Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ġālib işüm bitdi yetişdi ḳılıcuñ çün başa
Kişi ḳurtulmaz geñezlik ile ṣu başdan k’aşa
Girmedümse göñlüñe sa‘y ile ben ‘ayb itmezem
Ḳıl geçer mi cehd ile ey seng-dil ḳatı ṭaşa
Ḳorḳaram senden be-ġāyet yine ey dīvāne dil
Başladı ṣular bulandı şöyle ırmaḳlar ṭaşa
Gūyiyā bād-ı ḫazāndan lāledür düşmiş yire
Reh-güẕāruñda ki düşdüm ġarḳ olup ḳanlu yaşa
Raḥm iderseñ baña şuñdan öñdin it kim diyeler
Gitdi dünyādan Münīrī ḫaste-dil sen biñ yaşa

In English

1. Most likely my affair is over, since your sword has reached my head; once the water has risen above the head, a man cannot escape by "geñezlik". (We could not verify the meaning of this word in the dictionaries; the general sense of the line is that there is no escape once the matter is past saving.)

2. If I could not enter your heart by striving, I do not count it a fault; O stone-hearted one, can a hair pass into hard stone by effort?

3. O mad heart, again I fear greatly for you: the waters have grown turbid, the rivers have begun to overflow.

4. My falling on your path, drowned in bloody tears, is as if a tulip had been cast to the ground by the autumn wind.

5. If you will have mercy on me, have it before this, so that they may say: "Sick-hearted Münîrî has departed from the world; may you live a thousand years."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and eighty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 281). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The rhyme rests on the sound "-aşa": başa, aşa, ṭaşa, ṭaşa, yaşa and yaşa. In the list of refrains in Ersoy's introduction the number 281 appears under the refrain "-İne"; yet the couplets of this ghazal end in "-aşa", while the ghazal ending in "-ına" is the next one (tg 282), which does not appear in the list. We therefore think there is a typesetting slip in the list (our observation). The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 164b, VY 140a, Ü 57a); the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The rhyme of the ghazal is a chain of puns (cinas). The "ṭaşa" of the second couplet (to the stone) and the "ṭaşa" of the third (to overflow) are identical in spelling and sound but different in meaning; the "yaşa" of the fourth couplet (into tears) and the "yaşa" of the fifth (live) answer each other in the same way. The "başa" and "aşa" of the opening couplet also join this sequence of sounds (our observation).

The opening couplet tells, with "ġālib" in the sense of "gāliba", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as so it seems, apparently, of the sword reaching the head. The same dictionary explains the idiom "başından aşmak" (to rise above one's head) as to be excessive, quoting Şeyh Gālib's line "Başımdan aştı sîrâb-ı keder" (the flood of sorrow has risen over my head). The saying "the water has risen over his head" tells that the matter can no longer be saved. We could not find the meaning of the word "geñezlik" in the line in the dictionaries. In the second couplet the beloved is addressed with the epithet "seng-dil", which the Kubbealtı explains as stone-hearted, hard-hearted. Just as a hair cannot enter stone by striving, so the lover cannot enter the beloved's hard heart by his efforts; this phrasing has the character of irsal-i mesel (use of a proverbial saying) (our observation). There is a contrast (tezat) of fineness and hardness between hair and stone.

In the third couplet the clouding of the waters and the overflowing of the rivers tell at once of the turmoil of the mad heart and of the flood of tears (our reading). In the fourth couplet the lover likens himself to a tulip cast to the ground by the autumn wind; the bloody tears correspond to the red colour of the tulip. The pen-name couplet sets side by side the words said of the dead, "he has departed from the world", and the prayer offered to the one left behind, "may you live a thousand years"; we think these words are used like a formula of condolence (our observation). The Kubbealtı records the formula "Bin yaşa" in its entry "yaşamak". The lover asks that the beloved's mercy should not be left until after his death. The Münîrî entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi states that the poet applied every kind of cinas successfully and was successful in the tradition of placing proverbs and idioms in poetry; this ghazal may serve as an example of both qualities.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "gāliba", "baş" (başından aşmak), "senkdil" and "yaşamak". https://lugatim.com/s/senkdil

Online sources