Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Fikrüñ ki ṭolaşmaḳ durur ol zülf-i dü-tāya
Var ey göñül ıṣmarlamışuz seni Ḫudāya
Dāġ urduġı rīş-i dile ḫāl-i lebüñ āḫir
Bildüm ki nişān eyler imiş tīr-i belāya
Şol deñlü ḫadengüñ ki cigerde var ölürsem
Her biri olup serv ṣalar türbeme sāye
Çün resm-i cefā eyledüñ evvel beni öldür
Ḳurbān da ḫod elbette gerekdür bu bināya
Ḥaḳḳullāh-ı ḥüsnüñe ṭuta la‘l-i lebüñden
Bir būse buyur yoḳ dime luṭf it bu gedāya
Her laḥẓa göñül biñ ker’ölür yine dirilür
Bes keşf ü kerāmāt nedür mest-i liḳāya
Mihr-i ruḫuñı görse Münīr ayruġa baḳmaz
Gösterse cemālini güneş kim deñer aya

In English

1. Since your purpose is to tangle yourself in that doubly twisted tress, go then, O heart; we have commended you to God.

2. When the mole of your lip branded the heart's wound, I understood at last that it was marking a target (nişan) for the arrow of calamity.

3. There are so many of your arrows in my liver that if I die each one will become a cypress and cast its shade over my tomb.

4. Since you have made cruelty your custom, kill me first; a sacrifice is surely needed for this building too.

5. As God's due (the alms) on your beauty, grant a kiss from your ruby lip; do not say no, be kind to this beggar.

6. Every moment the heart dies a thousand times and comes back to life; so what are unveilings and miracles to one drunk with the sight of you?

7. If Münîr sees the sun of your face he will look at no one else; when the sun shows its face, who looks at the moon?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a seven-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and seventieth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 270). The metre is "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". The list of refrains in Ersoy's introduction gives the redif (refrain) of this ghazal as "-E" (the dative suffix); the rhyme rests on the sound "-ā" in the words "dü-tā, Ḫudā, belā, sā, binā, gedā, liḳā, ay". The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 162a, VY 138b, Ü 55b) and in the Pervâne Bey Anthology (PB 536b). According to the edition's apparatus, "ki" in the opening couplet appears in PB as "çü", "cigerde var" in the third couplet appears in VT as "cigerdedür", and "ker'ölür" in the sixth couplet appears in VT as "kez'ölür"; the fifth and sixth couplets are not in PB. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with a scene of farewell. The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that the verb "ısmarlamak" in Old Turkish and popular speech means to leave someone or something in another's keeping, to entrust, and quotes Süleyman Çelebi's line "Ümmetini Tanrı'ya ısmarladı" (he commended his community to God). The heart has decided to tangle itself in the beloved's doubly twisted tress; the lover commends it to God like a traveller, because whoever is caught in the tress may never return. In the second couplet the word "nişan", which the Kubbealtı explains as sign, mark, trace, token and also as a target aimed at, carries a double entendre (tevriye): the mole of the lip leaves a brand mark on the heart, and this mark becomes a target for the arrow of calamity.

The third couplet rests on the relation between grave and cypress. The arrows lodged in the lover's liver will turn after his death into cypresses and cast shade over his tomb; the likeness between the straight, tall shape of the arrow and the cypress underlies this image (our interpretation). In the fourth couplet the beloved's making cruelty her custom is likened to the founding of a building. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives one sense of "kurban kesmek" as slaughtering an animal as a vow or in the wish for safety; the lover wishes to be the sacrifice for this new building.

In the fifth couplet the word "Ḥaḳḳullāh" (God's due) is linked to the idea of alms (zekât). The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains zekât as a fixed share of one's wealth that must be given to the poor, and in this entry quotes a couplet by Rûhî of Baghdad that ascribes the beauties' lack of pity for lovers to there being no zekât "in their religion". In Münîrî too, beauty is a wealth, the kiss its alms, and the lover the beggar awaiting them. In the sixth couplet occurs the word "liḳā", which the Kubbealtı explains as face and as meeting, union; since the heart drunk with the sight of the beloved dies and revives every moment, the unveilings and miracles of Sufism mean nothing to it. Dying and rising again is presented as a greater wonder than a miracle.

The pen-name couplet closes with the contrast of sun and moon. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "mihr" as the sun and quotes the phrase "mihr-i münîr" (the shining sun) from Nâilî. Since Münîrî's pen name "Münīr" also means shining, luminous, there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the pen name and "mihr-i ruḫ" (the sun of the face) (our observation). Just as the moon is not seen where the sun has risen, the lover who has seen the beloved's face looks at no one else.

Bibliography

Online sources