Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bir kez ey cān-ı cihānum didügümçün gözlerüm
Her yañadan göz ile yir beni gözler gözlerüm
Bī-muḥābā şöyle öldürmek düşer mi bendeñi
Ḥāṣılısın ‘ömrümüñ didümse saña gözlerüm
İdeli sevdā-yı zülfüñ şöyle dīvāne beni
Hīc yoḳdur gözlerümden ġayrı kimse gözlerüm
Ger ser-i kūyuñda ger ṣaḥrā-yı ġamda dil-figār
Nirde olursam teveccüh saña yüzüñ gözlerüm
Yetişesin diyü bir kez külbe-i aḥzānuma
Yol gözetmekden nigārā dört olupdur gözlerüm
Yollaruñı toza diyü nā-geh ey çeşm-i Münīr
Her dem āb-efşānlıġ eyler ṭurmaz iki gözlerüm

In English

1. Because I once said "O soul of the world", O my eye (my beloved), (everyone) devours me with their eyes and watches me from every side (the couplet can also be read: "my eyes watch me from every side").

2. O my eye, because I told you "you are the harvest of my life", is it fitting to kill your servant so recklessly?

3. O my eye, ever since the passion for your tresses made me so mad, there has been no one at all (with me) but my own eyes.

4. With wounded heart, whether I am at the head of your street or in the desert of grief, O my eye, wherever I may be, my face is turned towards you.

5. O beauty, my eyes have become four from watching the road, waiting for you to come once to my cottage of sorrows.

6. O eye of Münîr (his beloved), lest your roads suddenly turn to dust, my two eyes keep sprinkling water at every moment without rest.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and ninety-second of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 192). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "gözlerüm" (my eyes); Ersoy records this ghazal with this redif in his list of redifs. No regular rhyme sound appears in the words before the redif (didügümçün, gözler, saña, kimse, yüzüñ, olupdur, iki); in the opening couplet the verb "gözler" (watches) at the end of the second line carries the same sound as the beginning of the redif. This observation is ours. The ghazal is found in the Vatican (VT 142b) and Vienna (VY 120a) manuscripts. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

The variant readings are in three couplets. For "cān-ı cihānum" (soul of the world) in the opening couplet the Vatican manuscript reads "cān u cihānum" (my soul and my world). For "Yetişesin" (that you may come) in the fifth couplet the Vatican manuscript has "Nicesin sen" (how are you), and for "dört" (four) the Vienna manuscript has "dörd". The verb "eyler" in the sixth couplet is missing in the Vatican manuscript.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole effect of the ghazal comes from the different senses of the word "gözlerüm" in the redif. In most couplets the word is a form of address. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "gözüm" (my eye) as a word of address to a loved one; "gözlerüm" (my eyes) in this sense means "my beloved". In some couplets, however, the word describes the poet's own eyes: in the third couplet no one remains with the maddened lover but his own eyes, and in the fifth and sixth couplets it is the eyes that watch the road and sprinkle water. In the opening couplet a third sense is added to these two. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the verb "gözlemek" as to look attentively, to follow with the eye, and cites from Niyâzî-i Mısrî the line "Sağ u solum gözler idim dost yüzünü görsem deyü" (I kept watching to right and left, hoping to see the Friend's face). In the phrase "beni gözler gözlerüm" verb and noun stand side by side.

The second and fourth couplets work on the relation of servant and master between lover and beloved. The poet has told the beloved "you are the harvest of my life"; to be killed in return seems to him an injustice. The fourth couplet contains the word "teveccüh", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as turning towards a direction: whether at the beloved's door or in the desert of grief, the lover has turned his face towards the beloved. There is a contrast (tezat) between "ser-i kūy" (the head of the street) and "ṣaḥrā-yı ġam" (the desert of grief), setting near against far.

The fifth couplet combines two familiar expressions. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the phrase "külbe-i ahzan" as the cottage of sorrows in which grief is suffered for the beloved, and records that the name comes from the hut in which Jacob lost his sight weeping in longing for his lost son Joseph. The same dictionary gives the expression "dört gözle beklemek" (to wait with four eyes) as to wait impatiently. The eyes' "becoming four" from watching the road recalls this expression; the relation between Jacob's eyes and the poet's eyes also adds an allusion (telmih) to the couplet. In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the beloved is called "çeşm-i Münīr", the eye of Münîr. The poet's two eyes keep sprinkling water lest the roads the beloved will pass along turn to dust; here the tear becomes a servant watering the road.

Bibliography

Online sources