Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ġamzeñüñ tīrinden āḫir dil-figār olsam gerek
Mūnis-i derd ü ḥarīf-i āh u zār olsam gerek
Gül yüzüñsüz ḫāk olursam lāle-veş ey ġonca-leb
Bir daḫı dāġ-ı ġamuñla āşkār olsam gerek
Şol sehī servüñ cemāli gül-şenisüz bilmezem
Ebr-i nīsān gibi niçe eşk-bār olsam gerek
‘Āḳıbet pā-būsına yüz sürmek içün dil-berüñ
Bir güẕer-gāhında varup ḫāk-sār olsam gerek
Mihr-i ruḫsārı hevāsından Münīrī ẕerre-veş
Niçe bir şevḳ ile şöyle bī-ḳarār olsam gerek

In English

1. In the end, it seems, my heart will be wounded by the arrow of your glance; I am bound to become an intimate of pain and a companion of sighs and moans.

2. O rosebud-lipped one, if I turn to dust without having seen your rose-like face, I shall rise from the earth once more like the tulip, bearing the brand (dāġ) of your grief.

3. I know of no rose garden without the beauty of that straight cypress (the beloved's stature); who knows how long I shall have to shed tears like the April cloud.

4. In the end, to rub my face on the beloved's foot, I shall have to go to a path he passes along and lie there like dust.

5. Longing for the sun of his cheek, how long shall I, Münîrî, stay restless like a mote with yearning?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and sixty-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 169). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "olsam gerek" (I must surely become); in his list of refrains Ersoy counts this ghazal and the one immediately following, tg 170, among those with the refrain "gerek". The rhyme is on "-ār": figār, zār, āşkār, eşk-bār, ḫāk-sār and ḳarār. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts: VT 137b, VY 115a and Ü 43b. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain "olsam gerek" lends the ghazal an air of conjecture and inevitability. In each couplet the lover foretells what will befall him: he will be wounded, he will spring from the earth like a tulip, he will weep like the April cloud, he will become the dust of the road, he will remain restless like a mote. The sequence lets the lover's life be read as a story running from wound to death and from death to a kind of resurrection. The opening couplet uses the well-known comparison of the glance with an arrow; in the second line the phrases "mūnis-i derd" (intimate of pain) and "ḥarīf-i āh u zār" (companion of sighs and moans) make the lover an old acquaintance of suffering.

The second couplet rests on the much-loved image of the tulip. The dark spot at the centre of the tulip is called "dāġ"; the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the word as a brand burned with a hot iron and, figuratively, the wound that love and grief leave within. The lover says that if he dies without seeing the beloved's rose-like face, he will reappear from his grave as a tulip bearing this brand of grief. Rose, rosebud and tulip form a congruence of images (tenasüp). In the third couplet the beloved's stature is a "sehī serv", a straight cypress; a rose garden without that cypress means nothing to the lover. The April cloud (ebr-i nīsān) is a symbol of abundant rain and is compared to the lover's tears.

In the fourth couplet the word "ḫāk-sār" expresses both lying on the ground like dust and humility; becoming the dust of the road in order to rub one's face on the beloved's foot is one of the familiar postures of the lover in divan poetry. The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) uses the motif of the sun and the mote: the speck of dust that turns ceaselessly in a sunbeam is the lover who never rests in his yearning for the beloved's cheek, the sun. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "mihr" the meanings "sun" and, figuratively, "love"; hence a double entendre (tevriye) may be sensed in the phrase "mihr-i ruḫsār"; this is our own observation. The juxtaposition of the poet's pen name "Münīrī" (the one who gives light) with the image of the sun is also worth noting.

Bibliography

Online sources