Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sen gül-endāmuñ ġamı her cāna kim hem-dem degül
Geçdi żāyi‘ ‘ömri vü her vaḳt’anuñ hem dem degül
Ġonca başın baġladı ġālib ṣudā‘ı var diyü
Çeşm-i bülbülden gül-āb irmişdür ol şeb-nem degül
Lāle n’ola mübtelā-yı dāġ ise göñlüm gibi
Sünbül-i zülfüñ yolında ol hele der-hem degül
Teşne-diller n’eyler eṭrāfında her dem cem‘ olup
Ey dil ol çāh-ı ẕeḳan çün kim çeh-i zemzem degül
Sen gül-endāma Münīri kimse añmazsa ne ġam
Kendü söyler ḥālini sūsen gibi ebkem degül

In English

1. O rose-bodied one, whoever does not have grief for you as companion (hem-dem) to his soul, his life has passed in waste; and none of his time counts as a moment truly lived (hem dem).

2. The rosebud has bound up its head, saying that its headache has got the better of it; that (on it) is not dew, but rose-water that has come (to it) from the nightingale's eye.

3. If the tulip, like my heart, is afflicted with a scar (dāġ), that is no wonder; but the hyacinth on the path of your tresses is not dishevelled (as my heart is).

4. What should the thirsty-hearted do, gathering around it at every moment? O heart, that dimple of the chin (that well) is not, after all, the well of Zamzam.

5. O rose-bodied one, what grief if no one mentions Münîrî to you? He is not mute like the iris; he tells his state himself.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and eighty-sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 186). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "degül" (is not); Ersoy records this ghazal with this redif in his list of redifs, together with the preceding tg 185. The two ghazals share the same metre, redif and "-em" rhyme. The rhyme words of this ghazal are hem-dem, hem dem, şeb-nem, der-hem, zemzem and ebkem. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 141b); the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on a perfect pun (cinas). The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "hemdem" as an intimate friend, from the Persian prefix "hem-" and "dem", meaning breath and time. In the first line "hem-dem" means companion, friend; in the second it is read "hem dem", "also a moment". Whoever does not take grief for the beloved as his companion has wasted his life, and his moments do not count as truly lived. In the first two lines of the ghazal the same sound has rhymed with two different meanings.

The second and third couplets paint a garden scene. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "sudâ" as headache and cites a couplet by Necâtî Bey that mentions rose-water and headache together. The petals of the rosebud are imagined as a cloth bound around its head: the bud has bound up its head because of a headache. The drops on it are not dew but rose-water come from the nightingale's eye. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "şebnem" as dew, from the Persian words for night and moisture. This tie between the nightingale's tears and rose-water is an example of hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology): a poetic cause is given for the dew on the bud. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "dâğ" figuratively as the burn or wound left by love and grief, and also as the blackness at the centre of flowers such as the tulip and the poppy. In the third couplet the word is used in both senses; in this the tulip resembles the poet. The hyacinth, though it resembles the tresses, is not as dishevelled on their path as the poet's heart. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "derhem" as confused, scattered and grieved.

In the fourth couplet "çâh-ı zekan", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as the dimple of the chin, is brought together with "zemzem", which it explains as the holy water drawn from the well beside the Kaaba. The thirsty-hearted gather around the well of the chin; the poet reminds his heart that this well is not the well of Zamzam and will not quench their thirst. It is also notable that the words "çāh" and "çeh" (well) appear in the same couplet in their two forms. In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the rhyme is "ebkem", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as mute, dumb. The poet says that even if no one mentions him to the beloved, he is not mute like the iris and will tell his trouble himself. Thus the ghazal closes the similes that began with garden flowers with yet another flower.

Bibliography

Online sources