Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Nūr-ı Ḥaḳ olduġı bu ḥüsn-i cemīl
Rūşen oldı ne ḥācet aña delīl
Ġamzeñüñ yüregümde yarasına
Ḥāżır itmiş ṣaçuñ kim ura fetīl
Ḳıymet ile girerse vaṣluñ ele
Dilenem boynuma daḳup zenbīl
Ayaġın öpmek istedüm ḳomadı
Bes ṭama‘-kār olur hemīşe ẕelīl
Gül yüzi ẕikri sāyesinde hele
Gül-şen oldı Münīre nār-ı Ḫalīl

In English

1. That this lovely beauty is the light of God has become plain (luminous); what need is there of proof?

2. Your hair has made itself ready to put a wick (fetīl) into the wound that your glance has opened in my heart.

3. If union with you is to be had for a price, I will hang a basket (zenbīl) round my neck and go begging.

4. I wanted to kiss your foot, but you would not let me; the covetous man is always brought low.

5. Under the shadow (thanks to) the remembrance of your rose-like face, the fire of Halil (Abraham) has become a rose garden for Münîr.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and eighty-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 188). The metre is "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is on "-īl": cemīl, delīl, fetīl, zenbīl, ẕelīl and Ḫalīl. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 142a, VY 119a, Ü 46a). The only variant reading is in the fourth couplet: the verb "ḳomadı" is written with a different inflection in the Istanbul University manuscript, but some letters of this reading could not be printed in the edition. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved's beauty is spoken of as the light of God. The word "rūşen" is tied to the word light through its senses of both luminous and clear, evident; since light shows itself by its own brightness, there is no need for any further proof. The word "delīl" (proof) is taken from the language of scholarship and disputation; the beauty is said to be too evident to require demonstration.

The second couplet rests on the image of a wound and its treatment. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "fetil" or "fetîle" as the original form, found in old texts, of the word "fitil" (wick, lint for a wound), and gives the phrase "fetîle-i gîsû" as a braid of hair. There is thus a link between hair and wick that is known to the dictionary as well. The arrow of the glance has opened a wound in the heart, and the hair has made itself ready to be the lint placed in that wound. The glance wounds and the hair supposedly heals; but since this treatment too comes from the beloved, it binds the lover to the beloved all the more tightly.

The third and fourth couplets describe the lover's abasement before the beloved. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "zembil" or "zenbil" as a basket with handles woven of straw or palm fibre. If union could be bought, the poet would be willing to hang a beggar's basket round his neck and collect money. In the fourth couplet the wish to kiss the beloved's foot is refused; the second line explains this with a general maxim: the covetous man is brought low. The Turkish Language Association dictionary explains "tamah" as greed. This general maxim gives the couplet the air of irsal-i mesel (the use of a proverbial saying).

The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) contains an allusion (telmih) to the story of Abraham. The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that the word "Halîl" is used for Abraham in the sense of "the friend of God", and cites a couplet telling how Nimrod threw him into the fire. The Qur'an reports that God said to the fire, "O fire, be coolness and safety for Abraham" (al-Anbiya 21:69). For Münîrî, the remembrance of the beloved's rose-like face turns the fire of love into a rose garden for the lover. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "gül yüz" (rose face) and "gül-şen" (rose garden), and a contrast (tezat) between "sāye" (shadow) and "nār" (fire).

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