Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Bilürdüñ ben faḳīri hem-deminden
Göreydüñ kūyuñ itiyle deminden
Ḫayāl-i yār ile ṭolmışdı sīne
Göñül ḳandayıduñ bilsem deminden
Raḳībi hem-dem itme kendüñe kim
Ṣorulmaz kişi illā hem-deminden
Delüdür diyü yıḫma göñlümi hīc
Ṣaḳın abdāl-ı Rūmuñ sen deminden
Ḳara zülfüñde göñlüm şeb-rev olmaḳ
Baña yegdür cihān[uñ] ṣubḥ-deminden
‘Acebdür kim ser-ā-ser yanmaz ise
Münīrī ‘āḳıbet sīnem deminden

In English

1. You would have known me, this poor one, by my companion; would that you had seen me from the moment I kept company with the dog of your street.

2. My breast had been filled with the image of the beloved; O heart, where have you been since that moment, if only I knew.

3. Do not take the rival for your companion, for a person is asked about only through his companion (one is known by one's company).

4. Do not break my heart, saying "it is mad"; beware the breath (the curse, the potent word) of the abdals of Rum (the wandering dervishes of Anatolia).

5. For my heart to be a night-walker in your black locks is better for me than the dawn of the world.

6. It would be a wonder, Münîrî, if in the end it did not burn from end to end from the breath (the sighs) of my breast.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and twenty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 221). The metre is "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün". The redif (refrain word) is "deminden"; the rhyme is built not so much on the sounds before the redif as on the word "dem" being tied in each couplet to another sense or another word: "hem-deminden", "itiyle deminden", "bilsem deminden", "sen deminden", "ṣubḥ-deminden", "sīnem deminden". The ghazal is found in the VT (150a) and VY (125b) manuscripts. According to the apparatus the second couplet is missing from VT. In the fifth couplet the bracketed part of "cihān[uñ]" is Ersoy's emendation for metre and sense; in the apparatus the reading of VY appears as "cinān[uñ]" (of the gardens of paradise), but the special letters of this word could not be printed in the edition, and the reading is our own completion. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The chief skill of the ghazal is gathered in its redif. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives the Persian word "dem" the senses of breath and of time, moment; "hemdem" appears in the same dictionary as one who is together with another, a close friend. The poet uses the word in a different sense in each couplet: in the first and third couplets "hem-dem" is a companion, in the second "dem" is that moment, in the fourth the breath of the abdals, in the fifth "ṣubḥ-dem" the time of dawn, in the sixth the breath of the breast, that is, the sigh. This is a pun (cinas) resting on the same sound repeated with different meanings. The opening and third couplets are linked. The lover has taken the dog in the beloved's street as his companion and says that the beloved could recognise him by this companion. In the third couplet the same thought turns into advice: the line "Ṣorulmaz kişi illā hem-deminden" expresses, like a saying, the idea that a person is judged by his companion; this is an irsal-i mesel (use of a proverbial saying) (our observation). The beloved who takes the rival as a companion will thus be spoken of along with the rival's wickedness.

The fourth couplet is the most striking of the ghazal. In its entry "abdal" the Kubbealtı Lugatı gives the sense of a kalender, a wandering dervish, and records that because abdals paid no heed to worldly gain their state was taken by the people for lack of sense; in the same entry the phrase "Abdâlân-ı Rum" is explained as the fighters and dervishes who took part in the wars at the founding of the Ottoman state and whose services in the Turkification of Anatolia and Rumelia are acknowledged. Münîrî likens his heart, which is called "mad", to these abdals: the breath of a heart that looks mad is as potent as the breath of the abdals, and one must beware of breaking it. In the divan, tg 237, written according to the edition's heading for Koyun Baba, also mentions the "Abdalān-ı Rūm". In the fifth couplet the black locks are likened to night and the lover's heart to a night-walker roaming in that night; the darkness of the locks is held above the dawn of the world, and a contrast (tezat) is set up between night and morning. In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the heat of the sigh rising from the breast is imagined as a fire that will burn the poet from end to end.

Bibliography

Online sources