Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Eşkümi dürr-i viṣālüñ diyü ‘ummān eyledüm
Çeşmümi la‘l-i dür-efşānuñ diyü ḳan eyledüm
Göñlümi niçün ḫayālüñ genci ma‘mūr eylemez
Bu ḫarābı ben ḫod ol sevdāya vīrān eyledüm
Eşk ü çihrem devletinde yār sevmez diyenüñ
İki şāhid birle bühtānını yalan eyledüm
Dil-berüñ çāh-ı zeneḫānını ‘arż idüp dile
Göz göre bī-çārenüñ yirini zindān eyledüm
Göñlüme yol virmek ile ġam sipāhına Münīr
Kend’elümle şöyle dil mülkini talan eyledüm

In English

1. Saying "the pearl of your union", I made my tears an ocean; saying "your pearl-scattering ruby (lip)", I turned my eye to blood.

2. Why does the treasure of your fancy not make my heart prosperous? I myself laid this ruin waste for the sake of that passion (treasure is found in ruins).

3. Thanks to my tears and my pale face, I proved false with two witnesses the slander of him who says "he does not love the beloved".

4. Showing the heart the well of the beloved's chin (the chin dimple), I made the helpless one's dwelling a dungeon in plain sight (göz göre, literally "while the eye sees").

5. Münîr, by giving the army of grief a way into my heart, with my own hand I have thus given the realm of the heart over to plunder.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and ninety-fourth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 194). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "eyledüm"; Ersoy records this ghazal with the redif "eyledüm" in the list of redifs in his introduction. The rhyme words are ‘ummān, ḳan, vīrān, yalan, zindān and talan. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 143a, VY 121b, Ü 47a), and the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Because the redif is "eyledüm" (I made, I did), the whole ghazal has an air of transformation. In every couplet the lover turns one thing into another: his tears into an ocean, his eye into blood, his heart into a ruin, the heart's dwelling into a dungeon, the realm of the heart into plunder.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet rests on the knowledge that pearls come from the sea. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the word "umman" as a very great, boundless sea, an ocean. Since union is thought of as a pearl, the lover turns his tears into an ocean in order to find it. In the second line the beloved's lip is a ruby because of its redness, and the epithet "dür-efşān" (pearl-scattering) points to the fine words and the teeth that come from the lip; the lover dyes his eye with blood so that it may resemble this ruby. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "dürr", "‘ummān" and "la‘l". The second couplet rests on the familiar pairing of treasure and ruin. The line by Muallim Nâci cited in the Kubbealtı Lugatı's entry "gencîne" ("Fark etmedi gencîne mi vîrâne miyim ben", He could not tell whether I am a treasure or a ruin) shows that the two notions are named together in the tradition. The lover has laid his heart waste so that the treasure of fancy might be found there, yet the treasure does not come and make the heart prosperous; there is a contrast (tezat) between "ma‘mūr" (prosperous) and "vīrān" (ruined).

The third couplet sets up a courtroom scene. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "şâhit" as a witness who tells in a lawsuit what he has seen, and "bühtan" as accusing someone of something he has not done, slander. The two witnesses are the lover's tears and his pale face; they prove that he loves and refute the slander. The words "yār sevmez" in the line can also be read as "the beloved does not love"; in that case the slander is the claim that the beloved does not love the lover. In the fourth couplet the chin dimple is used with the associations of Joseph's well and prison, as in the couplet by Kadı Burhâneddin cited in the Kubbealtı Lugatı's entry "çâh-ı zenehdan". The phrase "göz göre" works in two directions: according to the Kubbealtı Lugatı, "göz göre göre" means in front of everyone's eyes, while in the couplet it is the eye itself that shows the pit to the heart.

The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) closes with a military picture. Grief enters the land of the heart as a "sipāh" (soldiery), and because the lover gave it a way in, he has had this land "talan" (plundered) by his own hand. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "talan" as plunder, pillage, and derives it from the Old Turkish verb "talamak" (to plunder). There is a congruence of images between "sipāh", "mülk" (realm) and "talan".

Bibliography

Online sources