Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫatm oldı muṣḥaf-ı ruḫ-ı ḥüsnüñde her kemāl
Cibrīl-i zülfüñ indüreli āyet-i cemāl
La‘l-i lebüñe ṣalduġı bī-çāre göñlümi
Zülf-i siyāhuñ eyledi ta‘līḳ-i bi’l-muḥāl
Ḥablardur ol ki nāfe-i zülfüñ ṭaġıtdı hep
Gird-i ruḫuñda kim görinür dāne dāne ḫāl
Zülf-i ḫamuñda ḫālüñi görüp didi göñül
Cīm olduġına zülfüñüñ oldı bu noḳṭa dāl
Rā ḳaşları mis̱ālini ḫoş beñzedür Münīr
Levḥ-i felekde yazuban altun ile hilāl
Ölmezden öñdin ey göñül ol meh-liḳā yüzin
Şāyed ki göstere yine ma‘būd-ı bī-zevāl

In English

1. Ever since the Gabriel of your tresses brought down the verse of beauty, every perfection has been completed ("ḫatm": also the recitation of the whole Qur'an from beginning to end) in the Qur'an-copy of your face's beauty.

2. Your black tresses have made my poor heart, which they cast towards your ruby lip, conditional upon the impossible (they have both hung it up and left it dependent on what can never happen).

3. The moles that appear grain by grain around your face are the grains that the musk-pod of your tresses has scattered all about.

4. Seeing your mole within your curling tresses, the heart said: this dot has become proof that your tresses are the letter "cīm" (ج) ("dāl" means both "pointing to, proof" and the letter dāl).

5. Münîr finely likens the crescent moon, written in gold upon the tablet of the sky, to the pattern of your brows curved like the letter "rā" (ر).

6. O heart, before you die, perhaps the Eternal Lord, who knows no decline, will once more show you the face of that moon-faced one.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and seventy-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 178). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is on "-āl": kemāl, cemāl, muḥāl, ḫāl, dāl, hilāl and zevāl. The ghazal is found in the three divan manuscripts (VT 139b, VY 118a, Ü 45b) and in two anthologies of response poems, the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası (PB 373b) and Edirneli Nazmî's Mecmau'n-nezâ'ir (MN 243a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

The state of the manuscripts is noteworthy. In the edition the sixth couplet comes after the couplet bearing the pen name; this couplet is missing from the Vatican and Istanbul University manuscripts and is found only in the Vienna manuscript and the two anthologies. Since the pen name usually appears in the last couplet of a ghazal, the possibility arises that this couplet was added later; this is our own conjecture, and the edition offers no such assessment. The third couplet is also missing from PB. The other variants are: "ḥüsnüñ" in Ü for "zülfüñ" in the first couplet; "Zülfüñ ḫamında" in PB and MN for "Zülf-i ḫamuñda" in the fourth; "yazulan" in PB for "yazuban" in the fifth; and "saña" in PB for "yine" in the sixth.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built entirely from a world of religious terms. The beloved's face is a copy of the Qur'an (muṣḥaf); the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "hatm" as both finishing, completing and reciting the Qur'an from beginning to end. The tresses are likened to Gabriel, whom the Kubbealtı Lugatı defines as the angel charged with bringing God's revelation to the prophets, and they bring down the verse of beauty. There is a strong congruence of images (tenasüp) between muṣḥaf, hatm, Gabriel, verse and "indürmek" (to send down). In the second couplet the expression "ta‘līḳ-i bi’l-muḥāl" carries a double entendre (tevriye). The Turkish Language Association dictionary gives "talik" as both hanging and making the doing of something dependent on a condition; the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "muhal" as that which is impossible. The tresses have both hung up the heart and made union dependent on a condition that can never be met.

The third couplet uses "nāfe", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as the musk pod in the navel of the musk deer. The black, fragrant tresses are a musk pod, and the moles around the face are grains spilled from it. The same dictionary gives "hab" as a grain and as medicine in the form of a pill. The fourth and fifth couplets rest on comparisons with letters. The curling tresses resemble the letter cīm, and the mole within them is the dot of that letter. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "dāll" as that which points to something, that which is a proof; the rhyme word "dāl" is therefore both a proof and the name of a letter. In the fifth couplet the brows are likened to the letter rā, and the crescent in the sky to a letter written in gold ink upon a tablet. The words "levḥ" (tablet), "yazmak" (to write) and "altun" (gold) recall the arts of calligraphy and illumination; this is our own observation.

The sixth couplet closes with a prayer that turns from the beloved to God. The expression "Ma‘būd-ı bī-zevāl" (the Lord who knows no decline) contrasts with the mortal beauty of the moon-faced beloved; there is also a link between "meh" (moon) and the "hilāl" (crescent) of the fifth couplet.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Official sources

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "hatim", "Cebrâil", "muhal", "nâfe", "hab" and "dâl". https://lugatim.com/s/dâl

Online sources