Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Cīm ü dāl ü lām-ı zülfüñ ḳılmasa her dem cedel
Vaṣl-ı ḳaddüñle vireydi şāyed āḫir bir kez el
‘Ayn-ı çeşmüñle dehānuñ mīmi zülfüñ lāmı bes
Benden ayrulmazlar āḫir k’oldılar baña ‘amel
Rā ḳaşuñ birle dehān u kākülüñ devrinde dil
İḫtiyār itse bu şi‘r içre n’ola baḥr-i remel
Çeşm ü dendānuñla zülfüñüñ ḫayāli cānuma
Dōstum virse ‘aceb mi dem-be-dem ṭu‘m-ı ‘asel
Ol elif ḳadd ile zülf-i yār cīm ü lām olup
Ey Münīrī oldı lā-büd ‘āşıḳa anlar ecel

In English

1. If the cīm, dāl and lām of your tresses (the curls of the tresses, shaped like these letters; side by side the three spell "cedel", quarrel) did not always make cedel (dispute), perhaps union with your stature would at last lend me a hand.

2. The ‘ayn of your eye (the letter ‘ayn, which also means eye), the mīm of your mouth and the lām of your tresses: in the end they do not part from me, for they have become my "‘amel" (my deed; it is written with the letters ‘ayn, mīm and lām).

3. With your brow like the letter rā, and in the circling of your mouth (mīm) and your forelock (lām), what wonder if the heart chooses the remel metre in this poem (rā, mīm and lām side by side spell "remel").

4. My friend, what wonder if the fancy of your eye (‘ayn), your teeth (sīn) and your tresses (lām) gives my soul the taste of honey at every moment (‘ayn, sīn and lām spell "‘asel", honey)?

5. O Münîrî, since the beloved's elif-like stature and tresses became elif, cīm and lām (together they spell "ecel"), they have surely become death (ecel) to the lover.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and eighty-second of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 182). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The Kubbealtı Lugatı defines the remel metre as an aruz (quantitative) metre based on four "fâilâtün" or "feilâtün" feet; the metre of the ghazal is one of the patterns of this metre, and the detail becomes important in the third couplet. There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is on "-el": cedel, el, ‘amel, remel, ‘asel and ecel. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican (VT 140b) and Vienna (VY 116b) manuscripts; the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built from beginning to end on a game of letters. In divan poetry the face and body of the beauty are spoken of in terms of the shapes of Arabic letters; in this ghazal, too, the stature is likened to elif, the eye to ‘ayn, the mouth to mīm, the brow to rā, and the curling tresses to cīm, dāl and lām. In each couplet the poet sets three of these letters side by side and makes the resulting word the rhyme. The edition has no note on this arrangement; the observation that the letters spell the rhyme words is our own. According to the Kubbealtı Lugatı, "cedel" is dispute and quarrel, "‘amel" is work done for a purpose, "‘asel" is honey, and "ecel" is the time of death appointed for every living being.

In the opening couplet cīm, dāl and lām spell "cedel"; the letters of the tresses quite literally start a quarrel and stand in the way of union with the stature. In the second couplet ‘ayn, mīm and lām become "‘amel". The Kubbealtı Lugatı also gives the word "ayn" the meaning of eye; a pun (cinas) thus arises between the letter of the eye and the eye itself. Eye, mouth and tresses have become the poet's "‘amel", the work that occupies him day and night.

The third couplet turns to the poem itself. Rā, mīm and lām spell "remel"; there is no wonder in the heart choosing the remel metre for this poem, for the ghazal is indeed written in a pattern of that metre. The word "devr" fits here in its senses of both time and turning or curling, matching the roundness of the mouth and the curl of the forelock. In the fourth couplet eye, teeth and tresses spell "‘asel", honey, with the letters ‘ayn, sīn and lām. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the Arabic word "sinn" as "tooth"; this closeness between the name of the letter sīn and the Arabic word for tooth explains why the teeth are named with the letter sīn. We note that this connection is our own. The taste of honey given by the fancy is also tied to the motif of sweetness associated with the lip and mouth.

The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) ends the game with the heaviest word. When the elif of the stature meets the cīm and lām of the tresses, "ecel" appears. The rhymes of the ghazal thus tell a small story of their own: the quarrel raised by the tresses (cedel), the lover's endless toil (‘amel), the turning of that toil into poetry (remel), the sweetness of the fancy (‘asel) and, at the end, death (ecel). The ghazal is among the poems that show most plainly Münîrî's fondness for letter and word play; this assessment, too, is ours.

Bibliography

Online sources