Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Ḫayl-i ḫayālüñ egleni geçdügi dīdeden
Bir yire kim ṣu çökse geçilmez revān iñen
Gül-zār-ı ḥüsnüñ içün iñildüm ‘aceb midür
Bir heftelik gül içün ölür bülbül-i çemen
Ey dil raḳīb itüñ çekelüm ser-zenişlerin
Şāyed ki götüre yine bir gün anı viren
Bir ẕerre la‘l içün lebi devrinde gözlerüm
Bunca cevāhiri niçe döker tümen tümen
İrdi kemāle ‘ilm-i naẓarda belī Münīr
Ta‘līm-i ders-i ‘ışḳ ideli ṣūret-i ḥasen

In English

1. The troop of your image passes lingering through my eye; one cannot cross very quickly a place where water has settled.

2. Is it strange that I moaned for the rose garden of your beauty? The nightingale of the meadow dies for a rose that lasts a week.

3. O heart, let us bear the reproaches of the rival, that dog; perhaps the one who gave him will one day take him away again.

4. In the age of her lip, how is it that for a mote of ruby my eyes pour out so many jewels by the tens of thousands?

5. Yes, since the beautiful face began to teach him the lesson of love, Münîr has reached perfection in the science of nazar (both gazing and reasoning).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and fourteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 214). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on "-en": dīdeden, iñen, çemen, viren, tümen and ḥasen. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 148b, VY 125a, Ü 48a). The only variant reading is in the second couplet: the word "ölür" (dies) is missing in Ü. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet rests on the image of tears, though it does not say so openly. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "hayl" the senses of a herd of horses, mounted soldiers and, figuratively, a crowd, a company; the beloved's image passes through the lover's eye like a troop of horsemen. Because the eye is full of tears, this troop cannot pass through it quickly, since one cannot cross swiftly a place where water has settled. The Kubbealtı Lugatı also gives the verb "eğlenmek" the sense of to linger, to stop, to wait; we connect the word "egleni" at the beginning of the line to this verb and understand it as "lingering", and we read the rhyme word "iñen" as "very, much" (our own reading). Thus the second line explains the cause of the first with a general truth.

The second couplet joins the rose-and-nightingale image to the idea of a short life. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "hefte" as the original form of the word "hafta" (week) in old texts; when the nightingale dies for a rose whose life is but a week, it is no wonder that the lover should moan for the garden of the beloved's beauty. The third couplet has the word "ser-zeniş", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as casting something in one's teeth, reproach. The lover is willing to bear the rival's reproaches, because the one who gave him may one day take him back; the contrast between the words "viren" (who gave) and "götüre" (may take away) suggests that everything lies in the hand of the giver (our own observation).

In the fourth couplet tears turn into jewels. The beloved's lip is a ruby; for a mote of that ruby the lover's eyes pour out so many gems. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "tümen" as a great heap, ten thousand, and gives the idiom "tümen tümen" as very many. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "la‘l" (ruby) and "cevāhir" (jewels), and an antithesis between "ẕerre" (mote) and "tümen tümen" (by the tens of thousands). In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) words of learning and teaching come together: "‘ilm" (science), "kemāl" (perfection), "ta‘līm" (teaching) and "ders" (lesson). The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "nazar" both the sense of looking, a glance and the sense of thinking, reasoning on the basis of sight, experience and analogy. Münîrî's phrase "‘ilm-i naẓar" carries these two senses together: the poet has matured both in gazing at the beautiful face and in reasoning. The same dictionary explains "hasen" as beautiful; "ṣūret-i ḥasen" is the beautiful face.

Bibliography

Online sources