Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Luṭf idüp bir gün yetişdür leblerüñ gül-nārına
Nice yaḳarsın beni sen anuñ ey gül nārına
Öldürürem didigüñ gündür bugün öldür tamām
Va‘de-i ḫām itme luṭf it yine ḳoma yarına
Kimdür ey dil-ber degül diyen kimüñ ne cānı var
Rişte-i cāndur didümse zülfüñüñ her tārına
Cān-ı şīrīnüm lebe irdise ey dil ġam degül
Ġam budur k’irmeden ölem la‘l-i şekker-bārına
Her ne iderseñ Münīre ‘ışḳ odıyla ḳıl bugün
Bizüm işimüz senüñle ḳaldı ey dil yarına

In English

1. Be gracious and one day bring me to the pomegranate blossom of your lips; O rose, how long will you burn me in its fire (gül nārı: the fire of the rose)?

2. The day on which you said "I shall kill you" is today; kill me outright today. Do not make a raw (unfulfilled) promise; be gracious and do not again put it off until tomorrow.

3. O heart-stealer, if I have called every strand of your curl a thread of the soul, who is there to say "it is not"? Who has the soul (the nerve) to object?

4. O heart, if my sweet soul has come to the lip (if I am about to die), no grief; the grief is that I should die without reaching the sugar-raining ruby lip (of the beloved).

5. Whatever you will do to Münîr with the fire of love, do it today; O heart, our business with you has been left to tomorrow.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and eighty-second of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 282). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The rhyme rests on the sound "-ārına": gül-nārına, gül nārına, yarına, tārına, şekker-bārına and again yarına. The use of "yarına" (to tomorrow) twice as rhyme makes postponement one of the key words of the ghazal (our observation). The number of this ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains in the introduction; the number 281, which appears there under the refrain "-İne", probably refers to this ghazal (our observation). The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 165a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on a cinas-ı mürekkeb (compound pun). The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "gülnar" as pomegranate blossom and quotes Nesîmî's couplet "Kim eydür kim yüzün gülnâra benzer / Ki yüzün nûra vü gül nâra benzer" (who says your face is like the pomegranate blossom, when your face is like light and the rose like fire); as in Nesîmî, so in Münîrî the "gül-nār" (pomegranate blossom) of the first line and the "gül nārı" (the fire of the rose) of the second carry two different meanings in the same sounds. The redness of the pomegranate blossom stands for the beloved's lip, the fire for the love that burns the lover.

The second couplet asks the beloved to keep the promise to kill. The Kubbealtı gives "vâde" the meanings of promise, pledge and the hour of death, and explains "ham" figuratively as not sufficiently ripened. "Va‘de-i ḫām" is a raw, unripe promise that will never be kept. The lover awaits death as a favour; the beloved's putting it off until tomorrow is a torment. In the third couplet there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "rişte", which the Kubbealtı explains as thread, and "tār", strand. Every strand of the curl is a thread of the soul; the phrase "kimüñ ne cānı var" (who has the soul for it) in the second line continues the wordplay by repeating the word "cān" inside an idiom (our observation).

In the fourth couplet two lips are compared. The Kubbealtı explains the phrase "can-ber-leb" as having one's soul on one's lip, on the point of death. The lover's soul has come to his own lip, but the real grief is to die without reaching the beloved's ruby lip. In the pen-name couplet the word "yarına" (to tomorrow) serves as rhyme as in the second couplet. In its entry "vâde" the Kubbealtı quotes a line by Hersekli Ârif Hikmet that speaks of union as the "va‘de-i ferdâ" (promise of tomorrow) of the Day of Resurrection. It is therefore possible to understand Münîrî's phrase "our business has been left to tomorrow" as the reckoning being left to the hereafter (our reading).

Bibliography

Online sources