Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Belā vü miḥnetüm gerçi iñen çoḳ
Velī hergiz esirger kimsenem yoḳ
Ḫadeng-i yāra imrendüñse ey dil
Ḳatuma gel ki sīnemde çoġ ol oḳ
Beni öldürme būse añdum ise
Mes̱eldür kim yañulmaḳda yazuḳ yoḳ
Benüm ḫod ġamzeñ işüme yeterdi
Kerem ḳıl ḫancerüñi ḳınına ṣoḳ
Hezār ola Münīrī gibi bendeñ
Benüm ḫod kimsenem yoḳ senden artuḳ

In English

1. My afflictions and troubles are indeed very many, yet I have no one at all who spares me (who pities and protects me).

2. O heart, if you have envied the beloved's arrow, come to my side; that arrow is plentiful in my breast.

3. Do not kill me if I mentioned (asked for) a kiss; there is a saying that "there is no sin in erring".

4. Your glance alone was enough to finish me; be gracious, put your dagger back into its sheath.

5. You may have a thousand servants like Münîrî; but I have no one other than you.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and fiftieth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 150). The metre is "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the "-oḳ / -uḳ" sound: çoḳ, yoḳ, oḳ, yoḳ, ṣoḳ and artuḳ. The word "yoḳ" serves twice as a rhyme word, in the opening couplet and in the third; the phrasing "kimsenem yoḳ" (I have no one) is also repeated in the opening and pen-name couplets. According to Ersoy's count of rhyme letters, it is one of the six Turkish ghazals that rhyme in the letter kaf. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 133a). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is written in short, plain language close to everyday speech; Arabic and Persian compounds are few. The opening couplet (matla) describes the lover's loneliness: his afflictions are many, but no one spares him. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) returns to this loneliness and gives it a new meaning: the beloved may have a thousand servants, but the lover has no one but her. The repetition of "kimsenem yoḳ" at the two ends gives the ghazal a frame; this is our own observation.

In the second couplet the lover addresses the heart that envies the beloved's arrow and tells it that arrows are plentiful in his own breast. Since being wounded by the arrow counts as a favour in divan poetry, the lover presents this abundance as a kind of wealth. In the fourth couplet glance and dagger come side by side: the glance was enough to kill the lover, there is no need for the dagger. The phrase "ḫancerüñi ḳınına ṣoḳ" (put your dagger in its sheath) carries both a real request and a plea in the sense of "this is enough".

The third couplet is the most striking place of the ghazal. The poet asks not to be killed for having asked for a kiss, and defends himself with a saying: "there is no sin in erring". We have not found this saying in the same form in the dictionary of the Turkish Language Association. In the entry "yazık" the Kubbealtı dictionary writes that the word comes from Old Turkish "yazuk", meaning "sin", which in turn rests on the verb "yaz-mak", meaning "to err, to make a mistake". The saying "yañılmaḳda yazuḳ yoḳ" thus states that "there is no sin in erring" with a word that has the sense of erring at its root. We cannot know whether Münîrî was aware of this etymological link; the closeness of sound and sense in the couplet is our own observation.

The rhyme words of the ghazal are largely shared with tg 149 and tg 151, which surround it in the edition: "yoḳ", "çoḳ", "oḳ" and "ṣoḳ" are used in all three ghazals, and "artuḳ" recurs in tg 151. This too is our own observation.

Bibliography

Online sources