Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sāḳīyā ġāyetde müştāḳam ṣafā-yı cāmuña
Başuñ içün bir ḳadeḥ ṣunsañ n’ola bed-nāmuña
Vā‘iẓüñ bārid sözi yaḫ-dān idüpdür mescidi
Lerzeler düşse ‘aceb mi zāhidā endāmuña
Küfr-i zülf-i yāra çün kim mübtelā itdüñ beni
Her ne ṣıġarsa anı işle göñül İslāmuña
Yetişe bir cür‘ası diyü vücūdum ḫākine
Teşneyem cān u göñülden bāde-i gül-fāmuña
Şehr-i dil seyr ü sülūki ḳaṣdın itmişdür Münīr
Meylümüz yoġ ey felek iñende Mıṣr u Şāmuña

In English

1. O cupbearer, I long exceedingly for the delight of your cup; by your head (I beg you), what harm if you offered a cup to this disreputable lover of yours?

2. The preacher's cold words (cold and also insipid) have turned the mosque into an icehouse; O ascetic, is it any wonder if shivers fell upon your limbs?

3. Since you have made me captive to the unbelief (küfr) of the beloved's curl (her black curl), O heart, do now whatever your Islam can find room for.

4. Hoping that a sip of it (the last drops left in the cup) might reach the dust of my being, I thirst with body and soul for your rose-coloured wine.

5. Münîr has resolved on the spiritual journey (seyr ü sülûk) of the city of the heart; O heavens, we have no inclination toward your Egypt and Damascus. (The meaning of the word "iñende" in this line is not certain to us; it is left untranslated.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and forty-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 248). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives the redif (refrain word) of this ghazal as "-uña"; the rhyme rests on "-ām": cām, bed-nām, endām, İslām, gül-fām and Şām. The ghazal is found in two divan manuscripts (VT 156b, VY 131a); no variant readings are recorded in the edition. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built on the familiar opposition between the free-spirited drinker (rind) and the ascetic (zahid). In the opening couplet the lover calls himself "bed-nām", one whose name has been brought into disrepute, and asks the cupbearer for a cup. The second couplet is the wittiest point of the ghazal. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "bârid" both as cold and, figuratively, as unpleasant, leaving a cold impression; it gives "yah" as ice and "lerze" as trembling. The preacher's "bārid" words are read in both senses: they are so cold that the mosque has become an icehouse, and the ascetic's shivering is put down to this. The ascetic's trembling may also be a dig at a piety born of fear; this second interpretation is our own observation.

In the third couplet there is a contrast (tezat) between "küfr" (unbelief) and "İslām". In its entry "küfür" the Kubbealtı Lugatı records that this word, which in Arabic also carries the sense of the darkness of night, was used in divan literature together with "zülf" (curl) to express the blackness of the beloved's hair, and quotes Fuzûlî's line "Küfr-i zülfün salalı rahneler îmânımıza" (since the unbelief of your curl has breached our faith). The lover reproaches his heart: "you have made me captive to the unbelief of the curl; now do whatever your Islam allows." In the fourth couplet the sense the Kubbealtı Lugatı gives for "cür‘a", "the last sip left at the bottom of a drinking vessel", is important: the lover wishes that even a drop spilt on the ground from the cupbearer's cup might reach the dust of his own being. The phrase "vücūdum ḫāki" (the dust of my being) can also be linked to the idea that man is made of earth (our observation).

The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) turns the ghazal in a mystical direction. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the phrase "seyr ü sülûk" as the spiritual journey made by the novice under the guidance of a master in a Sufi order in order to reach God. The sense of travel in "seyr" sets up a congruence of images (tenasüp) with distant cities such as Egypt and Damascus offered by the heavens: Münîr's journey is not outward but to the city of the heart. The word "iñende" in this line also occurs in other poems by Münîrî, but its meaning here could not be determined with certainty by us.

Bibliography

Online sources