Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Gözümde muḳīm olalıdan ḫaddi nigāruñ
Yoḳdur es̱eri āyīne-i dilde ġubāruñ
Çeşm-i siyehüñ diş bilese ḳanuma ṭañ mı
Def‘i mey-i nāb ile olur yine ḫumāruñ
Gül-şende aḳan ṣu gibidür lāle-ruḫuñla
Bu vech ile yüzüñde ki var luṭf-ı ‘iẕāruñ
Öykündügi-çün ḳāmet-i bālāña yiridür
Her yıl ṣoyulursa derisi şöyle çenāruñ
Zülfüñde görüp göñlümi dün didi Münīrī
Ey dil nice gündür ki senüñ var şeb-i tāruñ

In English

1. Ever since the beloved's cheek took up residence in my eye, not a trace of dust has remained on the mirror of the heart (the image of that cheek has polished the heart clean).

2. Is it any wonder if your dark eye whets its teeth for my blood? A hangover is cured only by more pure wine (so the languid, "hungover" eye craves my blood in place of wine).

3. Together with your tulip cheek, the grace of the cheek upon your face is like water flowing through a rose garden; such is the loveliness of your face ("bu vech ile" means both "in this manner" and "with this face").

4. Because the plane tree tried to imitate your tall stature, it deserves to have its skin stripped like this every year (the shedding of the plane tree's bark is presented as its punishment for that presumption).

5. Yesterday, seeing my heart caught in your tresses, Münîrî said: "O heart, for how many days now you have been living in a dark night."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and sixty-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 168). The metre is "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". The redif (refrain word) is the genitive suffix "-uñ / -üñ" (listed by Ersoy as "-üñ"); the rhyme is on "-ār": nigār, ġubār, ḫumār, ‘iẕār, çenār and tār. The ghazal survives only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 137b); it is recorded neither in the Vienna and Istanbul University manuscripts nor in the anthologies of response poems. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem turns on the relationship between the beloved's face and the lover's heart. The opening couplet uses the familiar image of the heart as a mirror: once the beloved's cheek has settled in the lover's eye, no dust is left on that mirror. The phrase "muḳīm olmak" (to take up residence) turns the cheek into a guest lodging in the eye. In the second couplet the beloved's dark eye is likened to a predator whetting its teeth for blood; the idiom "diş bilemek" here conveys eager waiting. The justification in the second line comes from the world of wine: the languid, "hungover" eye seeks wine, the cure for a hangover, and wants the lover's blood in its place. The likeness in colour between blood and wine is joined to the congruence of images (tenasüp) between eye and hangover.

In the third couplet the cheek is compared to water flowing through a rose garden. Tulip, rose garden and water belong to the same spring scene. Because the word "vech" means both "manner" and "face", the phrase "bu vech ile yüzüñde" seems to contain a double entendre (tevriye) and a play on repeated meaning; this is our own observation. The fourth couplet is a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). Because of its height the plane tree is one of the trees divan poetry measures against the beloved's stature. The bark of the oriental plane falls away in small pieces; the poet interprets this natural process as the tree being flayed every year for daring to imitate the beloved's stature.

The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) uses the well-known comparison between tresses and night. The heart has fallen into the beloved's black hair, and the poet asks after its "şeb-i tār", its pitch-dark night. The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that "dün" (yesterday) derives from Old Turkic "tün" (night); with this origin in mind, dün, night and tresses form a congruent set in the line. A contrast may also be seen in the pen name "Münīr" (the one who gives light) standing next to the dark night; this too is our own reading.

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