Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yūsuf-ı Mıṣr-ı cemāl olmaġın ey meh-rū Sinān
Ḫᵛān-ı ḥüsnüñden ġıdā-yı rūḥ alur ḫalḳ-ı cihān
Böyle bu çāh-ı zeneḫ kim göñlüm olmışdur esīr
Gūyiyā dil Yūsufına çāh-ı Ken‘āndur hemān
Derd-i Ya‘ḳūb ile ben de ‘ālemüñ meşhūrıyam
Ḥüsn-i Yūsuf birle olduñsa cihānda sen ‘ıyān
Ḳıṣṣa-i Yūsufdur aḥsen ḳıṣṣa diyü dem-be-dem
Ṭurmaz oḳur dāstān-ı ‘ışḳuñı göñlüm revān
Ḳıldı Ken‘ānīleri rüsvā Münīr āvāz-ı ṭās
Çarḫ ucından ṭuyulursa ṭañ mıdur mihr-i Sinān

In English

1. O moon-faced Sinan, since you are the Joseph of the Egypt of beauty, the people of the world take nourishment for the soul from the table of your beauty.

2. This dimple of the chin, in which my heart has become a captive, is as it were the well of Canaan for the Joseph of the heart.

3. If you have appeared in the world with the beauty of Joseph, I too am famed throughout the world for the grief of Jacob.

4. Saying "the story of Joseph is the best of stories", my heart reads the epic of your love every moment, without pause and fluently.

5. Münîr, the cry of the cup brought disgrace upon the men of Canaan; what wonder if the love (the sun) of Sinan is heard from the edge of the sky?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 209). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on "-ān": Sinān, cihān, hemān, ‘ıyān, revān and Sinān again. The name "Sinān" serves twice as rhyme, in the opening and closing couplets. The ghazal is found in two divan manuscripts (VT 147a, VY 123b) and in the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası (PB 426a); it is absent from the Ü manuscript. In the second couplet Ersoy adopts the anthology's reading "çāh-ı Ken‘ān" (the well of Canaan) and gives the reading of the two divan manuscripts, "çāh-ı Yūsuf" (Joseph's well), in the apparatus. The "ey" (O) of the opening couplet appears in PB as "ol" (that).

The ghazal addresses a beloved named Sinan. Who this person was and when the ghazal was written are not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the couplets of the ghazal rest on the story of Joseph (Yusuf); in this respect it is a chain of allusions (telmih). In the opening couplet Sinan is the Joseph of Egypt, the land of beauty; people take nourishment for the soul from the table of his beauty. In the second couplet the beloved's chin dimple is likened to the well into which Joseph was thrown by his brothers. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "zenah" as chin, gives the phrase "çâh-ı zenahdan" as the dimple of the chin and cites Kadı Burhâneddin's couplet "Zelîhâ'dır tapum Yūsuf cânımdır / Zenahdânın çehi zindâna benzer" (Zuleikha is what I worship, Joseph is my soul; the well of your chin is like a prison); Münîrî's comparison belongs to the same tradition. In the third couplet the roles are shared out: the beloved is famed for Joseph's beauty, the lover for the grief of Jacob, who lost his son.

The fourth couplet is a reference to the Qur'an. Verse 3 of the sura of Joseph says, in the Diyanet translation, "In revealing this Qur'an to you We tell you the most beautiful of stories"; the phrase "aḥsen ḳıṣṣa" (the best story) in the couplet recalls this expression. The heart reads the epic of love without pause, counting it the most beautiful of stories; the word "revān" can be understood here both as "fluently" and as "at once, ceaselessly".

The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) moves to another scene of the story. In verse 70 of the sura of Joseph, in the Diyanet translation, Joseph, while having the loads prepared, has the drinking vessel put into his brother's load, and then a crier calls out, "O men of the caravan, you are thieves"; in Süleyman Ateş's translation this vessel appears as a "su tası", a water cup. What Münîrî calls the "āvāz-ı ṭās" (the cry of the cup) is this call, which disgraced before everyone the brothers who had come from Canaan (our own observation). In the second line the poet compares with this the love felt for Sinan being heard from the edge of the sky. In its entry "tas" the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the phrase "tâs-ı felek" (the bowl of heaven) as the sky; there is therefore a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the cup and "çarḫ" (the sky). The same dictionary gives "mihr" the senses of sun and love; "mihr-i Sinān" is both Sinan's sun and Sinan's love. The Kubbealtı Lugatı also explains "sinan" as the sharp point of weapons such as the spear and the arrow; the sense of "point, tip" shared by "çarḫ ucı" (the edge of the sky) and "sinan" suggests that the name is used with a double entendre (tevriye) (our own observation).

Bibliography

Primary sources

Official sources

  • The Qur'an, sura Yusuf 12:3, Diyanet İşleri Kur'an-ı Kerim Türkçe Meali (Açık Kuran). https://acikkuran.com/12/3
  • The Qur'an, sura Yusuf 12:70, Diyanet İşleri Kur'an-ı Kerim Türkçe Meali and Süleyman Ateş, Kur'an-ı Kerim ve Yüce Meali (Açık Kuran). https://acikkuran.com/12/70

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "zenah – zenahdan", "tas", "mihr" and "sinan". https://lugatim.com/s/sinan

Online sources