Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Ḫadeng-i ġamzesin yārüñ ki sīnemde nihān itdüm
Yeter bu cān baña diyü revān rūḥı revān itdüm
Gözümüñ merdümi her dem ki ṣarf ider dür ü gevher
Görüñ bāzār-ı ‘ışḳ içre ne vech ile dükān itdüm
Ḫayāl-i ġayra bir ḳılca göñül mülkine yol virmez
Anuñ-çün ince bilüñe bu cānı der-miyān itdüm
Reh-i ‘ışḳında sen Türküñ eger terkü döger ġayrı
Ne kim didiyise göñlüm tekellüfsüz hemān itdüm
Münīrī cān virüp yāra alam bir būsesin dirdüm
Benüm didigüm olmadı taṣavvurdan ziyān itdüm

In English

1. The arrow of the beloved's glance I hid in my breast; saying "this is soul enough for me", I sent my own soul (revān) on its way at once (revān).

2. As the pupil of my eye (merdüm, which also means "man") spends pearls and jewels (tears) at every moment, see what a shop I have set up in the market of love.

3. The heart gives not a hair's breadth of way into its realm to the fancy of another; that is why I have wrapped this soul like a sash around your slender waist (der-miyān: both to bind at the waist and to set in the middle, to offer).

4. The couplet is obscure; in one reading: O Turk (cruel beauty), on the road of your love, even if another strikes the saddle-back and spurs his horse on, whatever my heart said I did at once, without any ado.

5. Münîrî, I said, "Let me give my soul and get one kiss from the beloved"; what I said did not come about; I suffered loss from mere fancy (or: I suffered a loss beyond imagining).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and ninety-seventh of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 197). The metre is "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün". The redif (refrain word) is "itdüm"; Ersoy lists this ghazal with the redif "itdüm" in the list of redifs in his introduction. The rhyme words are nihān, revān, dükān, miyān, hemān and ziyān. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 144a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

The vocabulary of the ghazal is dominated by buying and trading: spending (ṣarf), market (bāzār), shop (dükān), giving and taking, loss (ziyān). The lover puts up his soul like capital and in the end makes a loss instead of a profit (our observation).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet rests on a pun (cinas). Besides the senses of walking and flowing, the Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "revan" the meanings "soul, life" and "swiftly, at once". In the phrase "revān rūḥı revān itdüm" the first "revan" means at once, and the second means to send the soul off on its way; the soul itself is "revan" in Persian. The "ḫadeng-i ġamze" (arrow of the glance), formed with "hadeng", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as "arrow", has pierced the lover's breast; the lover counts this arrow as his soul and sends his own soul away. In the second couplet the word "merdüm" means, according to the Kubbealtı Lugatı, both man, person and the pupil of the eye. As the pupil spends its pearls of tears, a shop is set up in the market of love; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "dür" (pearl), "gevher" (jewel), "ṣarf" (spending), "bāzār" and "dükān".

In the third couplet the phrase "der-miyān" is formed with "miyān", which means "middle, between" and "waist" in Persian; the Kubbealtı Lugatı also gives the sense "between, middle" in its entry "meyâne – miyâne". The lover makes his soul a sash for the beloved's waist and at the same time sets it forth as an offering. The words "ḳılca" (by a hair's breadth) and "ince bil" (slender waist) complement each other in their fineness. The fourth couplet is a difficult one. The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that the word "Türk", when used of the beloved, means cruel and beautiful. The same dictionary notes that "eğer" is also said for "eyer" (saddle), and in its entry "terki" that the word appears in Kâşgarlı in the form "terkü", meaning the rear part of the saddle. Thus a congruence of images drawn from horsemanship appears between "Türk", "eger" (if / saddle) and "terkü" (saddle-back), and a sound-play between "Türk" and "terk" (abandoning). The exact meaning of the line is not certain; the reading in the translation is our own.

In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the language of trade reaches its conclusion. The lover wanted to give his soul and take a kiss, but the bargain does not come about. The words "taṣavvurdan ziyān itdüm" can be read in two ways: I suffered loss from imagining itself, or I suffered a loss beyond what can be imagined. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "tasavvur" as forming in the mind, imagining; in both readings the lover's gain has remained only in the imagination.

Bibliography

Online sources