Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṭurma nālişler ḳıl ey bülbül hezār efġān ile
Ḳandayısa ḫār olur hem-dem gül-i ḫandān ile
Dīde-i bülbül ciger ḳanını dökmezdi müdām
Ḫāk-i gül yoġrulmasaydı şöyle ey dil ḳan ile
Bülbül-i gūyā gibi müflis gedāya n’i‘tibār
Ṭurmaz altun ṣarf iderken şāh-ı gül dāmān ile
‘Andelīb-i ḫasteñüñ gözi yaşından ġam yime
Ṣūret-i gül ḫūb olur yaġduḳça ḫod bārān ile
Gül gibi vech-i ḥasen virildise yāra Münīr
Biz de bülbül gibi ḫoş-vaḳtüz hezār-efġān ile

In English

1. O nightingale, do not stop; lament with a thousand cries (hezâr: both "thousand" and "nightingale"); wherever it may be, the thorn is ever the companion of the laughing rose.

2. O heart, the nightingale's eye would not shed the blood of its liver without end, had the rose's clay not been kneaded thus with blood.

3. What regard can a bankrupt beggar like the eloquent nightingale expect? The rose-king never pauses as it scatters gold by the skirtful (and pays him no heed).

4. Do not grieve over the tears of the ailing nightingale; the rose's face grows lovelier as the rain falls.

5. Münîr, if a face fair as the rose has been given to the beloved, we too, like the nightingale, are content with a thousand laments.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and fiftieth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 250). 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 "ile"; the rhyme rests on "-ān": efġān, ḫandān, ḳan, dāmān, bārān and efġān again. The phrase "hezār efġān" serves twice as rhyme, in the opening couplet and in the couplet bearing the pen name. The ghazal is found in two divan manuscripts (VT 157a, VY 131b). For the word "yaġduḳça" in the fourth couplet the edition records a different spelling in VT; but since the special characters in the footnotes could not be printed in the edition, the nature of the difference cannot be read. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

From beginning to end the ghazal is built on the motif (mazmun) of the rose and the nightingale; each couplet takes up one aspect of the pair. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "hezâr" as two separate entries, meaning both "thousand" and "nightingale". The phrase "hezār efġān" in the opening couplet and in the pen-name couplet is read in both senses: a thousand cries and the nightingale's cry. This word play is a double entendre (tevriye). The second line of the opening couplet is a general truth saying that the rose is always found with the thorn, and has the air of irsal-i mesel (use of a proverbial saying); there is also a contrast (tezat) between the laughing rose and the moaning nightingale.

The second couplet is an example of hüsn-i ta‘lîl (poetic aetiology): the reason why the nightingale sheds tears of blood is that the rose's clay was kneaded with blood. The red colour of the rose is tied to this blood (our observation). In the third couplet the rose is a king, the nightingale a beggar. The phrase "bülbül-i gūyā" (the speaking nightingale) thinks of the nightingale's song as speech; the words "müflis" (bankrupt) and "gedā" (beggar) stress its poverty twice over. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "dâmen" as skirt. The rose is scattering gold from its skirt; the yellow centre of the rose may be thought of as gold (our observation). The nightingale has a tongue but no gold; so it has no standing in the eyes of the generous rose-king.

In the fourth couplet the nightingale's tears are likened to rain. Just as the rose grows lovelier with rain, the lover's tears add to the beloved's beauty; so weeping is nothing to grieve over. In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the lover likens himself to the nightingale and closes the ghazal with acceptance: if the beloved has been given a face like the rose, it falls to the lover to cry out like the nightingale, and this crying is his happiness. A contrast is set up between "ḫoş-vaḳt" (content, in good spirits) and "hezār-efġān" (with a thousand laments).

Bibliography

Online sources