Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yoḳdur ey teşne göñül çeşme-i nūşa hevesüñ
Ḫāk-i pāyine meger vardur anuñ dest-resüñ
Yüriyüp bülbül-i şūrīdelerüñ nāliş ile
Hem-dem olması neden sen güle her ḫār u ḫaṣuñ
Ey gözümüñ nūrı benüm gözlerümüñ yaşını gör
Göñlüñ isterse temāşāsını Nīl ü Arasuñ
N’ola cān murġını añmazsa maḥalleñde göñül
Gül-şen ehli ne bilür ḥālin esīr-i ḳafesüñ
Mihr-i ruḥsārı hevāsından anuñ geçme Münīr
Elüñ ile oda atmaġ ise cānı hevesüñ

In English

1. O thirsting heart, you have no desire for the fountain of sweet water (the beloved's lip); or is it that your hand reaches the dust of her feet? (The heart that cannot reach the lip must be content with the dust of her feet.)

2. O rose (beloved), while the frenzied nightingales wander about lamenting, why is it that every thorn and bit of straw is your companion?

3. O light of my eyes, if your heart wishes to behold the Nile and the Aras, look at the tears of my eyes.

4. Is it any wonder if the heart, in your street, does not remember the bird of the soul? What do those in the rose garden know of the plight of the captive in the cage? (In the beloved's street the heart is as if in a rose garden; the soul is a bird left in the cage of the body.)

5. Münîr, if you desire to cast your soul into the fire with your own hand, do not give up the longing for the sun of her cheek.

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-fifth of the Turkish ghazals (tg 165). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain) is the suffix "-üñ / -uñ", and in Ersoy's list in the introduction (p. 9) this ghazal is counted among those with the redif "-üñ". The rhyme is the sound "-es / -as": heves, dest-res, ḫaṣ, Aras, ḳafes and heves again. The word "heves" is used as a rhyme both in the opening couplet and in the pen-name couplet; this repetition is our own observation.

The ghazal is preserved in four witnesses: the three divan manuscripts (VT 136b, VY 114a, Ü 43a) and Edirneli Nazmî's nazire anthology Mecmau'n-nezâ'ir (MN 219b). Ersoy notes that sixty-four of Münîrî's ghazals are found in this anthology, and that the poet can therefore be counted among those most widely represented in the nazire anthologies (introduction p. 4). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal describes the condition of the lover who cannot reach the beloved through images of water, garden and fire. In the opening couplet the heart is a thirsting traveller; "çeşme-i nūş", the fountain of sweet water, stands for the beloved's lip. The heart has no desire for this fountain, because only the dust of the beloved's feet falls to its share. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains the Persian word "destres" as one whose hand reaches, who has attained, and gives the expression "destres olmak" the sense of to reach, to obtain. There is an antithesis in the couplet between the lip and the dust of the feet: one is at an unreachable height, the other on the ground.

The second couplet uses the motif of the rose and the nightingale. The beloved is the rose, the lovers are frenzied nightingales; yet those who stay close to the rose are thorns and straw. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains the phrase "hâr u has" as brushwood, thorns and twigs. The phrase must stand for the worthless rivals who never leave the beloved's side; this reading is our own observation. In the third couplet there is hyperbole: the lover's tears are as abundant as the rivers Nile and Aras. Addressing the beloved as "light of my eyes" and then mentioning tears creates a congruence of images (tenasüp) around the word eye.

The fourth couplet brings the contrast of garden and cage. In the beloved's street the heart is happy as if in a rose garden; the soul, however, is a bird left in the cage of the body. Those in the rose garden do not know the plight of the captive in the cage; that is why the heart forgets the soul. In the pen-name couplet (mahlas) the word "mihr" can be read both as sun and as love; the sun of the beloved's cheek is the way to cast the soul into fire. The meeting of the words "hevā" (passion, longing) and "heves" (desire) in the same couplet creates a closeness of sound.

Bibliography

Online sources