Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her serv-i sehī sāye ṣalar āb-ı revāne
Göz yaşına meylüñ yoḳ eyā serv-i revāne
Añdurmadı aṣlā geçen ol cām-ı ṣabūḥı
Sāḳī ḳademüñde bu gice cām-ı şebāne
Ben naġme-i ‘ışḳı nicesi terk ideyüm kim
‘Uşşāḳa iñen ḫoş gelür ey dil bu terāne
Kim ne dir ise disün işümi bilürem ben
Āḫir virürem cānumı da göñlüm alana
‘Işḳ ile cihān ḫalḳı n’ola ḥālüme gülse
Ey dil bu ḳadar çoḳ mı durur saña o ya ne
Āh-ı seḥeri gönderigör ṭurma Münīrī
Şāyed ki ire ‘āḳıbetü’l-emr nişāne

In English

1. Every slender cypress casts its shade on flowing water; but you, O cypress that walks with a swaying gait, have no inclination towards my (streaming) tears.

2. O cupbearer, tonight the night cup offered at your feet did not in the least call to mind that morning cup that has passed.

3. How could I abandon the melody of love? O heart, this is the tune that pleases lovers most.

4. Let anyone say what they will, I know my business: in the end I shall give my life, too, to the one who takes my heart.

5. What if the people of the world laugh at my state because of love? O heart, is that too much for you? What is it, after all? (The couplet can be read in two ways: "o ya ne" may be a dismissive "and what is that?" or a question, "or what?")

6. Münîrî, keep sending the sigh of dawn, do not stop; perhaps in the end it will reach its mark.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and seventy-fourth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 274). 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 couplets end with revāne, revāne, şebāne, terāne, alana and "o ya ne"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-āne". The phrase "o ya ne" in the fifth couplet consists of three separate words yet fits the "-āne" rhyme when read aloud; the "alana" of the fourth couplet is likewise brought close to the same sound (our observation). The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 163a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with a cinas (pun). The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "revân" both as walking, going and as flowing, and quotes the phrase "serv-i revân". In the first line "āb-ı revān" is flowing water; in the second "serv-i revān" is the beloved walking with a swaying gait. The cypress grows beside water and casts its shade on it; the beloved withholds his shade, that is, his attention, from the lover's flowing tears. The likening of tears to running water completes the couplet.

In the second couplet "sabûh", which the Kubbealtı explains as wine drunk in the morning, is set against "şebâne", which it explains as belonging to the night. In its entry "şebâne" the same dictionary quotes Fuzûlî's line "Sabûh için bana dürd-i mey-i şebâne yeter" (for my morning draught the dregs of last night's wine are enough); the pairing of the two words is a known one in the older poetry. In Münîrî the night cup drunk in the presence of the cupbearer makes the morning cup forgotten; the offering of the cup at the cupbearer's feet completes the scene of the gathering. In the third couplet the word "terâne", which the Kubbealtı explains as melody, tune, presents love as a song.

The fourth couplet states the lover's resolve in plain colloquial language: whatever anyone says, he will give his life, too, to the one who takes his heart. "Gönül almak" (to take the heart) may be understood here both as winning the heart and as carrying it away; the lover adds his life to the heart he gives, and a congruence of images (tenasüp) is set up between heart and life (our reading). In the fifth couplet the laughter of the people is disregarded; the phrase "o ya ne" carries this dismissal. In the pen-name couplet the sigh of dawn is conceived as an arrow. The Kubbealtı explains the phrase "âkıbetü'l-emr" as the end of the matter, at last, and "nişâne" as sign, mark. The sigh's reaching its "nişâne" calls to mind the image of an arrow reaching its target (our reading).

Bibliography

Online sources