Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Merdüm-i çeşmüm selāmın yā Rab ol ḫāk-i dere
Sizmezem kim göz yaşından ġayrı kimse irgüre
Her ne deñlü ‘arż idersem baḳmaz eşk ü çihreme
Görmedüm bir kimse böyle meyli yoḳ sīm ü zere
İntiẓār-ı vuṣlat ile geçdi bu ‘ömr-i ‘azīz
Bāri bir dimez de kim dervīş var Allāh vire
Āteş-i ‘ışḳuñla kim sīnemde pinhāndur göñül
Gūyiyā beñzer kül ile örtünülmiş aḫkere
Şol ‘araḳlar kim var ol çāh-ı zeneḫde ey göñül
Görüp āb-ı Zemzem anı utanup geçdi yire
Ġam degül gird-āb-ı baḥr-i eşke düşdise Münīr
Sen büt içün ṣuya ġarḳ olmaḳ degül oda gire

In English

1. O Lord, I do not suppose that anyone but my tears would carry the greeting of my eye's pupil (merdüm: both the pupil of the eye and a man) to the dust of that door.

2. However much I offer, he does not look at my tears and my (yellowed) face; I have never seen anyone with so little inclination to silver and gold.

3. This precious life has passed in waiting for union; he does not even say (as one says to a beggar at the door) "there is a dervish, may God provide".

4. The heart, hidden in my breast with the fire of your love, is like a live coal covered with ash.

5. O heart, seeing those drops of sweat in (the beloved's) chin-dimple, the water of Zemzem sank into the earth for shame.

6. No grief if Münîr has fallen into the whirlpool of the sea of tears; for you, O idol (beloved), let alone drowning in water, he would even enter fire.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and eightieth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 280). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". In the list of refrains in his introduction Ersoy gives the refrain of this ghazal as "-a"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-r": the words der, irgür, zer, vir, aḫker, yir and gir close the couplets with this vowel suffix. The ghazal is found in the three divan manuscripts (VT 164b, VY 139b, Ü 56b) and in the Pervâne Bey anthology (PB 516a). The edition records two variant readings: the "ġayrı" (other than) of the opening couplet appears in PB as "özge"; the fourth couplet is missing from PB and Ü. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on a double entendre (tevriye). The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "merdüm" both as man, human being and, together with words meaning eye, as the pupil of the eye, quoting the phrase "merdüm-i çeşm". The pupil of the eye wishes to send its greeting to the beloved's door; only tears can carry this greeting there. The sense "human being" of "merdüm" is also linked with the word "kimse" (anyone) in the line: no human being, only the tear, does this service.

In the second couplet there is a leff ü neşr (parallel arrangement): the tears and face of the first line correspond in order to the silver and gold (sīm ü zer) of the second. The white tear is silver, the yellowed face is gold; the lover offers them, but the beloved shows no interest in this silver and gold (our reading). We understand the phrase "Allah vere" in the third couplet as the prayer formula said when turning away a beggar at the door without giving anything (our reading); the beloved does not say even this much to the lover.

The fourth couplet uses the word "ahker", which the Kubbealtı explains as a live coal. In this entry the same dictionary quotes Necâtî Bey's line "Gâh olur hâkister arasında ahker gizlenir" (at times a coal lies hidden among the ashes); the image of the coal hidden under ash is found also in Necâtî (d. 1509), whom Ersoy, on the evidence of the nazire anthologies, counts among the poets to whom Münîrî wrote response poems (nazire). The fire of love hidden in the breast is a coal that does not show from outside but burns within. This couplet is not found in PB and Ü.

The fifth couplet is an example of hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology). The Kubbealtı explains "zenah" as chin and the phrase "çâh-ı zenahdan" as the dimple of the chin, and "arak" as sweat. Zemzem is the water of a well; the poet ascribes its lying beneath the ground to its shame at seeing the drops of sweat in the beloved's chin-dimple (our observation). In the pen-name couplet the beloved is addressed with the word "büt", which the Kubbealtı explains as idol and, figuratively, a beauty, beloved; the Kubbealtı gives "girdap" as whirlpool. A contrast (tezat) is set up between water and fire: for the beloved the lover is ready not only to drown in the sea of tears but also to enter fire.

Bibliography

Online sources