Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her ḳanlu yaş ki ben dökerem āh u zār ile
Mecmū‘ı tāze güller olur lāle-zār ile
Gūyā ki ‘aḳs-i dīde-i bülbüldür ey göñül
Ḫāl-i siyeh ki görinür ol gül-‘iẕār ile
Ḳaṭ‘-ı menāzil itmede ṭurmaz gözüm yaşı
Devlet müyesser olmaz imiş kesb ü kār ile
Dil virmeyem daḫı dir idüm māh-rūlara
Olmaz imiş zamāne işi iḫtiyār ile
Ol la‘l-i nāba ire diyü ‘āḳıbet Münīr
Cānum ṭudaġa irdi ṭurur intiẓār ile

In English

1. Every bloody tear I shed with sighs and laments becomes, together with the tulip garden, fresh roses from end to end.

2. O heart, the black mole that appears on that rose-cheeked one is as though it were the reflection of the nightingale's eye.

3. The tears of my eye never cease to travel from stage to stage; it seems that fortune is not gained by toil and earning.

4. I used to say I would never again give my heart to the moon-faced; it seems that the affairs of the age do not go by one's own choice.

5. Münîr, hoping in the end to reach that pure ruby lip, my soul has come to my lip and stays there waiting.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and ninety-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 291). 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 "-ile"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-ār": zār, lāle-zār, gül-‘iẕār, kesb ü kār, iḫtiyār and intiẓār. The ghazal is found in the three divan manuscripts (VT 167b, VY 140b, Ü 57b) and in the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası (PB 538a). The only variant reading in the edition is in the opening couplet: "lāle-zār" in the second line appears in PB as "āh u zār". It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the bloody tears the lover sheds fall to the ground and turn into roses and tulips. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "lâlezar" as a tulip garden. The likeness between red tears and red flowers turns the weeping lover's surroundings into a garden. The reading "āh u zār" in the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası, on the other hand, repeats in the second line the phrase "āh u zār" (sighs and laments) of the first.

The second couplet rests on the image of the rose and the nightingale. The Kubbealtı explains "izar" as cheek. The black mole on the beloved's rose-like cheek is like the reflection, fallen on the cheek, of the eye of the nightingale gazing at that rose. The nightingale's never taking its eye off the rose is thought of together with the mole's never leaving the cheek (our reading).

The third and fourth couplets stand out for second lines that state a lesson of experience. The Kubbealtı explains "menzil" as the place where travellers halt and the distance between two halts; it gives "kesb" as earning and "ihtiyar" as choosing, preferring. The tears travel from stage to stage without rest, yet this effort gains the lover no fortune, for fortune is not won by toil. The line "Erişir menzil-i maksûduna âheste giden" (the one who goes slowly reaches his destination), quoted in the dictionary's entry "menzil", says that it is not the one who hurries but the one who goes slowly who arrives; Münîrî's couplet, too, tells that the running tears reach nowhere (our reading). In the fourth couplet the lover had sworn never again to give his heart, but has seen that the affairs of the age do not depend on one's own choice. In both couplets the phrasing "olmaz imiş", built with the suffix "imiş", reports a truth understood only afterwards.

The pen-name couplet is built on a play of sound. The lover wants to reach the beloved's lip, but in the end it is his own soul that has come to his lip. The soul's coming to the lip describes the approach of death (our reading); "reaching the lip" and "the soul's reaching the lip" carry two different meanings with the same verb and the same word. The Kubbealtı explains "intizar" as waiting, expectation. The soul stands waiting on the lip, between death and union.

Bibliography

Online sources