Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Cān-ı ‘ālemdür vücūd-ı pāküñ ey ẓıll-i Ḫudā
Şöyle ṣıḥḥatler yaraşur saña her dem Ḫüsrevā
Bilmezem kim nirden irdi zaḥmet-i teb cismüñe
Her selāmatlıġa ẕātuñ olmış iken ilticā
Göreli te’s̱īr-i teb birle vücūduñ lerzesin
Daḫı ditrer geçmemişdür lerzeden şāh-ı semā
Ẕāt-ı pāküñ ḫod münezzehdür günehden bilürem
Olacaġına ḳılupdur anı keffāret Ḫudā
İrdi te’s̱īr-i hevā diyü penāh-ı ‘āleme
Vehm ile ṭurmaz ḳaçar hīc ardına baḳmaz ṣabā
Ḫāṭıruñ bir dem perīşān olmasun sünbül-ṣıfat
Gül gibi ḫandān u ḫurrem görelüm her dem şehā
Devlet-i ‘ömrüñ cihānda ber-mezīd olsun mezīd
Ḥażret-i Ḥaḳdan Münīr ü ḫalḳa oldur mürtecā

In English

1. O shadow of God, your pure being is the soul of the world; O Khosrow, such health befits you at every moment.

2. While your person has become the refuge of all well-being, I do not know from where the trouble of this fever reached your body.

3. Ever since the king of the sky (the sun) saw your being tremble under the fever's effect, it trembles still; its trembling has not passed.

4. Your pure person is in any case free of sin, I know; God has made this illness an atonement for sins yet to come.

5. Saying "The effect of the air has reached the refuge of the world", the morning breeze (saba) does not stand still for fear; it flees and never looks back.

6. May your heart not be dishevelled even for a moment, like the hyacinth; O shah, may we see you always smiling and merry, like the rose.

7. May the fortune of your life in the world increase and increase; this is the prayer of Münîr and of the people to God.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel); in the edition it is the third of the Turkish ghazals (tg 3). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-ā": Ḫudā, Ḫüsrevā, ilticā, semā, Ḫudā, ṣabā, şehā, mürtecā. The word "Ḫudā" (God) is repeated as a rhyme both in the opening couplet and in the fourth couplet. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 99a), Vienna (VY 79b) and Istanbul University (Ü 17b) manuscripts. According to Ersoy's apparatus, couplet 4 is absent from the Vienna and Vatican manuscripts and appears only in the Istanbul manuscript copied by Murad III; in the same manuscript the word "teb" (fever) in couplet 3 is missing.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is not a love poem but a poem of get-well wishes and prayer written to a ruler who has fallen ill with a fever. The forms of address are taken throughout from the language of sovereignty: "ẓıll-i Ḫudā" (shadow of God), "Ḫüsrev" (the title of the old Iranian kings, here the padishah), "penāh-ı ‘ālem" (refuge of the world) and "şehā" (O shah). The word "teb", in its dictionary sense, means a feverish illness, an ague, and it is usually named together with shivering.

Most of the poem's figures of speech are poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). In the third couplet the trembling of the sun's light is ascribed to its having seen the ruler shiver with fever and been seized with fear. In the fifth couplet the morning breeze's ceaseless passing is explained by its having heard the words "the effect of the air has reached the refuge of the world" and fled in fear. The word "hevā", in its dictionary sense, is used both for "air" and, in old medicine, for the corruption of the air thought to cause illness. The wind's fleeing so as not to take the blame for the illness is a fine conceit; this reading is our own observation.

In the fourth couplet the belief that illness is an atonement for sins is used. By saying that the ruler is in any case sinless, the poet carries the praise a step further: the illness has been given not for past sins but as advance atonement for sins yet to come. In the sixth couplet the hyacinth and the rose face each other. The hyacinth, in its dictionary sense, is a flower known for its tousled look and is named with the adjective "perişan" (dishevelled); the rose is "ḫandān", smiling, an open flower. The poet wishes the ruler's heart to be open like the rose and not dishevelled like the hyacinth. In the last couplet the repetition of the word "mezīd" (increasing) heightens the force of the prayer.

Historical Context

It is not known to whom the ghazal was written. There is no heading in the edition, and the ruler's name does not occur in the poem. Münîrî took part in the gatherings of Bayezid II and Prince Ahmed while they were governors of Amasya. The divan also contains another ghazal (tg 226) which, according to its heading in the edition, was written for Prince Ahmed's eye ailment; that ghazal too was written on a similar occasion, an illness. But since the sources contain no information showing who the ruler named in this ghazal was or when the illness took place, the poem cannot be tied to a particular person.

Bibliography

Online sources