Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Virdi bir ‘işve-gere dīde yine göñlümi āh
Gör ki n’itdi baña bu merdümek-i ḫāne-siyāh
İletüñ reh-güẕer-i yāre bu ben ḫasteyi ḳoñ
Raḥm idüp şāyed ide kūşe-i çeşm ile nigāh
Her gören çāh-ı zeneḫdānuñ ile ḫālüñi dir
Gūyiyā düşdi bün-i çāha ṭurur sāye-i çāh
Ḳanumı dökdügine la‘l-i lebüñ diye ṭurur
Hīc ḥācet degül iḳrāra bilürsin ḫo güvāh
Naẓar-ı vech-i ḥasen cürm ise zāhid n’idelüm
Ser-nüvişt olmış imiş bize ezelde bu günāh
Āh-ı serd ile dirilür dil-i pür-sūz-ı Münīr
Gerçi dirler yürege ḳan ṭamar itdükçe her āh

In English

1. My eye has once again given my heart to a coquettish beauty, alas; see what this black-housed pupil (this ill-starred little man) has done to me.

2. Take this sick man, me, to the road where the beloved passes and leave me there; perhaps she will take pity and cast a glance from the corner of her eye.

3. Everyone who sees your chin dimple and your mole says: it is as if the shadow of the well had fallen to the bottom of the well and stayed there.

4. Your ruby lip keeps saying "yes" to having shed my blood; there is no need of a confession, for you know the witness is already plain to see.

5. O ascetic, if gazing at a fair face is a crime, what can we do; this sin was written as our destiny in pre-eternity.

6. Münîr's burning heart revives with a cold sigh; and yet they say that with every sigh blood drips into the heart.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and ninety-second of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 292). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘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": āh, ḫāne-siyāh, nigāh, çāh, güvāh, günāh and āh once more. The word "āh" is used as a rhyme at the end of both the opening and the pen-name couplets. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 167b, VY 141a, Ü 57b). The only variant reading in the edition is in the fourth couplet: "bilürsin ḫo" appears in VT as "ḫo bilürsin ḫo". It is not known for whom or when it was written. The same rhyme is also used in tg 287 and tg 288, which come a few places earlier in the edition (our observation).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet lays the blame on the eye. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "merdümek" first as a little man, a manikin, and then as the pupil of the eye, giving an example from Fuzûlî. Münîrî uses these two senses together: the pupil that gives the heart to a beauty is at the same time a little man who brings the lover to grief (our reading). "Ḫāne-siyāh" means word for word "whose house is black"; it brings to mind both the black of the pupil and ill fortune. The Kubbealtı records "işve" in the sense of coquetry and charm.

In the second couplet the lover asks to be left on the beloved's road. The Kubbealtı explains "rehgüzer" as the road one passes along and "kûşe" as corner; "kūşe-i çeşm" is the corner of the eye. The lover's whole hope is that the beloved will take pity and glance at him once from the corner of her eye.

The third couplet builds a picture of the chin dimple and the mole. The Kubbealtı explains "çâh-ı zenehdan" as the dimple of the chin and quotes Kadı Burhâneddin's couplet "Gönülü çâh-ı zenehdânına düşmüş gördüm / Bunu Yûsuf onu zindan dediler gerçek mi" (I saw the heart fallen into the well of the chin; is it true that they called this one Joseph and that one the prison?). In Münîrî the chin dimple is a well, and the black mole is its shadow fallen to the bottom of the well.

The fourth couplet is a courtroom scene. The Kubbealtı explains "güvah" as witness, proof, testimony. The lip admits that it has shed the blood; nor is a confession needed, for the red of the lip is the blood itself and the witness is plain to see (our reading). In the fifth couplet the ascetic is addressed: the Kubbealtı explains "sernüvişt" as what is written on the brow, destiny. If gazing at a beauty is a crime, this crime was written in pre-eternity; so the lover defends himself.

In the pen-name couplet the line of Fuzûlî quoted in the Kubbealtı entry "serd", "Alâmet âh-ı serd ü rûy-ı zerd ü eşk-i âlimdir" (the signs are a cold sigh, a pale face and red tears), shows that the cold sigh was counted a sign of the pain of love. Münîrî's burning heart revives with this cold sigh, yet according to what people say, with every sigh blood drips into the heart. So the sigh both revives and wounds; a contrast is also built between burning and cold.

Bibliography

Online sources