Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ġālibā ta‘līm-i siḥr içün gelüpdür perçemüñ
Kim başın ḳaldurdı diñler gūş urup zülf-i ḫamuñ
Derd-i ‘ışḳ-ı yār içün baña müdāvā itme hīc
Kendü başuña olurdı varmısa ey dil emüñ
Ayrulurken yārdan kūyında yirüm gördügüm
Cān deminde perde götrilür gözinden ādemüñ
Ben ḫo kül-ḫan gibi yandıġumuñ ey dil vechi var
Şöyle aḫker-pāre olmışsın nedür senüñ demüñ
Mihr-i ruḫsārına döymez bakmaġa dīdeñ Münīr
Ḫıralupdur giryeden ġālib budur çeşm-i nemüñ

In English

1. It seems your forelock has come to learn sorcery; for your curling lock has raised its head and, pricking up its ears, is listening.

2. O heart, do not seek any remedy for me for the pain of love for the beloved; if you had a remedy (em), you would have used it on yourself.

3. As I parted from the beloved I saw my own place in her street; indeed, at the moment of death the veil is lifted from a man's eyes (parting is like death, and the dying see their true place).

4. O heart, if I have burned like a bathhouse furnace, there is a reason for it; but you have become such a piece of live coal, what is your trouble (dem)? (VY reads "āteş-pāre", a piece of fire, for "aḫker-pāre".)

5. Münîr, your eye never tires of gazing at the sun of the beloved's cheek; your moist eye has grown dim (dazzled) from weeping, and that, it seems, is the reason. (We could not verify the meaning of the verb "ḫıralmak" in a dictionary; we have inferred it from the context.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a Turkish ghazal of five couplets; in the edition it is the hundred and fifty-ninth of the Turkish ghazals (tg 159). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain) is the suffix "-üñ / -uñ", and Ersoy's list in the introduction (p. 9) counts this ghazal among those with the redif "-üñ". The rhyme is the sound "-em / -am": perçem, ḫam, em, ādem, dem and nem. The ghazal is found in three divan manuscripts: VT 135b, VY 112a and Ü 41b. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet two parts of the beloved's hair are personified. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains "perçem" as a short tuft of hair falling on the forehead, a fringe. The forelock is a pupil who has come to learn sorcery, while the curling lock is a listener who has raised its head and pricked up its ears. The upturned end of the curl is likened to the attitude of someone listening; this is an example of hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology). In this way, through the phrase "ta‘līm-i siḥr" (the teaching of sorcery), the hair is placed inside a classroom scene. Who the teacher is in this scene is not said.

The second couplet contains the word "em". The Kubbealtı dictionary counts it as old Turkish and popular speech and explains it as remedy, cure, help; among the examples the dictionary gives is a couplet by Mihrî Hatun, Münîrî's contemporary from Amasya. The lover addresses the heart: do not seek a remedy for the pain of love, for if you had one you would first have used it on yourself. The third couplet equates parting with death. The lifting of the veil from a man's eyes at the moment of death is linked to the lover seeing his true place in the beloved's street.

The fourth couplet is built of images of fire. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains "külhan" as the large furnace beneath the floor of a bathhouse, and "ahker" as a live coal and, figuratively, the fire of love. The lover knows the reason for his own burning, but asks about the trouble of the heart that has turned into a piece of coal. The rhyme word "dem" can be read here as trouble, condition; according to the Kubbealtı dictionary the Persian "dem" also carries the senses of breath, time, and a sound accompanying a melody. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the word "mihr" is used in the sense of sun and forms a compound with "ruḫsār" (cheek); the eye is dazzled because it never tires of gazing at the sun. There is an antithesis between the moisture of tears and the glare of the sun. The last word of the couplet, "nem", is close in sound to "em" in the second couplet; this is our own observation.

Bibliography

Online sources