Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Lāle-ḫaddüñ gördügi-çün kendüyi ṭaġıtdı gül
Ġonca dil-teng olduġı kim dir ki anuñçün degül
Her ne dāġ-ı ġam ki urur baġruma ḫāl-i lebüñ
Her biri biñ şevḳ ile olur baña bir tāze gül
Güldürürdi vaṣl-ı yār ile bizi de rūzgār
Ger dem-i ḳısmetde ey dil bize de dinseydi gül
Yār iti yüz döndirüp gözden bıraḳdı beni çün
Ṭurma ey ḳanlu yaşum her kirpük ucından dökül
Dün Münīrüñ beñzini gördüm küle dönmiş dimiş
Gerçek eydür ‘ışḳ odıyla olası oldı ya kül

In English

1. Because it saw your tulip-like cheek, the rose scattered itself (shed its petals); who can say that the rosebud's being "dil-teng" (heavy-hearted, and closed up tight) is not for the same reason?

2. Every brand of grief that the mole beside your lip strikes upon my breast becomes for me a fresh rose, opened with a thousand longings.

3. Fortune would have made us laugh too by granting union with the beloved, if, O heart, at the moment when lots were dealt out, we too had been told "gül" (both the imperative "laugh" and "rose").

4. Since even the beloved's dog has turned its face away and let me drop from its sight, O my bloody tears, do not stay; fall from the tip of every eyelash.

5. Yesterday I saw Münîr's face turned the colour of ash; he said: "You speak the truth: it must have become ash in the fire of love, yes, ash."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and seventy-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 179). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is on "-ül": gül, degül, gül, gül, dökül and kül. The ghazal is found in only two manuscripts: VT 140a and VY 117a. The word "ġam" (grief) in the second couplet appears as "nev" (new) in the Vienna manuscript; in that reading the phrase becomes "dāġ-ı nev", a new wound. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most distinctive feature of the ghazal is the use of the word "gül" three times in the rhyme. In the opening couplet and in the second couplet "gül" is the name of the flower; in the third it comes as the imperative of the verb "gülmek" (to laugh) and joins with "güldürürdi" (would make laugh) in the same line. A perfect pun (cinas) is thus created in the rhyme; the entry of the same word into the rhyme with different meanings shows Münîrî's interest in wordplay. This couplet says that at the "dem-i ḳısmet", the moment when lots were dealt out, the lover was not told "gül", and so neither laughter nor union with a rose-like beloved fell to his share.

The opening couplet is a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). On seeing the beloved's tulip cheek, the rose has scattered itself out of jealousy and shed its petals. The closed state of the rosebud is likewise explained by its being "dil-teng" (heavy-hearted, constrained); the cause of both is the beloved's beauty. Tulip, rose and rosebud form a congruence of images (tenasüp). The second couplet uses the word "dāġ", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as a brand burned with a hot iron and, figuratively, the burn of love. Every wound struck by the mole beside the lip becomes for the lover a newly opened rose; a comparison based on colour is drawn between the bleeding red wound and the rose.

In the fourth couplet the idiom "gözden bırakmak" calls to mind both disregarding someone and letting tears fall from the eye. Even the beloved's dog has let the lover drop from its regard; so the lover tells his tears to fall from the tips of his eyelashes. There is a clear congruence of images between eye, eyelash and tear; the two-way use of the idiom is our own observation. In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the idiom "beñzi küle dönmek" (his face turned ashen) is returned to its literal sense: the lover's face is the colour of ash because he has truly burned to ash in the fire of love. The series that began with the rose in the opening couplet thus ends with ash, and the closeness in sound between "gül" (rose) and "kül" (ash) forms a further pun.

Bibliography

Online sources