Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Lebinden būse dimişken didi fī’l-ḥāl kim yoḳ yoḳ
Naṣībüñ tīr-i ġamzemdür yetişsün uş saña bir oḳ
Göñül kim ḫᵛān-ı vaṣl ile olupdur muġtenem şöyle
Beni anuñçün añmaz ol ne bilsün ḥālin acuñ ṭoḳ
Ṣabāya ver-hem iderdüm dem-ā-dem ḫāk-i pāyüñçün
Seḥer-geh yüzüme urup didi al var gözüñe ṣoḳ
Belā-yı ‘ışḳa sen ṣalduñ beni ey dil bu vech ile
‘Aceb n’itseñ gerek bilsem baña bundan daḫı artuḳ
Dehān ü ḫaddi fikriyle lebi devrinde sen yārüñ
Münīr iñende incinme görinürden görünmez çoḳ

In English

1. When I asked for a kiss from her lip she said at once "no, no; your share is the arrow of my glance; here, let an arrow reach you."

2. The heart that has thus taken its spoils (its share, free of cost) from the table of union does not remember me for that reason; how should the full know the state of the hungry?

3. For the dust of her foot I would constantly "ver-hem" (plead with) the morning breeze; at dawn it flung that dust in my face and said "take it, go and stick it in your eye". (In divan poetry the dust of the beloved's foot is applied to the eye as kohl. We have not been able to establish the meaning of the word "ver-hem"; the context points to a sense such as pleading or asking.)

4. O heart, it was you who cast me in this way into the calamity of love; I wonder what more you will do to me than this, if only I knew.

5. Münîr, thinking of the beloved's mouth and cheek, do not be too hurt in the reign of her lip; what is unseen is more than what is seen. The couplet cannot be understood with certainty; our reading is an inference: the beloved's mouth is so small that it cannot be seen, and true beauty lies in what is unseen.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and fifty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 151). The metre is "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the "-oḳ / -uḳ" sound: yoḳ, oḳ, ṭoḳ, ṣoḳ, artuḳ and çoḳ. 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 opens with a scene of dialogue. The lover asks for a kiss, the beloved replies "yoḳ yoḳ" (no, no) and gives him the arrow of her glance instead of the kiss. The rhyme position of the opening couplet (matla) is filled with this double "yoḳ"; the beloved's voice thus enters the poem directly. Giving an arrow instead of a kiss is a familiar example in divan poetry of the beloved's favour coming only in the form of a wound.

The second couplet rests on a proverb. The dictionary of the Turkish Language Association records the saying "tok açın hâlinden bilmez" (the full do not know the state of the hungry) in the sense that the well-off do not know how great the distress of the poor is. Here the full one is a heart that has taken its share from the table of union, and the hungry one is the lover himself. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains "muġtenem" as taken as spoils, obtained without effort; the heart's attaining union without labour is expressed through this word.

In the third couplet the idiom "al var gözüñe ṣoḳ" is used in both its senses. The dictionary of the Turkish Language Association explains the idiom "gözüne sokmak" as showing someone, in a harsh manner, something he cannot see. In the couplet the morning breeze flings into the lover's face the dust of the foot he asked for and speaks these words; but the dust of the foot applied to the eye like kohl is a familiar motif of divan poetry. The answer that sounds rude thus fulfils exactly what the lover wanted. This two-layered reading is our own observation. The same idiom also occurs in the third couplet of tg 149.

In the fourth couplet the lover reproaches his heart for casting him into the calamity of love. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) is the most obscure place in the ghazal; the thought of the beloved's mouth and cheek, the "devr" (reign) of the lip and the phrase "görinürden görünmez çoḳ" (the unseen is more than the seen) together form a whole that is hard to resolve. In divan poetry the mouth is thought to be so small as to be all but non-existent; it is possible that the couplet rests on this motif.

Most of the rhyme words of this ghazal are shared with tg 149 and tg 150, which precede it in the edition; the use of "ḫᵛān-ı vaṣl" (the table of union) together with "ṭoḳ" (full) also recalls the fourth couplet of tg 149. This closeness is our own observation.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Official sources

  • Türk Dil Kurumu, Güncel Türkçe Sözlük, entries "tok açın hâlinden bilmez" and "gözüne sokmak". https://sozluk.gov.tr/

Books

Online sources