Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Zülfi kim gül yüzine sünbül-i ter ḳıldı niḳāb
Āftābuñ ṣanasın kim yüzini ṭutdı seḥāb
Nicesi āyet-i raḥmet diyeyin ḫaṭṭuña kim
Ol gelelden çekerem ben dün ü gün bunca ‘aẕāb
Em didüm leblerüñe ḫaste-dil içün didi merg
Vāy ol ḫasteye kim ola bu vech ile cevāb
Sāḳīyā cām-ı ṣabūḥı berü ṣun nūş idelüm
Başladı naġme-i dil-sūzına çün çeng ü rebāb
Var mı pā-būsı hevāsı dime başuñda Münīr
Yoḳmasa kend’özümi ide midüm şöyle türāb

In English

1. His tresses made a veil of fresh hyacinth over his rose face; you would think the sun had covered its face with a cloud.

2. How can I call the down on your cheek (ḫaṭ) a verse of mercy, when since it appeared I suffer so much torment night and day?

3. For my sick heart I said to your lips "a remedy (or: suck)"; they said "death". Woe to the sick one who is answered in this way.

4. O cupbearer, pass the cup of morning wine this way, let us drink; for the harp and the rebab have begun their heart-burning melodies.

5. Münîr, do not say "Is there in your head a longing to kiss (the beloved's) feet?"; if there were not, would I have turned myself into dust like this?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the seventeenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 17). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-āb": niḳāb, seḥāb, ‘aẕāb, cevāb, rebāb, türāb. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 102b), Vienna (VY 83a) and Istanbul University (Ü 20a) manuscripts and in the Anthology of Pervâne Bey (PB 63b). According to the apparatus, the manuscripts differ between "diyeyin" and "diyeyüm" in the second couplet; in the fourth couplet PB reads "her" instead of "çün". To whom and when it was written is not known.

In his introduction Ersoy says that Münîrî was not very successful in handling aruz (quantitative metre), that faults such as zihaf and imale are often met with, and gives the fourth couplet of this ghazal as an example of zihaf. Zihaf is the short reading, for the sake of the metre, of a vowel that ought to be read long. The second syllable of the word "sāḳīyā" is in fact long, yet in the couplet it must be read short. According to Ersoy such faults both spoil the harmony and lower the literary value of the text.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) is built on a familiar chain of comparisons: the face becomes rose and sun, the tresses hyacinth and cloud. Fresh hyacinth stands for the black, curling tresses; the falling of the tresses over the face is likened to the sun being covered by a cloud. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between rose and hyacinth, sun and cloud.

The second couplet rests on a double entendre (tevriye). "Ḫaṭ" in its dictionary sense means both writing and the down on a young man's face. The sense of writing calls up the word "āyet" (verse of the Qur'an); the down shows that the beloved's beauty has begun to change. The poet says he cannot call this writing a "verse of mercy", since he has suffered torment ever since it appeared. There is an open contrast between "raḥmet" (mercy) and "‘aẕāb" (torment).

The third couplet is a short scene of dialogue. The lover asks the lips for "em" for his sick heart, and the answer is "merg" (death). The word "em" in its dictionary sense means remedy, cure; the same sound in Turkish also suggests the imperative of the verb "emmek" (to suck), and so turns into a request for a kiss. This double reading is our own observation.

The fourth couplet is a banquet scene: morning wine (ṣabūḥ) is called for, and the harp and the rebab have begun to play. This is the couplet that Ersoy cites as an example of zihaf. In the pen-name couplet a link is made between the wish to kiss the feet and becoming dust. The dust is where the foot treads; the lover has turned himself into dust so as to touch the beloved's foot. The word "türāb" brings to mind both humility and death.

Bibliography

Online sources