Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṭūṭī-i dil kim ḳafesdür zülfüñ aña āhenīn
Geh şeker-güftār olur la‘lüñçün ider geh enīn
Ḫāl-i la‘lüñ şevḳı döndürmişdür oda göñlümi
Yarasına sīnemüñ dāġ olmaġ içün āteşīn
Sen sehī serv-i revān geçdükçe seyre dir göñül
Āh kim geçdi gider küymez bu ‘ömr-i nāzenīn
Āh-ı dil-sūzumla bir gün germ olup yaḳsam gerek
Her ne derc itdiyse cürmümden kirāmü’l-kātibīn
La‘l-i nābuñla görüp dür dişüñi didi Münīr
Ḫātem-i yāḳūta ṭut kim gevher olmışdur nigīn

In English

1. The parrot of the heart, for which your locks are an iron cage, is at times sugar-tongued (speaking sweetly), and at times moans for your ruby lip.

2. Longing for the mole beside your ruby lip has turned my heart to fire, so that it may become a fiery brand (dāġ, the burn of a hot iron) upon the wound of my breast.

3. Whenever you, a straight cypress that walks, pass by on your stroll, the heart says: "Alas, this delicate life passes and is gone, and it does not burn with grief (küymez)."

4. One day I must grow hot with my heart-burning sigh and burn up all that the recording angels (kirāmen kātibīn) have written of my sins.

5. Seeing your pearl teeth with your gleaming ruby lip, Münîr said: "Imagine a ruby seal-ring whose stone has become a pearl."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and nineteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 219). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on "-īn": āhenīn, enīn, āteşīn, nāzenīn, kātibīn and nigīn. The ghazal is found in the VT (149b) and VY (125b) manuscripts but not in Ü. The difference between the manuscripts lies in the order of the couplets: the edition's third couplet is the fifth in VT, and its fifth couplet is the fourth there. According to the apparatus, VT reads "Münīr" in place of "göñül" (heart) in the third couplet and "göñül" in place of "Münīr" in the fifth. In VT, therefore, the last couplet of the ghazal is the one that begins "Sen sehī serv-i revān geçdükçe seyre dir Münīr", and the pen name (mahlas) stands there; the edition follows the order of VY. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the heart is a parrot shut in an iron cage made of the beloved's locks. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "tûtî" as a bird of the parrot kind that imitates the sounds it hears and can say some words, and it records the phrase "tûtî-i şekker-hâ" (the sugar-chewing parrot) in the sense of a person who speaks fine words. Münîrî's "şeker-güftār" (sugar-tongued) rests on the same image, the sweet speech of the parrot associated with sugar. "Enīn" appears in the same dictionary as moaning, a groan. The heart is thus drawn as a bird that on one side speaks sweetly and on the other moans with longing for the lip; a contrast (tezat) is set up between sweet speech and groaning. In the second couplet the beloved's lip is again called "la‘l" (ruby), and the mole is imagined as a black point beside this red. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "dâğ" as a brand struck on the body with a red-hot iron, a burn made with a hot iron for treatment, and figuratively the wound of love that sinks inward. The poet uses these senses together: the heart turned to fire by longing is like an iron that cauterises the wound in the breast.

In the third couplet the beloved is, in a familiar comparison of divan poetry, a cypress that walks with a sway; the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "sehî" as straight, upright, like a sapling, said of stature. As the beloved goes out on a stroll and passes by, the heart says that life too passes and goes with it. The word "küymez" in the couplet is not found in the Kubbealtı Lugatı; the sense "does not burn with grief" given in the translation is drawn from the context (our observation). The words "geçdi gider" describe both the beloved passing by and life passing away. The fourth couplet refers to the two angels believed to record a person's good and bad deeds; the Kubbealtı Lugatı defines "kirâmen kâtibîn" as the two angels thought to stand on either side of a person, the one on the right writing good deeds and the one on the left sins. The lover thinks of burning, with the fire of his sigh, the register of sins these angels have written; the idea that the fire of love will destroy sin creates a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the heart-burning sigh and the burning of the register. In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the red lip and white teeth are likened to a ring. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "nigîn" as a ring and the stone of a ring; a ruby ring whose stone is a pearl is a simile (teşbih) for the white teeth seen within the red lip.

Bibliography

Online sources