Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Öldürdi ḥasret-i zeneḫüñ beni ey ḥabīb
Bīd-i mezārum üzre anuñçün dizildi sīb
Dil vardı ġamzeñe ki ‘ilāc ide derdine
Öldi hemān ki didi gözüñ ḫastedür tabīb
Her şemmesine zülfüñüñ irdükçe bād-ı ṣubḥ
Fikri budur ki irgüre her bir meşāma ṭīb
Gözüñle kirpigüñ ki yüzüñ cāmi‘indedür
Gūyā ki minber üzre ṭurur tīġ ile ḫaṭīb
Gördüm ki ġamzesi yüriyüp sehm alışdurur
Didüm ki var mı baña da didi ki yā naṣīb
Kimdür Münīrī didi didüm kūyuñ itine
Bir derd-mend ü ‘āşıḳ-ı dil-dāde vü ġarīb

In English

1. O beloved, longing for the dimple of your chin has killed me; that is why apples have been strung upon the willow over my grave.

2. The heart went to your glance so that it might cure its pain; when your eye said "the physician is sick", it died at once.

3. Whenever the morning breeze reaches each whiff of your tresses, its one thought is to bring that sweet scent to every nostril.

4. Your eye and your eyelashes, standing in the mosque of your face, are like a preacher standing with a sword upon the pulpit.

5. I saw that his glance was going about handing out arrows (and shares); I said "Is there one for me too?"; he said "If it be my lot".

6. He said "Who is Münîrî?"; I said: a sufferer bound to the dog of your quarter, a lover who has lost his heart, a stranger.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the eighteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 18). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-īb": ḥabīb, sīb, tabīb, ṭīb, ḫaṭīb, naṣīb, ġarīb. In tg 14, written on the same rhyme, the words "ḫaṭīb", "naṣīb", "ṭabīb" and "ġarīb" also serve as rhymes. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 102b), Vienna (VY 83a) and Istanbul University (Ü 20a) manuscripts; the apparatus shows no variant readings. The pen name appears in the last couplet in the form "Münīrī", within a question. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) sets up a fine poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). In divan poetry the beloved's chin is likened to an apple and the dimple of the chin (zeneḫ) to a well. The lover has died of longing for the chin, and apples have been strung upon the willow tree at the head of his grave. The willow bears no apples; the poet explains this impossible sight by the lover's longing bearing fruit even in the grave. The presence of willows in graveyards and their drooping branches also fit the picture of the couplet; this last link is our own inference.

The second couplet is built on the motif of the "sick eye". The heart goes to the beloved's glance as one goes to a physician to find a cure for its pain. But the eye says "the physician is sick": in divan poetry the beloved's languid eye counts as sick. When the physician himself is sick, no hope remains in the heart, and the heart dies. In the third couplet the morning breeze is like a messenger who spreads the scent of the tresses to everyone.

The fourth couplet sets up a mosque comparison. The face is likened to a mosque, the eye to the preacher, and the eyelash to the sword in the preacher's hand. The preacher standing with a sword in the pulpit is also mentioned in the divan in the couplet of the angry preacher in tg 14. The likening of the eyebrow to the prayer niche (mihrab) is common in divan poetry; though the eyebrow is not named here, the image of the mosque brings this comparison to mind.

The fifth couplet rests on a double entendre (tevriye). The word "sehm" in its dictionary sense means both arrow and share. While the glance is handing out arrows, the lover asks for a share for himself; the beloved's answer is "yā naṣīb", that is, "if it be my lot". The word "naṣīb" (share, lot) brings out the second meaning of "sehm". This double entendre is our own observation.

In the pen-name couplet the beloved asks "Who is Münîrî?" and the lover introduces himself. The phrase "kūyuñ itine" at the beginning of the line is kept short; we take it that the lover introduces himself as one bound to the dog in the beloved's quarter. The epithets "derd-mend" (sufferer), "‘āşıḳ-ı dil-dāde" (lover who has given his heart) and "ġarīb" (stranger) recall the self-introduction in the opening couplet of tg 14.

Bibliography

Online sources