Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gördüm ki gelür ḫışm ile ol Türk-i süvāre
Yetişdi hemān yüregüme bir niçe yāre
Yüz ṭutduġı göz yaşına dil baḥr-i ġamuñda
Deryāda belī gözlenür elbette sitāre
Mecmū‘-ı ma‘ānī olalı muṣḥaf-ı ḥüsnüñ
Meh ḳıldı cemāli varaḳın şöyle sipāre
Deryā-yı sirişk içre beni sensin iden ġarḳ
İñende göñül kend’özüñi urma kenāre
Cān virür iken yüzüñi kim gördi Münīrī
Didi Ḥaḳa minnet ki budur ‘ömr-i dü-bāre

In English

1. I saw that mounted Turk (the cruel beauty) coming in anger; at once several wounds struck my heart.

2. In the sea of your sorrow the heart turned toward the tears of the eye; yes, at sea one surely watches the stars (to find the way; and the tears are like stars).

3. Since the Qur'an-copy (mushaf) of your beauty became the compendium of all meanings, the moon has made the leaf of its own beauty thus into a section (sipâre, "thirty pieces").

4. It is you who drown me in the sea of tears; O heart, do not cast yourself upon the shore. (The meaning of the word "iñende" in this line is not certain to us; it is left untranslated.)

5. Münîrî, who saw your face as he was giving up his soul, said: "Thanks be to God, this is a second life."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and fifty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 251). The metre is "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". The number of this ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains in the introduction; the rhyme rests on "-āre": süvāre, yāre, sitāre, sipāre, kenāre and dü-bāre. The ghazal is found in two divan manuscripts (VT 157b, VY 131b). The edition's only variant reading is in the opening couplet: "niçe" (several) appears in VT as "nice". It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved appears as "Türk-i süvār", a mounted Turk. Among the obsolete senses of the word "Türk", the Kubbealtı Lugatı records, when used of the beloved, "cruel, bloodthirsty person", by allusion to the beloved's many torments, and "beautiful, charming one", quoting the example "Türk-i hun-rîz" (the blood-shedding Turk) from Necâtî Bey. The mounted beauty coming in anger opens several wounds in the lover's heart; a battle scene is built out of the words horse, anger and wound.

In the second couplet sorrow is likened to the sea and tears to stars. The heart that has lost its way at sea looks to the stars; this simile, in which tear and star merge, seems to rest on sailors finding their way by the stars (our observation). There is a sound echo between "göz yaşı" (tear) and "gözlenür" (is watched). The third couplet is the most skilful point of the ghazal. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "mushaf" as the Qur'an and as a book made up of pages, and "süpâre – sipâre" as each of the thirty sections that make up the Qur'an, from the Persian "sî" (thirty) and "pâre" (piece). The beloved's beauty is a mushaf gathering all meanings; beside it the moon counts its own beauty as a mere section. A link may also have been drawn between the moon's face, which changes over thirty nights each month, and the sense "thirty pieces" of "sipāre" (our observation).

The fourth couplet returns to the sea imagery of the second: it is the beloved who drowns the lover in the sea of tears, and the heart is asked not to flee to the shore. The word "iñende" in this line also occurs in other ghazals by Münîrî; we could not determine its meaning here with certainty. In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) there is a contrast (tezat) between death and rebirth. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "dü" as two; "‘ömr-i dü-bāre" means a second life. The lover saw the beloved's face as he was giving up his soul and counted this a new life.

Bibliography

Online sources