Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Hilāl ebrūñı ḳılmaġa temāşā
N’ola dördünci göge çıḳsa ‘Īsā
Turunc-ı ġabġab-ı yār içün ey dil
Benüm gibi ṣarartmış beñzin ayvā
Sözüñ ṭoġrusı bu kim beni āḫir
Belāya uġradur bu ḳadd-i bālā
Reh-i ‘ışḳ içre her vech ile ey dil
Gözüm yaşıdur ancaḳ saña hem-pā
Kinār añduḳça ḳadd ü zülf-i dil-ber
İkisi ittifāḳī baña dir lā
Münīrīden raḳīb incinüp ey dost
Şehirden gider ise seg be-ṣaḥrā

In English

1. If Jesus has risen to the fourth heaven to gaze upon your crescent eyebrow, no wonder.

2. O heart, the quince has turned its face yellow like mine for the beloved's orange-like double chin.

3. The straight truth of the matter is that this lofty stature will bring me to calamity in the end.

4. O heart, on the path of love, in every way, only the tears of my eyes keep pace with you.

5. Whenever I think of an embrace, the beloved's stature and tresses together tell me "lā", that is, "no".

6. O friend, if the rival takes offence at Münîrî and leaves the city, then dog, to the desert.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel); in the edition it is the second of the Turkish ghazals (tg 2). The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-ā": temāşā, ‘Īsā, ayvā, bālā, hem-pā, lā, ṣaḥrā. To whom and when it was written is not known.

The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 99a) and Vienna (VY 80b) manuscripts, and also in Edirneli Nazmî's anthology of response poems, the Mecma‘u'n-nezâ'ir (MN 22a). There are marked differences between the copies. In the Vatican manuscript the opening couplet has another form; this couplet, given in Ersoy's apparatus with some letters left unprinted, can be read as "Meger çarḫ üstine çıḳduġı ‘Īsā / Hilāl ebrūñı idem dir temāşā"; the completion of the missing letters is our own reading. Couplet 2 is absent from the Vatican manuscript, and couplet 5 does not appear in the Vienna manuscript or in Nazmî's anthology. In couplet 4 the Vatican manuscript gives the words in the order "Bu vech ile reh-i ‘ışḳ içre".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) begins with an allusion (telmih). In divan poetry Jesus is held to dwell in the fourth heaven, the sphere of the sun. The poet finds a poetic cause for this ascent: Jesus rose to heaven to gaze at the beloved's crescent-like eyebrow. Likening the eyebrow to the crescent moon and tying Jesus' ascent to it is a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil).

In the second couplet fruits join in the beloved's beauty. The fullness under the beloved's chin, the gabgab, is likened to a Seville orange. The yellow colour of the quince is read as the paling face of one who envies it or loves it; the quince, like the lover, has turned yellow. In fg 144, one of Münîrî's Persian ghazals, a reading is also possible in which the lover's face is likened to a quince.

In the third couplet the plays on sound grow denser. The word "ṭoġrusı" (the straight truth) also recalls the beloved's stature, which divan poetry imagines as straight and tall. There is a pun (cinas) based on likeness of sound between "bālā" (lofty, stature) and "belā" (calamity): the lofty stature brings calamity. In the fourth couplet the word "hem-pā" (one who keeps pace, companion) turns the flow of tears into a walk; the lover is alone on the path of love, and only his tears go with him.

The fifth couplet is built on an image drawn from letters. In Arabic script the word "lā" (no) is made of lam and elif and is written joined. In divan poetry the straight stature is likened to elif and the curling tresses to lam. When the beloved's stature and tresses come side by side, a "lā" appears, and this writing becomes the answer "no" to the lover's wish for an embrace. The word "kinār", in its dictionary sense, means both "edge" and "embrace". This solution is our own observation.

The pen-name couplet (mahlas) ends with a Persian phrase: "seg be-ṣaḥrā", that is, "dog, to the desert". If the rival takes offence at Münîrî and leaves the city, it will be no loss; the phrase is used like an expression for driving off someone unwanted, and it has the air of a proverb used as proof (irsal-i mesel).

Bibliography

Online sources