Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bu dil-i saḫtuñ görüp raḥmını ben bī-çāreye
Ṣanasuz ṭañ mıdur ey dil şöyle seng-i ḫāreye
Ḳanḳı gīsūsına baḳsam zülfüñüñ dil andadur
Bilmezem kim n’ola āḫir bu dil-i ṣad-pāreye
Çeşm-i mest-i yār birle añduġumca leblerin
Dir ki ḥulviyyātdur ḥācet degül mey-ḫᵛāreye
Göñlümi la‘l-i lebüñde görüben didüm revān
Nice beñzer bāde üzre görinen āvāreye
Baġrumuñ ḳanın görüp dil sīnede didi Münīr
Ṭut ki ḥınnādur devāyiçün sürülmiş yaraya

In English

1. Had you seen this hard heart take pity on me, the helpless one, O heart, would you have thought it a wonder from so hard a granite stone? (The couplet can be read in two ways: the hard heart's pity is counted a marvel not to be expected of stone, or, on the contrary, it is said that to expect mercy from such a stone is in vain.)

2. Whichever lock of your hair I look at, the heart is there; I do not know what will in the end become of this heart broken into a hundred pieces.

3. Whenever I mention the beloved's lips together with her drunken eye, (the eye) says: "They are sweets; one who drinks wine has no need of them."

4. Seeing my heart in the ruby of your lip, I said at once: how like it is to a vagabond seen floating on wine.

5. Münîr, seeing the blood of my breast within it, the heart said: "Take it for henna smeared on a wound as a remedy."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and eighty-fifth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 285). 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 "-ye"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-āre": bī-çāre, ḫāre, ṣad-pāre, mey-ḫᵛāre and āvāre. The word "yaraya" in the pen-name couplet, however, ends not in "-āre" but in "-ara"; we think the rhyme loosens here (our observation). The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 165b). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the beloved's hard heart is likened to stone. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "hârâ" as very hard, said of stone, and quotes Aziz Mahmud Hüdâyî's line "Hudâ kādirdir eyler seng-i hârâdan güher peydâ" (God has the power to bring forth a jewel from hard stone). Münîrî, too, asks whether mercy can come out of a heart like stone. We understand the word "ṭañ" in the couplet from the context as "a thing to wonder at". The word heart ("dil") is in the first line the beloved's hard heart, and in the second the lover's own heart, which he addresses.

In the second couplet "gîsû", which the Kubbealtı explains as long hair falling over the shoulders, is used together with the curl. The same dictionary gives the Persian "sad" as the number hundred and "pâre" as piece. The heart has been broken into a hundred pieces, each caught in a lock of hair; so whichever lock the lover looks at, he finds his heart there (our reading).

The third couplet is a jest of the drinking gathering. The Kubbealtı explains "hulviyat" as sweets, confections, and gives the word with an example from the endowment deed (vakfiye) of Sultan Bayezid II; according to the entry in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Münîrî was among the close companions of Bayezid II's gatherings. The drunken eye grants the sweetness of the lips but says that one who drinks wine has no need of sweets; it thus finds an excuse for keeping away from the lips (our reading). The fourth couplet uses the word "âvâre", which the Kubbealtı explains as idle, unsettled, wretched. The red lip is likened to wine, and the heart seen upon it to some stray thing drifting on the surface of the wine.

The pen-name couplet contains the word "hınnâ", which the Kubbealtı explains as henna. The heart, seeing the blood in the breast, takes it for henna smeared on a wound as a remedy; a likeness is drawn between the red of the blood and the colour of henna. The smearing of henna on a wound as a remedy is the poem's own statement; we have not verified this usage in another source.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "hârâ", "gîsû", "sad", "pâre", "hulviyat", "âvâre" and "hınnâ". https://lugatim.com/s/hulviyat

Online sources