Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Ḳılmaġa vaḳthā beni ol ġonca-leb helāk
Cām-ı şarāb elinde gelür mest ü cāme-çāk
Hergiz behişt-i kūyına yol virmedi baña
Göz yaşı ‘ışḳ odıyla beni ḳılmayınca pāk
Yirden götürme yüzüñi devlet murād ise
Ḫāk olmasaydı külline maẓhar m’olurdı ḫāk
Kerrūbiyān-ı ‘arşa felek tuḥfe iletür
Gönderdigümce ben felege āh-ı derd-nāk
Vaṣl-ı nigāra bir nefes irişmeden Münīr
Vā ḥasretā ki hicr beni idiser helāk

In English

1. At times, to destroy me, that rosebud-lipped one comes drunk, his collar torn, with a cup of wine in his hand.

2. He never once let me find the way to his street, which is like paradise, until my tears had purified me with the fire of love (until I had burned in fire and been washed with water).

3. If you desire fortune (felicity, eminence), do not lift your face from the ground (be humble); had earth not been earth (had it not lain low upon the ground), could earth have become the place where the whole is manifested? (The couplet is not entirely clear; see the commentary below.)

4. The sky carries as a gift to the cherubim of the Throne (the angels nearest to God) the painful sighs I send up to the sky.

5. Münîr, before I attain union with the beloved even for a single breath, alas and alack, separation will destroy me.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and seventy-second of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 172). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is on "-āk": helāk, çāk, pāk, ḫāk, nāk and helāk once more. The return of "helāk" (destruction), the rhyme word of the opening couplet, with the same meaning in the couplet bearing the pen name binds the beginning of the poem to its end; this is our own observation. The ghazal is found in the three divan manuscripts: VT 138b, VY 115b and Ü 44b. No variant readings are recorded in the edition. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet sets a favourite scene of divan poetry: the beloved arrives with a cup in hand, drunk and with his collar torn ("cāme-çāk"). Tearing one's collar is a state usually attributed to the lover; giving it here to the beloved conveys his intoxicated disarray and his attraction, dangerous for the lover. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the rosebud lip and the cup. In the second couplet the beloved's street is paradise ("behişt-i kūy"); for the lover to enter it he must be purified. What purifies him is both his tears (water) and the fire of love. That water and fire are counted purifying together brings a contrast (tezat) and a congruence of images into the same couplet.

The third couplet is the most thought-provoking part of the ghazal. The first line is a piece of advice: whoever desires fortune, that is, felicity and eminence, should not lift his face from the ground but should be humble. In the second line the word "küll" means "the whole"; the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "mazhar" as the place where something becomes visible or is manifested. On this basis the line seems to say that earth could become the place where "the whole" is manifested only because it lay upon the ground and abased itself. This reading is ours; what the word "külline" points to cannot be determined with certainty from the text. In the couplet there is a clear congruence between "yir" (ground) and "ḫāk" (earth), and a play on words in the repetition of "ḫāk".

In the fourth couplet the lover's sighs rise to the sky, and the sky carries them as a gift to the angels at the Throne. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "kerrûbî" as each of the angels nearest to God, a great angel. The rising of sighs to the heavens is common in divan poetry; here the sigh becomes a present. The exclamation "vā ḥasretā" in the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) is an Arabic formula of lament and closes the ghazal in the tone of an elegy. A link may also be drawn between "bir nefes" (a single breath) and the sigh.

Bibliography

Online sources