Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḳāmetüñ reftārı ḳıldı serv-i bālāyı ḫacil
Ḳılsa la‘lüñ ġoncayı ḫandeyle n’ola münfa‘il
La‘l ile sīr-āb olur dirler dilā gerçi dehen
Dilde dāyim la‘ldür yoḳ yine benden teşne-dil
Gör nice bī-ṣabr u ārām eyledi ey dil seni
Eslemezdüñ didügümce saña zülfinden kesil
Serv-ḳaddüñ sāyesinde buldı key ‘ömr-i dırāz
Göz yaşı her dem k’ider kesb-i hevā-yı mu‘tedil
Şöyle beñzer bezm-gāh-ı ‘ālem içre tā-ebed
Ben Münīrem düşmişem pervāne sen şem‘-i Çigil

In English

1. The swaying of your stature has put the lofty cypress to shame; what wonder if your ruby lip, with its laughter, should also abash (offend) the rosebud?

2. O heart, they say that the mouth is quenched with ruby (red wine; the beloved's lip); and though there is always ruby in my heart, still no one is more thirsty-hearted than I.

3. O heart, see how (the tresses) have made you impatient and restless; when I told you "give up her tresses", you would not listen.

4. The tear, which at every moment acquires a temperate air (a measured desire), has found a very long life in the shade of your cypress stature.

5. So it seems in the banquet hall of the world for all eternity: I, Münîr, have become the moth, and you are the candle of Çigil.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and eighty-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 189). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is on "-il": ḫacil, münfa‘il, teşne-dil, kesil, mu‘tedil and Çigil. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 142a, VY 119a, Ü 46b); 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, which compares the cypress with the stature and the rosebud with the lip, is an example of hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology). The cypress is ashamed before the swaying of the stature; the rosebud, too, is abashed before the laughter of the lip. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "münfail" as affected and as offended, hurt, resentful; the rosebud can be thought of as both ashamed and offended. The fact that the bud has not yet opened may be interpreted as its being unable to laugh for this reason; this interpretation is ours.

In the second couplet the word "la‘l" (ruby) is used in two senses: red wine and the beloved's red lip. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "sîrâb" as having drunk one's fill of water. The mouth, they say, is quenched with ruby; there is always ruby in the poet's heart too, yet he is the most thirsty-hearted of all. The word "dil" means heart in Persian and the tongue in the mouth in Turkish; this closeness between mouth and tongue strengthens the word play of the couplet. This connection is our own observation. The third couplet contains the verb "eslemek", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as old Turkish for to listen, to heed and obey; the dictionary cites for this verb the line "Sevdin ol dilberi söz eslemedin vây gönül" (you loved that beauty and heeded no word, alas, O heart) by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. Münîrî's couplet, too, takes as its subject advice given to the heart and not heeded.

In the fourth couplet the cypress and the tear come together. The tear flowing in the shade of the cypress stature has found a temperate air and lived long. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "hevâ" as wish, desire and love, and gives "mûtedil" as moderate, measured. The phrase "hevā-yı mu‘tedil" can be read both as temperate air and as measured desire; this double reading is ours.

The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) rests on the divan motif of the candle and the moth. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "pervâne" as the small moth that flies circling around a light at night. The poet's pen name "Münîr", according to the Kubbealtı Lugatı, means giving light, illuminating; that the poet who bears a name meaning light-giving should be the moth that rushes to the light creates a contrast (tezat) in the couplet. This observation is ours. The beloved is "şem‘-i Çigil", the candle of Çigil. According to the article "Dîvânü Lugāti't-Türk" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, thirty-nine words of the Çigil dialect are recorded in Mahmud of Kashgar's work; Çigil is the name of a Turkic people. In our view, the naming of the beloved with the name of a Turkic people is connected with the beloved's being imagined as a Turkish beauty.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "münfail", "sîrâb", "eslemek", "hevâ", "mûtedil", "pervâne" and "münir". https://lugatim.com/s/eslemek

Online sources