Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Alur ḫadeng-i ġamzesi geldükçe pāresin
Kimdür bu göñlümün bitüren baġrı yarasın
Ṭıfl-ı dil āḫir ebced-i ‘ışḳı tamām idüp
Aldı eline muṣḥaf-ı ḥüsnüñ sipāresin
Sāyıllıġ ile vardısa göz yaşı ḳapuña
Merdümlük eyle bozmaġıl anuñ setāresin
Çīn ü Ḫıṭāya gitdügi nāfe ḫacīl olup
Zülfüñ ḳatında bildi meger yüzi ḳarasın
Didi yüzüñde beñlerüñi görüben Münīr
Dutmış benefşe ġoncaları gül-şen arasın

In English

1. Each time the arrow of his glance comes, it takes a piece (of my heart); who is it that will heal (close up and finish) the wound in the core of this heart of mine?

2. The child of the heart, having at last finished the ABC (ebced) of love, has taken into its hands a section (sipāre) of the Qur'an (mushaf) of your beauty.

3. If the tear has come to your door as a beggar, show humanity (merdümlük, also the eye's pupil), do not tear away its covering (do not shame it).

4. The musk-pod that went to China and Cathay was put to shame; it seems it learned, beside your locks, that its face was black (that it was disgraced).

5. Seeing the moles on your face, Münîr said: "Violet buds have taken the midst of the rose garden."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and twenty-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 229). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The lines end in the suffix "-(s)ın/-(s)in"; the rhyme rests on the sounds "-āre/-ara" before this suffix: pāresin, yarasın, sipāresin, setāresin, ḳarasın and arasın. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 152a, VY 128a, Ü 50a). According to the apparatus the second couplet is different in Ü: the first line reads "Mihr-i cemāli muṣḥafına beñzedem diyü" and the second "Her geh düzer bozar yüzinüñ meh sipāresin". The special letters of these words could not be printed in the edition; the reading is our own completion. In this form the couplet seems to describe the moon making and unmaking the section of its face at every moment so as to resemble the Qur'an of the beloved's sun of beauty, that is, the phases of the moon (our observation). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most striking couplet of the ghazal is the second, built from words of school and of Qur'an reading. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "ebced" as the name of the ordering of the Arabic alphabet in a set sequence, and records the phrase "ebced-hân" as one who has just begun to read, a novice. In the same dictionary "süpâre – sipâre" is each of the thirty sections that make up the Qur'an, and "mushaf" is the Qur'an. The heart is like a child who has finished the alphabet and taken his first section in hand; the book he reads is the beloved's face. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among child, ebced, mushaf and sipâre. In the opening couplet the wound grows because the arrow of the glance tears a piece from the heart each time it comes; the word "bitüren" suggests both closing and healing the wound and wearing it out and finishing it (our observation). The third couplet is built on a pun (cinas). The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that "merdüm" means both man, human being, and the pupil of the eye; "merdümlük eyle" means "show humanity" and at the same time links the tear with the pupil of the eye. According to the same dictionary "sâil" is one who begs, a beggar. The word "setāre", which we did not find in the Kubbealtı Lugatı, we have understood as covering, taking it as related to "setr", explained in that dictionary as hiding, covering (our observation). The tear has come to the door like a beggar, and the beloved is asked not to shame it.

In the fourth couplet the musk-pod again competes with the beloved's locks and loses. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "nâfe" as the scented pouch in the navel of the musk gazelle; the same dictionary gives the idiom "yüzü kara" (black-faced) as one who has a fault, a shameful failing. There is a double entendre (tevriye) between the colour of the black musk-pod and the idiom "yüzü kara" meaning disgraced: the musk-pod is truly black and has also been put to shame by the fragrance of the locks. In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the black moles on the face are likened to violet buds and the face to a rose garden. There is a congruence of images among violet, bud and rose garden. The word "ara" (midst) in "gül-şen arasın" echoes in sound the rhyme word "ḳarasın".

Bibliography

Online sources