Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Hezār itse ne var destānı bülbül
Götürdi burḳa‘ın çün şāhid-i gül
Ḳabaġum ḳan ile ṭolduġın añdum
Ṣurāḥīdür müdām aġlayu ḳul ḳul
Ölürsem ḳadd ü zülfüñ ḥasretiyle
Bitiser türbem üzre serv ü sünbül
Çeker bār-ı ġamuñı dil velīkin
Yüki bī-ḥad ḳılur geñsiz taḥammül
Beli varını fikr itseñ Münīrī
Ḳıl ol ince ḫayāli key te’emmül

In English

1. What does it matter if the nightingale (hezār) tells its tale a thousand (hezār) times? The beauty of the rose (şāhid-i gül) has lifted her veil (the rose has opened, so the nightingale's song is fitting).

2. I recalled that my eyelid ("ḳabaġ", also a gourd) had filled with blood; the flask too weeps ceaselessly "gul gul" (the gurgle of the flask pouring wine is likened to weeping).

3. If I die longing for your stature and your tresses, cypress and hyacinth will grow upon my tomb.

4. The heart bears the load of your grief, but an endurance that is not wide (that is narrow) makes the load boundless.

5. Münîrî, if you would ponder whether the beloved's waist exists at all, consider that slender image with great care ("ḳıl" means both "do" and "a hair": consider that hair-thin image).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and seventy-sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 176). The metre is "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is on "-ül": bülbül, gül, ḳul ḳul, sünbül, taḥammül and te’emmül. The ghazal is found in the three divan manuscripts: VT 139a, VY 117b and Ü 45a. In the Istanbul University manuscript "ḳabaġın" is read for "ḳabaġum" in the second couplet, and "ḫayālüñi" for "ḫayāli key" in the fifth. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is woven of puns and double meanings. In the opening couplet the word "hezār" is used in two senses: the Turkish Language Association dictionary gives it as "nightingale", a word of Persian origin; its sense of "a thousand" can also be felt in the phrasing of the line ("hezār itse … destānı"). The nightingale thus tells its tale a thousand times. In the second line the rose is personified as a beauty ("şāhid") who has lifted the veil from her face; before the opened rose, the nightingale's singing a thousand times is nothing to wonder at.

The second couplet sets up the world of the drinking party. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the Arabic word "kulkul" as the sound made by water and the like, and gives examples from divan poetry of the "kulkul" of the flask. The flask gurgles "gul gul" as it pours wine, and the poet hears this as weeping. We understand the word "ḳabaġ" in the line, from its context, as the eyelid (kapak); the same word also recalls the gourd. The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that "kabak" (gourd) was formed from "kap" (vessel) with a diminutive suffix. A double entendre (tevriye) may therefore be sensed between the eyelid filled with blood and the vessel filled with wine; both the sense of eyelid and this double entendre are our own reading. It is also possible that the onomatopoeia "ḳul ḳul" calls to mind the word "kul" (servant).

The third couplet is an example of leff ü neşr (a figure in which items named in one line are matched in order in the next): the stature and tresses of the first line correspond, in order, to the cypress and the hyacinth of the second. The plants that grow from the lover's tomb recall the beloved's stature and hair. In the fourth couplet the word "gen", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as "wide" in Old Turkish and in popular speech, appears in the form "geñsiz" to describe a narrow, insufficient power of endurance. The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) rests on the well-known divan motif of the waist: the beloved's waist is so slender that it is unclear whether it exists at all. The word "ḳıl" is both the imperative of "kılmak" (to do) and the word for a hair; the slender image is as thin as a hair and calls for careful thought. There is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "te’emmül" (careful reflection), "ḫayāl" (image) and "fikr" (thought).

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