Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Göz yaşın aḳıtduġum geldise ey dil yāra ḫuşk
Çāre ne çün ġamzesi tīrinden olmaz yara ḫuşk
Dün raḳībüñ yār itiyle hem-dem olduġın görüp
Oldı mecmū‘ı ṭamarda küllī ḳan yek-bāre ḫuşk
Ḫuşk ü terden geçmemişdür kend’özin bilmez henūz
Ey dil olursa ‘aceb mi zāhid-i kem-ḫāre ḫuşk
Ḳāmetüñe ḳarşu ger baş çekmese serv-i sehī
Baġrı dilinmezdi āḫir olup ol bī-çāre ḫuşk
Baña eş‘ār-ı terüñden di Münīrī zühdi ḳo
Bes gerekmez sūz-ı ‘ışḳ ile olan bīmāra ḫuşk

In English

1. O heart, if this seemed dry (cold, worthless) to the beloved for whom I shed tears, what remedy is there; for the wound opened by the arrow of her glance does not dry.

2. Yesterday, when I saw the rival hand in glove with the beloved's dog, all the blood in my veins dried up at once.

3. O heart, he has not gone beyond dry and wet (huşk ü ter), he does not yet know his own self; is it any wonder if the abstemious (kem-ḫāre) ascetic is dry? (We have read "kem-ḫāre" as "drinking little"; this is our own conjecture.)

4. Had the upright cypress not raised its head against your stature, the poor thing would not in the end have dried up and split its breast.

5. Münîrî, leave asceticism and recite to me from your fresh (ter) poems; one sick with the burning of love has no need of dry words.

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 sixty-third of the Turkish ghazals (tg 163). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain) is the Persian word "ḫuşk" (dry); in Ersoy's list in the introduction (p. 9) this ghazal appears with the redif "ḫuşk". On the same page Ersoy notes that the poet chooses Persian redifs in his Persian poems and generally Turkish ones in his Turkish poems; this Turkish ghazal, which makes a Persian word its redif, falls outside that general tendency. The rhyme is the sound "-āre / -ara": yāra, yara, yek-bāre, kem-ḫāre, bī-çāre and bīmāra. The ghazal is found only in the VT manuscript (136a). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal ends with the same word, and the poet uses this redif with a different meaning in each. The Kubbealtı dictionary gives the Persian word "huşk" the meaning dry and, figuratively, coarse, cold, unrefined, barren, lifeless. In the opening couplet the lover's tears seem "dry" to the beloved, that is, worthless and cold, while the wound opened by the arrow of the glance "does not dry". In the rhyme the words "yāra" (to the beloved) and "yara" (wound) stand side by side; there is a pun (cinas) between them based on similarity of sound. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi notes that Münîrî was a master of the pun and applied all its varieties successfully. In the second couplet the rival keeps company with the beloved's dog. Placing the rival on a level with a dog is a contemptuous turn of phrase; the lover who sees this feels the blood dry in his veins.

The third couplet targets the ascetic (zahid). The pair "ḫuşk ü ter" (dry and wet) forms an antithesis. In the Kubbealtı dictionary's entry "huşk" an example of the phrase "zâhid-i huşk" (the dry ascetic) is given from Rûhî-i Bağdâdî; in the dictionary the use of "huşk" with "zâhid" is given as an example of the word's figurative sense. Münîrî uses this expression as a question: it is no wonder that the abstemious ascetic, who does not know his own self, is dry. In the fourth couplet the drying of the cypress is explained by a hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology). The cypress has been punished for raising its head against the beloved's stature; it has dried up and its breast has split.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) ties the ghazal to the art of poetry. There is an antithesis between "eş‘ār-ı ter" (fresh, moist poems) and the redif "ḫuşk". The poet advises himself to leave asceticism and recite fresh poems; dry words are of no use to one sick with the burning of love. In this way the dry ascetic of the third couplet and the fresh poetry of the fifth are set face to face.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

Online sources