Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Dilden ḫadeng sīneme ṣapmaḳ ne fāyide
Göñlümi çün yapar yine yıḳmaḳ ne fāyide
Elden çıḳarma gevher-i ‘ışḳı göñül ṣaḳın
Āḫir yitiricek kişi bulmaḳ ne fāyide
Kūyumda ḳopdı diyü raḳībe ne meyl ider
Azġun olana Mekkede ḳopmaḳ ne fāyide
Ġam leşkeri ki günde yıḳar milket-i dili
Bunca bu bir ḫarābeyi çatmaḳ ne fāyide
Yumsam gözümi yār ile dir yine dil Münīr
İv uġrusına ḳapuyı yapmaḳ ne fāyide

In English

1. What use is it for the arrow to swerve from the heart to my breast; since you build my heart up again, what use is it to tear it down?

2. O heart, beware of letting the jewel of love slip from your hand; if in the end one is to lose it, what use is it to find it?

3. Why does (the beloved) lean towards the rival, saying "he grew up in my quarter"; for one who has gone astray, what use is it to have sprung up in Mecca?

4. When the army of grief lays waste the realm of the heart every day, what use is it to put this ruin together again so many times?

5. Münîr, even if I close my eyes the heart is still with the beloved; what use is it to shut the door against the thief of the house?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and eighty-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 289). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". In the list of refrains in his introduction Ersoy gives the refrain of this ghazal as "ne fāyide" (what use is it). The refrain frames a question in every couplet, and the rhyme rests on the infinitive form of the verbs before the refrain: ṣapmaḳ, yıḳmaḳ, bulmaḳ, ḳopmaḳ, çatmaḳ and yapmaḳ. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 166b); the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain is the question "what use is it", and each couplet points to a vain effort. The opening couplet contains "hadeng", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as arrow. The beloved's arrow was aimed at the heart but has swerved to the breast; the beloved both builds the heart up and tears it down. The contrast between "building" and "tearing down" is repeated in the fourth couplet, between the army of grief that lays waste the realm of the heart and the effort to "put together" the ruin again. Among the senses of "çatmak" the Kubbealtı lists the raising of a building by joining its parts together; it also explains "milket" as an old form of the word mülk (realm, property) used in verse.

The third couplet is phrased like a piece of worldly wisdom. Among the senses of "azgın" the Kubbealtı lists one who has left the right path, who has been led astray; it gives the Old Turkish sense of "kopmak" as "to rise from one's place; to come out, to begin", and records the sense to appear, to come forth. The beloved shows favour to the rival because he grew up in her own quarter; the poet answers that even to have been born in Mecca will gain nothing for one who has gone astray. The line recalls the phrasing of a proverb, but we have not found a proverb recorded in the same form. We understand the word "kūyumda" (in my quarter) as words spoken by the beloved.

The pen-name couplet is the liveliest picture in the ghazal. The lover closes his eyes so as not to see the beloved, yet the heart is still with her; the thief is inside the house, and shutting the door is of no use. The Kubbealtı explains "uğru" as thief; it gives the Old Turkish sense of the verb "yapmak" as "to cover, to close; to cast a net; to build". So "kapıyı yapmak" here means to shut the door. The same verb is used in the opening couplet in "gönlü yapmak", that is, to repair the heart; the poet has placed one verb in two different senses at the beginning and the end of the ghazal (our observation). The saying "Hırsıza kilit olmaz" (there is no lock against a thief), quoted in the Kubbealtı entry "hırsız", is also close to the thought of the couplet. The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi notes that Münîrî was successful in the tradition of setting proverbs and idioms into poetry; the third and fifth couplets of this ghazal may be counted examples of this manner.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "hadeng", "çatmak", "milket", "azgın", "kopmak", "uğru", "yapmak" and "hırsız". https://lugatim.com/s/yapmak

Online sources