Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Hīc bir dermān bulunmaz ḫaste göñlüm derdine
Bilmezem ḥāli n’ola bī-çārenüñ de derdi ne
Der-peyince gözlerüm yaşı ki gider göñlümüñ
Ṣanki bir dīvānedür düşmişdür eṭfāl ardına
Ney gibi baġrı delinen ‘āşıḳ-ı dil-ḫastenüñ
Kūşe-i çeşm ile baḳsañ n’ola rūy-ı zerdine
Ṭavf-ı kūyuña yetişüp cān viren ‘uşşāḳuñuñ
Hergiz irişmez kimesne ḫāk-i pāyi gerdine
Ṣaḳlamaz sūz-ı derūnı ḫaste göñülden Münīr
Kişi lā-büd bildirür ḥālini bir hem-derdine

In English

1. No cure is found for the pain of my sick heart; I do not know what has happened, what the pain of this helpless one is.

2. My tears that go after my heart are like children running behind it; the heart resembles a madman with children at his heels.

3. What if you looked with the corner of your eye at the yellowed face of the heartsick lover whose breast is pierced through like a reed flute (ney)?

4. No one ever reaches even the dust of the foot-dust of your lovers who attained the circumambulation of your street and gave up their lives there.

5. Münîr does not hide the burning within from his sick heart; a man will surely tell his state to a fellow sufferer.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and seventy-third of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 273). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". In the list of refrains in his introduction Ersoy places this ghazal under the refrain "-İne"; the rhyme words are derd, ard, zerd, gerd and hem-derd, all ending in the sounds "-rd". The "derdi ne" of the second line of the opening couplet sounds the same as "derdine" and builds the rhyme through wordplay. The ghazal is found in the Vatican (VT 163a) and Istanbul University (Ü 52a) manuscripts; the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet sets "derdine" (to its pain) beside "derdi ne" (what is its pain); these two expressions, identical in spelling and sound but different in meaning, are an example of cinas-ı mürekkeb (compound pun) (our observation). The first line says that the pain has no cure; the second voices a bewilderment that does not even know what the pain is. The words derd (pain), derman (cure), ḫaste (sick) and bī-çāre (helpless) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) drawn from illness.

The second couplet draws the liveliest picture of the ghazal. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "etfâl" as children. The heart is a madman, and the tears are children running behind him. The image of children trailing after a madman is frequent in the older poetry; here the flowing of the tears after the heart is told through this scene (our observation). We understand the phrase "der-pey" from the context as "after, behind". In the third couplet the lover's breast is pierced like a reed flute (ney); a simile links the holes of the ney with the wounded breast. The Kubbealtı gives "zerd" as yellow, yellowed, pale, and "kûşe" as corner. The lover asks no more of the beloved than a glance from the corner of the eye.

In the fourth couplet the beloved's street is conceived as a place circumambulated like the Kaaba. The word "gerd", which the Kubbealtı explains as dust, earth, is joined with "ḫāk-i pāy" (the dust of the foot): no one reaches even the dust of the foot-dust of the lovers who gave up their lives there. Their rank is thus exalted through hyperbole. The pen-name couplet has the air of irsal-i mesel (use of a proverbial saying): a man opens his pain to a fellow sufferer. So Münîr does not hide the burning within from the heart, which is sick like himself. The first of the rhyme words, "derd", and the last, "hem-derd", bring the ghazal back to where it began.

Bibliography

Online sources