Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bilse dil-ber sevdügümi gelmeden ey dil dile
Ṭañ mıdur kim dirler olur revzene dilden dile
Murġ-ı cān ölürdi dūd-ı āhum ile sīnede
Tīr-i ġamzeñ her ṭarafdan delmese bu vech ile
Derd-i ‘ışḳuñ şöyle kim şimdiden öldürür beni
Āḫir-i kār n’ola anuñ ile ḥālüm kim bile
Gerd-i rāhuñ gözledigüm la‘l-i nābuñ var iken
Ādemüñ ṭoymaz gözi illā bir avuç ḫāk ile
Öldürürse daḫı ṭınma çeşm-i mestine Münīr
Kişi söyleşmek ḳatı müşkil durur bed-mest ile

In English

1. O heart, is it any wonder if the beloved should learn that I love her before it ever reaches my tongue? They say there is a window from heart to heart (the line can also be read as "from tongue to tongue", that is, as talk passing from mouth to mouth).

2. The bird of my soul would have choked to death in my breast on the smoke of my sighs, had the arrow of your glance not pierced it in this way from every side (and so let the smoke out).

3. The pain of your love is killing me thus already; who can tell what my state will be because of it when all is done?

4. While your pure ruby lip is there, I keep watching for the dust of your road; it seems that nothing fills a man's eye but a handful of earth.

5. Münîr, even if her drunken eye should kill you, say nothing; it is very hard to talk sense with someone blind drunk.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and fifty-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 258). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The number of this ghazal does not appear in the list of refrains in Ersoy's introduction. The couplet endings, "dil dile", "dilden dile", "vech ile", "kim bile", "ḫāk ile" and "bed-mest ile", meet in the same sound "-ile"; in some places this comes from the postposition "ile" (with), in others from the words "dile" and "bile" (our observation). The ghazal is found in the VT (159a) and VY (132b) manuscripts; 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 opening couplet is built on the pun (cinas) that Münîrî loved so much. The word "dil" means heart in Persian and tongue in Turkish; in the first line the address "ey dil" is to the heart, while "dile gelmek" (to come to the tongue) means to be put into words. The "dilden dile" of the second line can be understood both as from heart to heart and as from mouth to mouth. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "revzene" as window. The lover ascribes the beloved's knowing of his love before he has spoken it to a window standing open between two hearts; the word "dirler" (they say) shows that this idea was known as a saying in common use.

The second couplet rests on hüsn-i ta‘lîl (poetic aetiology). The lover's sighs gather in his breast like smoke and the bird of his soul is about to choke in it; the arrows of the beloved's glances, piercing the breast from every side, have opened a way for the smoke and saved the bird. The wounding arrow is thus turned into a kindness. In the third couplet there is a contrast between "şimdiden" (already now) and "āḫir-i kār" (the end of the affair).

The fourth couplet shows Münîrî's skill with idioms. The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that "gözünü toprak doyursun" (may earth fill his eye) is said of greedy people who are never satisfied. The lover leaves the beloved's ruby lip aside and watches for the dust of her road; the poet ties this to the thought that only a handful of earth fills a man's eye. The dust of the road and the earth of the grave meet in the single word "ḫāk"; the lover's contentment with the dust on the road becomes a reflection of the human eye that is filled only by death. The TDV article also notes that Münîrî succeeded in the tradition of working proverbs and idioms into poetry.

In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the word "bed-mest", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as drunk to the point of not knowing oneself, is applied to the beloved's languid eye. The command "ṭınma" is read in the sense the Kubbealtı gives for "tınmak": to make a sound, to speak up. The second line, saying that one does not argue with a drunken eye, offers an ordinary piece of everyday experience as a piece of advice.

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