Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yüregümi delüben böyle baña iş idenüñ
Çāk olur zehresi ḫışmını anuñ işidenüñ
Benden ayru düşeli n’oldı göñül bilmedigüm
İşin Allāh bilür ey dost yabana gidenüñ
Şimdi ta‘līm-i cefā eyler imiş yāra raḳīb
Şöyle oñmaya işi anı aña ögredenüñ
Ġamzesi tīri ḫaṭā itmez anuñ hīc göñül
Rāst gelmezdi işi gerçi iñen ḳan idenüñ
Hīc ṭa‘n itmez idi şi‘r-i Münīrīye faḳīh
Sırrını bileyidi baña anı söyledenüñ

In English

1. The gall bladder of anyone who hears of the wrath of the one who pierced my heart and did me such harm would burst (he would be terrified).

2. O friend, I do not know what has become of the heart since it fell apart from me; God knows the affairs of one who goes off into the wilds (into exile).

3. Now, they say, the rival is teaching the beloved cruelty; may the affairs of whoever taught it to him never prosper.

4. O heart, the arrow of her glance never misses; and yet the affairs of one who sheds much blood would not (as a rule) go right. (We have read "iñen" as "very, much".)

5. The jurist (fakih) would never find fault with Münîrî's poetry if he knew who it is that makes me speak its secret. (VY reads "ögredenüñ", "the one who teaches", for "söyledenüñ".)

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-seventh of the Turkish ghazals (tg 167). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". Ersoy's list in the introduction (p. 9) counts this ghazal among those with the redif (refrain) "-üñ". The rhyme words are all participles ending in "-en": iş iden, işiden, giden, ögreden, ḳan iden and söyleden; the suffix "-üñ" is added to them. The ghazal is found in two divan manuscripts: VT 137a and VY 114b. In the pen-name couplet the VY manuscript reads "ögredenüñ" for "söyledenüñ"; with this reading the rhyme word of the third couplet would be repeated. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with a pun (cinas). "İş idenüñ" (of the one who does harm) at the end of the first line and "işidenüñ" (of the one who hears) at the end of the second are very close in spelling and pronunciation; one consists of two words, the other of a single word. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi notes that Münîrî was a master of the pun and applied all its varieties successfully. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains the Persian word "zehre" as gall, bile, and gives the compound "zehre-çâk" the sense of terrified, one whose gall bladder has burst. The phrase "çāk olur zehresi" in the couplet rests on this meaning: even one who merely hears of the beloved's wrath is so frightened that his gall is ready to burst.

In the second couplet the heart has left the lover and gone far off like a traveller. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains the word "yaban" as a desolate place where no one lives and records that the word comes from the Persian "biyâbân". That God knows the affairs of "one who goes off into the wilds" expresses the uncertainty of his fate. The third couplet ends with a curse. The Kubbealtı dictionary explains the old Turkish verb "onmak" as to heal, to come right, and gives the example "affairs do not come right unless one says 'God, God'"; the words "işi oñmaya" therefore mean "may his affairs never prosper". The rival's teaching cruelty to the beloved leads the lover to turn all his anger on the teacher.

In the fourth couplet the word "rāst" works in two directions. The arrow of the glance never commits "ḫaṭā", that is, never misses its mark; whereas the affairs of one who sheds much blood do not "come out rāst", that is, do not go right. An antithesis is set up between the arrow that hits home and the shedder of blood whose affairs do not go right; the beloved is an exception to this general rule. The pen-name couplet (mahlas) is one that Ersoy quotes in the introduction (p. 13). Ersoy cites it as an example of Münîrî regarding his poetry as an art full of secrets, and interprets it to mean that those who reproach his poetry would give up this conduct if they knew who had taught him these secrets. The verb "to teach" in Ersoy's explanation coincides with the reading "ögredenüñ" in the VY manuscript; this is our own observation.

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