Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Görünelden gözüme bu vech ile ey dil Memi
Seyl-i eşk ile geçer yaşlu gözümüñ her demi
Yār-ı gendüm-gūnumuñ ḫālin görüp didi göñül
Ġālibā bu dānedür yoldan çıḳaran Ādemi
Şol ḳadar kim dikdiler cismümde tīġuñ yarasın
Ṣanki bu delḳ-i muraḳḳa‘ birle oldum Edhemī
Eksük itme sīneden tīr-i ḫadengüñ yarasın
Ḫod bilürsin kim dil-i mecrūḥuñ oldur merhemi
Tāb-ı ḫurşīd ile gerçi götrilür şebnem Münīr
Bu ‘araḳlar āftāb üstinde ṣaḳlar şebnemi

In English

1. O heart, ever since Memi appeared to my eye with this face (in this way), every moment of my tearful eye passes in a flood of tears.

2. Seeing the mole of my wheat-complexioned beloved, the heart said: surely this is the grain that led Adam astray.

3. They have stitched so many wounds of your sword upon my body that with this patched cloak I have become, as it were, an Edhemî (a dervish like Ibrâhîm b. Edhem).

4. Do not let the wound of your arrow be missing from my breast; you know that it is the salve of your wounded heart.

5. Münîr, it is true that the heat of the sun lifts away the dew; yet these drops of sweat keep the dew upon the sun.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and ninety-seventh of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 297). 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; the rhyme rests on the sound "-emi": Memi, demi, Ādemi, Edhemī, merhemi and şebnemi. The ghazal is found in two divan manuscripts (VT 168a, VY 141b); the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written. The word "Memi" in the opening couplet is printed with a capital letter in the edition, which shows that Ersoy read it as a proper name. We have found no information in the sources on whom this name belonged to.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The rhyme words of the ghazal come from very different fields: a personal name, "dem" denoting time, the prophet's name Adam, a dervish epithet, salve and dew. In the opening couplet the phrase "bu vech ile" can be understood in two ways through "vech", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains both as face and as manner, way.

The second couplet rests on the story of Adam. The Kubbealtı explains "gendüm" as wheat; "gendüm-gūn" means wheat-coloured, of wheaten complexion. According to Süleyman Hayri Bolay's entry "Âdem" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, the Qur'an does not state what the forbidden tree was; the reports found in some Islamic sources saying that this tree was the vine, wheat or the fig rest on non-Islamic sources. Münîrî ties the wheat grain of this report to the mole on the beloved's wheaten face: this is the grain that led Adam astray. A congruence of images (tenasüp) is thus built between the rhyme word "Ādemi" and the couplet.

The third couplet rests on the image of a dervish. The Kubbealtı explains "delk" as an old and patched dervish cloak and "murakka" as patched; it gives "Edhemî" as a member of the Edhemiye order, said to have been founded by Sheikh Ibrâhîm bin Edhem. The entry "İbrâhim b. Edhem" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi relates that he wore a woollen cloak and gave up all the good things of the world to choose the path of asceticism; the literature section of the entry also recounts the legends, in the Turkish İbrâhim Edhem epics, in which he renounces his throne. In Münîrî the stitched sword wounds on the body form a patched cloak, and the lover thus becomes an Edhemî. The likeness between the stitching of a wound and the patching of a cloak is the core of the couplet.

The fourth couplet rests on a paradox that counts the wound a salve: the beloved's arrow both opens the wound and is the heart's only cure. In the pen-name couplet a contrast is built between the sun and the dew. The Kubbealtı explains "şebnem" as dew and "arak" as sweat, and in the entry "arak" quotes Vecîhî's couplet "Araklar zâhir etmiş rûy-i âteş-nâki şerminden / Bu i'câz-ı hüsndür ki ola âb u nâr bir yerde" (drops of sweat have appeared on her fiery face from shyness; it is the miracle of beauty that water and fire should be in one place). The sun dries the dew, yet the drops of sweat on the beloved's sun-like face, against this rule, keep the dew upon the sun; the presence of water and fire together in Vecîhî's couplet is close to the same thought.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "vecih", "gendüm", "delk", "murakka", "Edhemî", "şebnem" and "arak". https://lugatim.com/s/delk

Online sources