Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Bir bāde-i la‘l-i leb içün ey dil-i ḫaste
Beñzer ki ṣınur tevbe-i ṣad-cāy-şikeste
Ben mest-i müdām olduġıma nükteler iden
Yā Rab ne diriki ‘acabā cām-ı eleste
Gül-zār-ı cemālüñde ki Hindū-beçe ḫālüñ
Ṭurmışdur ider tāze gül ü sünbüli deste
Ġamzeñle dile gerçi didüm rāz-ı derūnı
Sırrın dimek olmaz kişi dīvāne vü meste
Yandıysa Münīrī kül olunca saña ḳarşu
Zī ṭāli‘-i ferḫunde zihī vaḳt-i ḫuceste

In English

1. O sick heart, it seems that for one wine of the ruby lip the repentance already broken in a hundred places will be broken once more.

2. To the one who makes witty jibes at my being drunk at all times, O Lord, what are we to say about the cup of Elest? (My drunkenness comes from the cup drunk at the gathering of pre-eternity.)

3. In the rose garden of your beauty your mole, (like) an Indian child, stands making bouquets of fresh roses and hyacinths.

4. It is true that I told my inner secret to your glance and to the heart; (but) one should not tell one's secret to a madman and a drunkard.

5. If Münîrî has burned before you until he turned to ash, how blessed the fortune, how auspicious the hour.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and ninety-third of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 293). The metre is "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". 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 "-este": ḫaste, şikeste, eleste, deste, meste and ḫuceste. Most of the rhyme words are Persian; "eleste" and "meste", however, are formed by adding the dative suffix to the Arabic "elest" and the Persian "mest". The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 167b, VY 141a, Ü 58a); the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens in the manner of the libertine (rind). In the opening couplet repentance is something already broken in a hundred places. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "şikeste" as broken and gives the example "Sâgar-ı şikeste" (a broken cup); according to the same dictionary the Persian "sad" is the number hundred. A single wine offered by the ruby lip is enough to break once more a repentance already broken many times.

The second couplet ties drunkenness to pre-eternity. The Kubbealtı explains "elest" as the shortened form of the question "Elestü bi-rabbiküm" (Am I not your Lord?), which, as the Qur'an relates, God asked the souls after creating them, and records the phrase "bezm-i elest" (the gathering of Elest). The same entry quotes Rûhî-i Bağdâdî's couplet "Sanman bizi kim şîre-i engûr ile mestiz / Biz ehl-i harâbâttanız mest-i elestiz" (do not think we are drunk on the juice of the grape; we are of the tavern folk, drunk since Elest). Münîrî, too, tells the one who reproaches him that the source of his drunkenness is the cup of Elest. We understand the words "ne diriki" in the couplet as "what are we to say".

In the third couplet the beloved's face is a rose garden. The Kubbealtı gives the sense of "Hindû" in the old literature as a mole on the face or body. The black mole is likened to an Indian child working in the garden; we understand the word "beçe" as child. This child makes bouquets of the rose of the cheek and the hyacinth of the hair. The Kubbealtı explains "deste" as a bunch gathered so that it can be held in the hand. The link between rose and cheek, hyacinth and hair, is not stated outright in the couplet but left for the reader to complete (our reading).

The fourth couplet holds a lesson about telling secrets. The lover has disclosed his inner secret to the glance and to the heart; but the glance is drunk, the heart is mad, and a secret is not told to a madman or a drunkard. The phrase "dīvāne vü meste" in the line pairs with "gamze" (glance) and "dil" (heart) of the first line not in order but in reverse: the heart is mad, the glance is drunk (our observation). In the pen-name couplet, burning to ash is counted a blessed fortune. The Kubbealtı explains "ferhunde" as auspicious, blessed, happy, and "huceste" as auspicious, propitious. To burn before the beloved until one turns to ash is, for the lover, a happiness.

Bibliography

Online sources