Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Gāh u bī-geh dimez irer dile cevr ü sitemüñ
Şerm-sār itdi beni ṭoġrusı luṭf u keremüñ
Yıllar oldı ki yoluñda dökerem ḳanlu yaşı
Daḫı bir gün dimedüñ kim nicesin ya ne demüñ
Ġuṣṣamuñ ḳıṣṣaların niçe ki yazmaḳ dilerem
Ḳanlu yaşı varaḳ üstine dökilür ḳalemüñ
Dil-i mecrūḥı deler derd ile peykān-ı ḥased
İrdügince cigere tīr-i ḫadengi ṣanemüñ
Çekmesün küḥl-i cilā minnetini çeşm-i Münīr
Rūşenāyise yeter dīdeme ḫāk-i ḳademüñ

In English

1. Your cruelty and reproach reach the heart without regard for time or season; truly, your kindness and generosity have put me to shame.

2. For years now I have shed bloody tears on your path; not once have you said, "How are you, or what is your trouble?"

3. Whenever I wish to write the tales of my grief, bloody tears pour from the pen onto the page (the pen weeps too).

4. As the arrow (tîr-i hadeng) of the idol-like beauty (sanem) reaches the liver, the arrowhead of envy pierces the wounded heart with pain (the heart is jealous because the liver has received the arrow). (Ü and MN read "diler" for "deler".)

5. Let Münîr's eye not be beholden to collyrium or polish; the dust of your feet is enough as light for my eyes.

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-fourth of the Turkish ghazals (tg 164). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain) is the suffix "-üñ", and in Ersoy's list in the introduction (p. 9) this ghazal too is counted among those with the redif "-üñ". The rhyme is the sound "-em": sitem, kerem, dem, ḳalem, ṣanem and ḳadem.

The ghazal is preserved in five witnesses: the three divan manuscripts (VT 136b, VY 114a, Ü 42b) and two nazire anthologies, the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası (PB 356a) and Edirneli Nazmî's Mecmau'n-nezâ'ir (MN 221a). The only recorded variant is the difference "deler / diler" in the fourth couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The suffix "-üñ" in the redif does not have the same function in every couplet. In the opening couplet "sitemüñ" and "keremüñ" mean "your reproach, your generosity"; "demüñ" in the second couplet and "ḳademüñ" in the pen-name couplet likewise address the beloved with the second-person possessive suffix. In the third and fourth couplets, however, "ḳalemüñ" and "ṣanemüñ" carry no second-person possessive; here the suffix is a genitive meaning "of the pen" and "of the idol": in the third couplet it is the lover's pen that weeps. That the same suffix is used as a redif in these two functions is our own observation. The second line of the opening couplet can be read ironically. In the first line the beloved's cruelty and reproach come regardless of time; in the second the lover says, "your kindness and generosity have put me to shame". Calling cruelty kindness is either the lover counting everything that comes from the beloved as a favour, or a light reproach; the couplet can be read both ways.

In the second couplet the word "dem" is used in the sense of condition, trouble; for years the beloved has not asked after the lover. In the third couplet tears and writing merge: when the lover sets out to write his grief, bloody tears flow from the pen onto the paper. The likening of ink to bloody tears and the weeping of the pen are an instance of personification (teşhis). The fourth couplet uses terms of archery. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains the Persian word "hadeng" as arrow, and gives "ṣanem" as idol and, figuratively, a very beautiful person, a beloved. The beloved's arrow reaches the liver; the heart, however, is jealous that this arrow went to the liver, and is pierced by the arrowhead of envy. In our reading, this jealousy between heart and liver shows that the lover counts even the wound that comes from the beloved as a blessing.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) is built on the eye and remedies for the eye. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains the Arabic word "kühl" as collyrium (kohl) and eye medicine, and the Persian "rûşenâ" as bright, luminous. The poet says that his eye will be beholden to no one for collyrium and polish, since the dust of the beloved's feet will be enough for it. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words collyrium, polish and light; the dust of the beloved's feet as a remedy for the eye also recalls the tutty image in the third couplet of tg 158.

Bibliography

Online sources