözümüñ yaşı seylini
Cān u cihāndan ey dil-i bī-çāre el yuduḳ
N’eyler maḥalleñ içre raḳīb it didüm didi
Gül-zār-ı kūyum içre eşek başıdur oyuḳ
Devr-i zamān ġamını unutsam ‘aceb midür
Cām-ı şarāb elümde yanumda ṭolu yatuḳ
Mihrüñde ṣādıḳ olduġına ṣubḥ-veş Münīr
Yazuldı ‘ışḳ defterine yir ü gök ṭanuḳ

In English

1. Your ambergris-scented down has held a veil (tutuk) over the bride of beauty; and so the mirror of the heart has grown dull. (VT and VY read "ṭanuḳ", witness, for "ṭonuḳ", dull.)

2. Instead of the blood of my liver I was hoping for ruby wine; it did not happen. So it seems the guest does not eat what he hopes for. (The proverb: "The guest eats not what he hopes for but what he finds.")

3. O helpless heart, seeing the flood of my eye's tears like this, we washed our hands of soul and world (we gave them up).

4. I said, "What business has the dog-like rival in your quarter?" She said: "In the rose garden of my street he is a donkey's head, a scarecrow."

5. With a cup of wine in my hand and a full flask (yatuk) beside me, is it any wonder if I forget the grief of the turning times?

6. Münîr, as witnesses that you are true in your love like the dawn, earth and sky have been written into the register of love. ("Ṣubḥ-ı ṣādıḳ", the true dawn, is the first light of daybreak.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and forty-seventh of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 147). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the "-uḳ" sound: tutuḳ, ṭonuḳ, ḳonuḳ, yuduḳ, oyuḳ, yatuḳ and ṭanuḳ. That all the rhyme words are Turkish makes this ghazal notable; this is our own observation. According to Ersoy's count of rhyme letters, there are six Turkish ghazals in the divan that rhyme in the letter kaf; they are tg 147-152, which follow one another in the edition. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts: VT 132a, VY 110a, Ü 40b. VT and VY read "ṭanuḳ" for "ṭonuḳ" in the opening couplet; in that reading the same rhyme word is also used in the closing couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet (matla) the beloved's face is a bride, and the down on the face is a veil held over this bride's face. The Kubbealtı dictionary gives one meaning of the word "tutuk" as a covering held over the face, a veil, a yashmak. The down being "‘anberīn" (ambergris-scented) points to its colour and scent. Once the bride's face is veiled, the mirror of the heart that reflects it also grows dull; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between mirror and bride. The VT and VY reading "ṭanuḳ" also yields a sense: the mirror of the heart has become a witness to this veil. This last reading is our own inference.

The second couplet rests on a proverb. In the dictionary of the Turkish Language Association, the saying "misafir umduğunu değil bulduğunu yer" (the guest eats not what he hopes for but what he finds) means that a guest may expect a great deal, but the host can offer only what he has. Münîrî carries this saying to the table of love: while the lover hopes for wine, the blood of his liver is set before him. The idiom "el yumak" in the third couplet is the old form of today's "el yıkamak" (to wash one's hands of something); the dictionary of the Turkish Language Association explains it as "to cut off one's interest". A congruence of images is also built between the flood of tears and the washing of hands; the hands are washed because water is plentiful.

The fourth couplet is the liveliest place of the ghazal and contains a jibe from the beloved's own mouth. The Kubbealtı dictionary writes that the word "oyuk" meant a scarecrow in a vegetable garden in old Turkish and in popular speech, and gives as an example this couplet by Zâtî: "Dedim rakîb neyler kûyunda dedi dilber / Olur eşek başından bostanlara oyuklar" (I said, what is the rival doing in your street; the beloved said, scarecrows for vegetable gardens are made of donkeys' heads). Münîrî's couplet is very close to this one in both its question and its answer. According to Zâtî's couplet, garden scarecrows were made of donkeys' heads; the rival is such a worthless scarecrow in the beloved's garden. The resemblance between the two couplets is our own observation; we do not know which was written first.

The word "yatuḳ" occurs in the fifth couplet. In the entry "yatık" the Kubbealtı dictionary records, for old Turkish and popular speech, the meaning of a flat water vessel with a narrow mouth; we read the phrase "ṭolu yatuḳ" in the couplet in this sense, as a full flask. There is a congruence of images between cup and flask.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) closes with the image of the dawn. The phrase "ṣubḥ-veş ṣādıḳ" (true like the dawn) recalls "ṣubḥ-ı ṣādıḳ" (the true dawn), the name given to the first light of daybreak; the poet's faithfulness is as true as the true dawn. Since the dawn spreads over earth and sky together, earth and sky become witnesses of this faithfulness. The words "defter" (register), "yazılmak" (to be written) and "ṭanuḳ" (witness) call up the record of a court of law.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Official sources

  • Türk Dil Kurumu, Güncel Türkçe Sözlük, entries "misafir umduğunu değil bulduğunu yer" and "el yıkamak". https://sozluk.gov.tr/

Books

Online sources