Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Yār olursa göñül bize devlet
Buluruz vaṣl-ı yāra biz furṣat
Bir cüvān-ı sehī-ḳadi sevdüm
Pīr olup ḳaddüm oldısa iki ḳat
Menzil-i dilde yitdi ġamzeñ oḫı
Bulmaḳ isterseñ anı bir daḫı at
Çün kim olduñ esīr-i çāh-ı ẕeḳan
Yatabildükçe ey göñül var yat
Ġarḳ-ı ḫūn ol gözüñ yaşına Münīr
Didügüm ṭut var imdi devlete bat

In English

1. O heart, if fortune (devlet) befriends us, we too shall find the chance of union with the beloved.

2. I loved a youth as straight as a cypress; (no wonder) if I have grown old and my stature is bent double.

3. The arrow of your glance was lost in the dwelling of the heart; if you want to find it, shoot once more.

4. O heart, since you have become a prisoner of the well of the chin, go and lie there as long as you can.

5. O Münîr, drown in the tears (the blood) of your eyes; heed my word, go now and sink into fortune (bliss).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the twenty-fourth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 24). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün"; this is a pattern that keeps the lines short and gives the ghazal a light, conversational manner. The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-at": devlet, furṣat, ḳat, at, yat, bat. In the opening couplet, in the words "devlet" and "furṣat", the rhyme rests on the sound "-t"; in the following couplets the one-syllable words "ḳat", "at", "yat", "bat" serve as rhymes. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 104a), Vienna (VY 86a) and Istanbul University (Ü 21b) manuscripts; according to the apparatus "sehī-ḳadi" in the second couplet is written in the order "ḳadi sehī" in Ü. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The language of the ghazal is plain and close to speech; short Turkish verbs in the rhyme such as "at" (shoot), "yat" (lie), "bat" (sink) add to this plainness. In the opening couplet (matla) union is made to depend on fortune (devlet) befriending the lover. The word "yār" in the couplet carries both the meaning "beloved" and "helper, friend"; if fortune helps, the beloved is reached.

The second couplet rests on contrast. "Cüvān" (young) and "pīr" (old), "sehī-ḳad" (straight, cypress-tall) and "iki ḳat" (bent double) face each other. Because the lover loved a youth of straight stature, he takes the bending of his own stature as natural. This opposition between the straight stature of youth and the bent back of old age is the whole subtlety of the couplet.

In the third couplet the beloved's glance is an arrow, and the heart a dwelling in which this arrow is lost. The lover tells the beloved to shoot another arrow to find the lost one. This advice brings to mind the archers' practice of shooting a second arrow in the same direction to find the place of a lost one; this link is our own inference. The lover's real wish, however, is a new glance.

In the fourth couplet the dimple of the chin is likened to a well (çāh-ı ẕeḳan), and the heart becomes the prisoner of this well. In divan poetry the well of the chin recalls the well into which Joseph was thrown. The words "go and lie there as long as you can" also bring to mind the idiom of lying in prison, and counsel the heart to a mocking surrender.

In the pen-name couplet the verbs "ġarḳ olmak" (to drown, be submerged) and "batmak" (to sink) form a congruence of images (tenasüp). The idiom "devlete batmak" is used in the sense of being sunk in plenty and happiness; the poet sets up a bitter irony by equating it with drowning in tears and blood. The return of the word "devlet" from the opening couplet as a rhyme in the last couplet ties the beginning of the ghazal to its end.

Bibliography

Online sources