Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Böyle yüz döndürmeñüñ vechini şāhum bilmedüm
N’eyledüm n’itdüm nedür cürm ü günāhum bilmedüm
Na‘l-i esbüñ var iken miḥrāba secde itdigüm
Vālih ü ser-mest-i ‘ışḳam secde-gāhum bilmedüm
Mū-be-mū seyr eyleyem zülf-i nigārı dir idüm
Ṭuş olınca ḳanda gitdügini rāhum bilmedüm
Ṭutdı jengār-ı ḫaṭ āhumdan yüzüñ āyīnesin
Böyle te’s̱īr idecegin dūd-ı āhum bilmedüm
Dün gice sürdüm yüzümi āstānına Münīr
Līkin itdi mi leke rūy-ı siyāhum bilmedüm

In English

1. My king, I could not tell the reason for your turning your face away like this; what I did, what I committed, what my fault and sin may be, I could not tell.

2. While the shoe of your horse was there, I bowed down to the prayer niche; I am bewildered and drunk with love, I could not tell where I should bow.

3. I used to say I would wander through the beloved's tresses hair by hair; when I came upon them, I could not tell where my road went (I lost my way in their curls).

4. From my sighs the verdigris (jengâr) of the down has covered the mirror of your face; I could not tell that the smoke of my sighs would have such an effect.

5. Münîr, last night I rubbed my face on his threshold; but whether my black face (my sinful face) left a stain on it, I could not tell.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and ninety-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 198). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". In the list of redifs in his introduction, Ersoy gives the redif (refrain) of this ghazal as "-Um bilmedüm"; the first-person possessive suffix and the verb "bilmedüm" (I could not tell) recur in every couplet. The rhyme words are şāh, günāh, secde-gāh, rāh, āh and siyāh. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 144b). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

The redif "bilmedüm" gives the ghazal an air of bewilderment and confession. In every couplet the lover says there is something he could not tell: why the beloved turned away, where he should bow, where his road went, what effect his sighs would have, and whether his face left a stain on the threshold.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved is a "şāh" (king), and the lover looks for the cause of the indifference he meets in his own fault. The second couplet is built with the terms of worship. The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that "na'l" is the original form of the word "nal" (horseshoe) in older texts, and in its entry "mihrap" that this word is used in literature for the beloved's arched eyebrows. A horseshoe is arched too; while the true place of prostration, like the shoe of the beloved's horse, was there, the lover turned to the prayer niche and in the drunkenness of love mistook his direction of prayer (our observation). There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "na‘l", "miḥrāb", "secde" (prostration) and "secde-gāh" (place of prostration).

In the third couplet the phrase "mū-be-mū" (hair by hair, in every detail) recalls the strands of the tresses. The lover had planned to tour the tresses strand by strand, but on reaching them he lost his way among their curls. The fourth couplet rests on the idea of a metal mirror rusting. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "jengâr" as rust, dirt, copper rust, verdigris. The beloved's face is a mirror, and the down (ḫaṭ) newly appearing on the face is the greenish rust that covers it. The lover thinks this rust comes from the smoke of his own sighs; the smoke darkening the mirror and the sigh affecting the beloved merge in the same picture.

The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) describes a gesture of reverence. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the idiom "yüz sürmek" (to rub one's face) as prostrating oneself before someone as a sign of love or respect, and in the same entry cites Zâtî's line "o sanem izine yüz sür" (rub your face on that idol's footprint). "Rūy-ı siyāh" (black face), on the other hand, expresses sinfulness; the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the idiom "yüzü kara" as a person who has a fault or a shameful flaw. The lover has rubbed his face on the threshold but cannot be sure whether his black face has stained that pure threshold. There is a congruence of images between "siyāh" (black) and "leke" (stain), and a contrast (tezat) between the black face and the purity of the threshold.

Bibliography

Online sources