Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Serv-i bālā ḳaddüñe öykündüyise nārven
Üşüp iderler ġulüv başına her murġ-ı çemen
Ṭut ki ṣudur ṭamlar ucından kişinüñ ṭurmayup
Nirde bitmiş bu turunc-ı ġabġab ey sīmīn-ẕeḳan
Cān ise baġrumı delmekden murāduñ delme hīc
Yüzüñi göster de al anı budur vech-i ḥasen
Bād-ı ṣubḥ irdükçe te’s̱īr ide diyü vehm idüp
Ditrer üstine bu sīm-endāmuñ ey dil pīrehen
Tīr-i ġamzeñden Münīr öldise rūz-ı ḥaşrde
Lāle gibi ṣarlanup gelsem gerek ḫūnīn-kefen

In English

1. If the elm has tried to imitate your tall cypress stature, every bird of the meadow gathers and swarms upon its head, assailing it.

2. Suppose that what drips unceasingly from one's tip is water; O silver-chinned one, where did this orange of a double chin grow? (The couplet is obscure; it is not clear whose or what "tip" the word "ucından" means.)

3. If your aim in piercing my breast is my soul, do not pierce it at all; show your face and take it: this is the fair way (vech-i hasen). ("Vech-i hasen" means both "a fair way, a fitting remedy" and "a beautiful face".)

4. O heart, the shirt, fancying that the morning breeze might touch and harm her whenever it comes, trembles upon that silver-bodied one.

5. If Münîr has died by the arrow of your glance, on the Day of Judgement I shall surely come wrapped like the tulip in a bloody shroud.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and twenty-fourth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 224). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on "-en": nārven, çemen, ẕeḳan, ḥasen, pīrehen and kefen. The ghazal is found in the VT (150b) and VY (126b) manuscripts; the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal names in turn the beloved's stature, chin and body; in each couplet one feature of beauty is set in rivalry with an object. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "narven" as the elm and gives as an example Nâbî's line "Ki reşk-i kāmetinden ar‘ar inler nârven titrer" (so that from envy of her stature the juniper moans and the elm trembles); the tree that envies the beloved's stature is a familiar image in divan poetry. In the opening couplet the elm that imitates the beloved's cypress stature pays for its insolence: the birds of the meadow swarm upon its head. The same dictionary gives "gulüv" the senses of excess and of assault, attack. In the second couplet the beloved's double chin (ġabġab) is likened to an orange. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "gabgab" as the lower part of the chin, the second fold beneath the chin, and "turunç" as a fruit like an orange, yellowish orange in colour. The first line of the couplet is obscure; it is not certain whether the dripping water is the watering of the onlooker's mouth or water dripping from the tip of the fruit (our observation). A simile (teşbih) is set up between the silver chin and the orange on the basis of colour and shape.

In the third couplet Münîrî returns to the phrase "vech-i ḥasen", which he also used as a rhyme in the ghazal two numbers earlier (tg 220). Since the Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "vecih – vech" the senses both of face and of manner, way, the advice given to the beloved is a pun (cinas): there is no need to pierce the breast to take the soul; it is enough to show the face; the beautiful face is the fair way to take the soul (our observation). The fourth couplet is a hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology). The thin shirt on the beloved trembles in the morning wind; the poet ascribes this trembling to the shirt's fear that the wind may harm that delicate body. The Kubbealtı Lugatı, explaining "pîrâhen – pîrehen" as shirt, gives as an example Fıtnat Hanım's couplet "Âzürde eyler ey perî nâzik tenin senin / Bûy-i semenden olsa da pîrâhenin senin" (O fairy, your shirt would chafe your delicate body even if it were made of the scent of jasmine); the idea that the beloved's body is too delicate to bear even a shirt is present here too. In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the poet says that if he dies by the arrow of the beloved's glance he will come to the Last Judgement in a bloody shroud like the tulip. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "hûnin" as bloody, stained with blood. The red of the tulip is tied to the bloody shroud and its fading to the pallor of death; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among arrow, death, blood and shroud.

Bibliography

Online sources