Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṣubḥ-gāh-ı ṭal‘at-ı vaṣluñ diyü her ṣubḥ-gāh
Dil dem-i serd ile bād-ı ṣubḥ gibi ider āh
Düşeli kevn-i fesāda ġayre ḳılmaġın naẓar
Yıḳdı dil mülkin ser-ā-ser dīde-i ḫāne-siyāh
Fī’l-mes̱el bu ṭurfetü’l-‘ayn içre zāyil olanuñ
Ḥayf ola mı kim kişi varlıġına ide nigāh
Ġāfil olma dehr elinden göz yaşını gör göñül
Reh-güẕār-ı seyl ü ṭūfān içre olmaz ḫᵛāb-gāh
Ceẕbe-i ‘ışḳuñla kend’özin yitirdise Münīr
Devlet anuñ pādşāh-ı vaḳt olupdur pādşāh

In English

1. Every morning the heart, saying "the dawn of the face of union with you (when will it come)", sighs with a cold breath like the morning breeze.

2. Ever since it fell into this world of coming-to-be and passing-away, the black-housed eye, by looking at others, has laid waste the realm of the heart from end to end.

3. For instance, is it not a pity that a person should look upon the existence of a thing that vanishes in the twinkling of an eye?

4. O heart, do not be heedless of the hand of time; look at the tears: there is no sleeping place on the road of flood and deluge.

5. If Münîr has lost himself in the ecstasy of your love, fortune is his; as king of the moment he has become a king. (The second line can also be read as "the king of the age has become his king".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and eighty-seventh of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 287). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The ghazal does not appear in the list of refrains in Ersoy's introduction; it has no refrain, and the rhyme rests on the sound "-āh": ṣubḥ-gāh, āh, siyāh, nigāh, ḫᵛāb-gāh and pādşāh. The first line of the opening couplet begins and ends with the word "ṣubḥ-gāh"; in the second line of the pen-name couplet, too, the word "pādşāh" occurs twice. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 166a); the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Rather than a ghazal to a beloved, this is a poem close to Sufism, built on the transience of the world (our reading). In the opening couplet the heart, with a cold breath like the morning breeze, waits for the dawn at which the beloved's face will rise. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "tal'at" as face, a beautiful face; it gives "serd" as cold and quotes Fuzûlî's line "Alâmet âh-ı serd ü rûy-ı zerd ü eşk-i âlimdir" (the signs are a cold sigh, a pale face and red tears). In this line the cold sigh is counted among the signs of the pain of love.

In the second couplet the phrase "kevn ü fesâd", which the Kubbealtı explains as "coming into being on one side and perishing on the other", describes the world. Since the eye fell into this world it has looked at others and laid waste the realm of the heart. "Ḫāne-siyāh" means word for word "whose house is black"; it brings to mind both the black of the eye and ill fortune (our reading). The third couplet uses the phrase "tarfetü'l-ayn", which the Kubbealtı explains as the time it takes to open and close the eye; the same dictionary gives "zâil" as not lasting or permanent, vanishing. To look at a world that vanishes in the twinkling of an eye is counted a pity for the eye; so in the second and third couplets alike the subject is the gaze of the eye.

In the fourth couplet the tears are likened to a flood and a deluge. The Kubbealtı explains "rehgüzâr" as the road one passes along and "hâbgâh" as a place for sleeping. No one sleeps on the road where the flood passes; the flood of tears, too, should wake the heart from the sleep of heedlessness.

The pen-name couplet contains "cezbe", which the Kubbealtı explains, in its Sufi sense, as the state of rapture that arises when God draws His servant to Himself. One who loses himself in the rapture of love has attained true fortune and become a king. The couplet by Aziz Mahmud Hüdâyî quoted in the Kubbealtı entry "zâil", "Bir pâdişâha kul ol kim / Mülkü zâil olmaz ola" (be the servant of a king whose realm does not pass away), is an expression that joins the idea of transience in the third couplet with the kingship of the pen-name couplet; Münîrî's ghazal, too, counsels not to look at what passes away and to seek lasting fortune in love (our reading).

Bibliography

Online sources