Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Anuñ-çün olur cem‘ oluban deste benefşe
Sünbül ṣaçuña oldı miyān-beste benefşe
Bili bükilüp ża‘f ile boynını bıraḳdı
Olalı gül-i ḫaddüñ içün ḫaste benefşe
Yüzin süriyü irmege pā-būsuña bir kez
Gül-zāra gelüp seyr ider āheste benefşe
Sürülmez idi alnına ey serv-i sehī nīl
Ger ṭıfl-ı çemen olmasa nev-reste benefşe
Eṭrāf-ı gülistānda Münīr āteş-i gülden
Ġuyā kim olupdur şerer-i ceste benefşe

In English

1. Because the violet has girded its waist (for service) to your hyacinth hair, it gathers together and becomes a bunch.

2. Ever since the violet fell sick for your rosy cheek, its waist has bent with weakness and it has let its neck droop.

3. To attain once the kissing of your foot, the violet comes into the rose garden rubbing its face on the ground and strolls there slowly.

4. O cypress straight as a sapling, if the violet were not the newly grown child of the meadow, indigo would not be smeared on its brow.

5. Münîr, around the rose garden the violet seems to have become sparks leapt from the fire of the rose.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and forty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 241). The metre is "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". The redif (refrain word) is "benefşe" (violet); Ersoy too gives the redif of this ghazal as "benefşe" in the redif list of his introduction. The rhyme rests on "-este": deste, miyān-beste, ḫaste, āheste, nev-reste and ceste. The ghazal is found in the Vatican and Vienna manuscripts (VT 155a, VY 130a); the edition shows no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

The ghazal is devoted entirely to a flower. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "benefşe" as the older and original form of "menekşe" (violet) and, quoting Beşir Ayvazoğlu, notes that this flower was loved by folk poets as much as by divan poets. Each couplet is built on a hüsn-i talil (fanciful aetiology) that ties some aspect of the violet to the beloved.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the violet's growing in bunches is explained by its having girded its waist to serve the beloved's hyacinth hair. The Kubbealtı explains "deste" as a bundle, a bunch of things gathered so as to be held in the hand, and the phrase "meyan (miyan)-beste" as having girded one's waist. The hyacinth and the violet, both dark-coloured flowers, form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

In the second couplet the violet's bent stem and drooping head are like the bent waist and fallen neck of a man sick with love for a rosy cheek. In the third couplet the flower that blooms close to the ground is seen as a lover rubbing his face in the soil in order to kiss the beloved's foot. The words "yüzin süriyü" (rubbing its face) and "āheste" (slowly) turn the violet's low and quiet bearing into a form of courtesy.

In the fourth couplet the colour of the violet is explained. The Kubbealtı explains "nil" as indigo and "nevreste" as newly sprouted, newly grown; "tıfıl – tıfl" is a small child. The violet is the newly grown child of the meadow, and because it is a child indigo has been smeared on its brow. We have not been able to confirm from the sources whether smearing indigo on children's brows rested on a custom; the couplet explains the violet's purplish blue colour by this smearing.

In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the rose is a fire and the violets around it are sparks leapt from this fire. The Kubbealtı explains "ceste" as leapt, sprung, and "şerer" as spark. In this simile the red of the rose and the dark hue of the violet become the relation between a fire and the spark leaping from it.

Bibliography

Online sources