Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Ṭurmadan ġamzeñ açar sīnede bir tāze yara
Raḥm ide bir gün ola baġrumuzı niçe yara
Ḳuşca cānuma ḫadengin ne atar ġamzelerüñ
Ḫod bilür çün kim olur serçeye çıbuḳ da bere
Gerçi key mühlikedür rāh-ı ġam-ı ‘ışḳ-ı nigār
Çün yöneldüñ göñül aña var işüñ Ḥaḳ başara
Ṭoġrayup ḫancer-i cevr ile ḳażā baġrumuzı
Ḳara topraġa ḳara ḳanumuzı niçe ḳara
Dem-i vuṣlat durur ey şem‘ revādur bu gice
Yanasın sen de Münīrī gibi ser-pā ḳarara

In English

1. Your glance never stops opening a fresh wound in my breast; will there be a day when it takes pity? How long will it go on splitting our heart?

2. Why do your glances shoot their arrows at my soul as if hunting a bird? They know themselves that even a stick will bruise a sparrow (a frail soul needs no arrow; the reading is ours).

3. The road of grief for the beloved is indeed very perilous; but, O heart, since you have turned towards it, go on, and may God bring your work to success.

4. Fate, having hacked our heart with the dagger of cruelty, how long will it go on blackening the black earth with our black blood?

5. O candle, this is the hour of union; tonight it is fitting that you too, like Münîrî, should burn and blacken from head to foot (we understand the word "ḳarara" at the end of the line as from the verb "kararmak", to blacken; the reading is ours).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and sixty-seventh of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 267). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The number of this ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The words at the end of the couplets, "yara, yara, bere, başara, ḳara, ḳarara", meet in the sound "-ra / -re"; both lines of the opening couplet end on the same sound "yara", used in the first line as a noun and in the second as a verb (our observation). The ghazal is found in the VT (161b) and VY (134a) manuscripts. According to the edition's apparatus, "rāh-ı" in the third couplet appears in VY as "dile". It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with the full pun (tam cinas) that Münîrî loved. The "yara" of the first line is a noun and describes the wound that the glance opens in the breast; the "yara" of the second line is the optative form of the verb "yarmak" (to split) and describes the splitting of the heart. The same sound comes twice in succession as two different words. In the second couplet the lover's soul is likened to a small, frail bird and the beloved's glances to hunters shooting arrows at it. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "bere" as the bruise caused by a blow or injury. The second line, saying that even a stick will bruise a sparrow, grounds the needlessness of shooting arrows at so frail a soul in an everyday observation; the couplet has the air of irsal-i mesel (a proverb-like proof).

The third couplet is like a prayer guiding the lover. The road of love is dangerous, but once the heart has turned towards it, it should not turn back and should leave its work to God. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the verb "başarmak" as to bring a task to the desired outcome, to succeed in it; the phrase "Ḥaḳ başara" in the line is read as a formula of blessing meaning "may God bring it to success, may He prosper your work". The VY reading "dile" gives the line a sense directed "to the heart".

The fourth couplet is a play of sound that repeats the word "ḳara" three times: black earth, black blood and the verb meaning to blacken stand side by side in the same line. The blood flowing from the heart hacked by fate's dagger of cruelty blackens the earth. This repetition gives the line a heavy and dark air.

The pen-name couplet turns the conventional image of the candle and the moth around. This time the lover speaks to the candle: it is the night of union, and it befits the candle too to burn from head to foot like the lover. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "serâpâ" as from head to foot, throughout, entirely. A likeness is set up between the blackening of the candle's wick as it burns and the lover's burning and blackening (our interpretation); the word "ḳarara" also has a relation of sound with the sense of rest and peace that the Kubbealtı gives for the word "karar".

Bibliography

Online sources