Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Eşk ü çihrem gören ey dil bilür işin zer-gerüñ
Kim nice ḳılur muraṣṣa‘ la‘l ile yüzin zerüñ
La‘l ü yāḳūt ile oynar gözlerüm merdümleri
Cevherī olup lebi devrinde ol sīmīn-berüñ
Yüzümi altun-ı ḫāliṣ ḳılmaġ içün ey nigār
Dem-zen āh-ı āteşīn oldı dil olup aḫkerüñ
Götürüp yirden ‘aḳīḳ-i eşkümi bir işe sür
Her ne deñlü ḳıymetīlerle olursa işlerüñ
Sen büt-i tersā-beçe şevḳıyla yanaldan Münīr
Niçe İslām ehli baña içi göynür kāfirüñ

In English

1. O heart, whoever sees my tears and my face knows the goldsmith's craft: how he sets the face of gold with rubies (adorns it with precious stones). (The pale face is likened to gold, the bloody tears to rubies.)

2. In the reign of the lip of that silver-bosomed beauty, the pupils of my eyes have become jewellers and play with rubies and garnets. (The pupils play with bloody tears.)

3. O beauty, to turn my face into pure gold, the heart has become your ember and blown its fiery sigh like a bellows.

4. Pick up the carnelian of my tears from the ground and put it to some use, however precious the stones of your works may be.

5. Münîr, since I began to burn with longing for you, idol of a Christian child, never mind how many Muslims, even the unbeliever's heart burns for me. (VY reads "nice" for "niçe".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the hundred and fifty-fifth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 155). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is the suffix "-üñ / -uñ" (listed by Ersoy as "-üñ"); the rhyme is the "-er / -ir" sound: zer-ger, zer, sīmīn-ber, aḫker, işler and kāfir. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts: VT 134b and VY 111b. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first four couplets of the ghazal are built on images drawn from a single craft, that of the goldsmith. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains "zerger" as goldsmith; the dictionary of the Turkish Language Association gives "murassa" as adorned with precious stones, set with gems. In the opening couplet (matla) the lover's pale face is a plate of gold, and the bloody tears falling on it are rubies inlaid into that plate; the lover's face thus becomes a jewelled work. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) in sound and sense between "zer-ger" (goldsmith) and "zer" (gold).

In the second couplet the pupils of the eyes become jewellers and play with rubies and garnets, that is, with bloody tears. Calling the beloved "sīmīn-ber" (silver-bosomed) adds silver to this world of jewels. In the third couplet the image moves to a goldsmith's forge: the heart is the ember, the sigh the bellows, and the lover's face the gold refined in the fire. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains "ahker" as an ember and, figuratively, the fire of love. The word "dem-zen" (breathing, blowing) links the work of the bellows with the blowing of the sigh; the purification of gold in fire corresponds to the lover's face turning pale with pain.

In the fourth couplet the tear is a carnelian (akik) fallen on the ground. The Kubbealtı dictionary writes that the most prized carnelian is the red one; the comparison of the bloody tear to carnelian rests on this colour. The lover asks the beloved to pick this stone up from the ground and put it to some use; the tear, counted worthless, thus hopes to be admitted among the beloved's works full of precious stones.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) connects the ghazal with the theme of the Christian beauty also seen in tg 154. The beloved is a "büt-i tersā-beçe", an idol-like beauty who is a Christian youth. The Kubbealtı dictionary records the verb "göyünmek" in old Turkish and popular speech in the sense of to burn; the phrase "içi göynür" (his heart burns) expresses pity. A contrast (tezat) is set up in the couplet between the people of Islam and the unbeliever: the lover's state is so pitiful that, never mind the Muslims, even an unbeliever of the beloved's faith feels his heart burn for him. That two successive ghazals treat the same theme is our own observation.

Bibliography

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