Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Cān-ı ‘uşşāḳa ḥayāt olmaġa Ḥayy-ı lā-yemūt
La‘l-i yāḳūt-ı revān-baḫşuñ ḫayālin ḳıldı ḳūt
La‘lüñe zülfüñ ne deñlü k’uzanur virmez cevāb
Bilür anı kim cevāb-ı aḥmaḳ olmışdur sükūt
Göñlümi zülf-i siyāh-ı yār k’itdi nā-bedīd
Gūyiyā Yūnusdur ol yuṭmışdur anı şöyle ḥūt
Ey dil ol çāh-ı zeneḫden bulmaḳ isterseñ ḫalāṣ
Sen daḫı var dāmen-i zülf-i siyāh-ı yārı ṭut
Dūd-ı āhum türbem içre şöyle k’ola kār-ger
Ġālibā bitmez mezārumda Münīrī hergiz ot

In English

1. The Ever-Living who does not die, so that it might be life to the lovers' souls, has made the image of your life-giving, flowing ruby lips their nourishment.

2. However far the tresses reach toward your lips, (the lips) give them no answer; for they know that the answer to a fool is silence.

3. The black tresses of the beloved have so made my heart vanish that it is as if the heart were Jonah, swallowed thus by a fish.

4. O heart, if you wish to be freed from that well of the chin, you too go and take hold of the skirt of the beloved's black tresses.

5. O Münîrî, the smoke of my sighs will work so strongly within my tomb that, most likely, no grass will ever grow on my grave.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the thirtieth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 30). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sounds "-ūt/-ut/-ot": lā-yemūt, ḳūt, sükūt, ḥūt, ṭut, ot. Some of the rhyme words are Arabic words with long vowels (lā-yemūt, ḳūt, sükūt, ḥūt), some are short Turkish words (ṭut, ot). The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 105b) and Vienna (VY 86b) manuscripts; the apparatus shows no variant readings. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) begins with a religious term. "Ḥayy-ı lā-yemūt" in its dictionary sense means "the living one who does not die" and is used as an attribute of God. God, the undying, has made the image of the beloved's lips the lovers' nourishment so that it may be life to them. There is an etymological link (iştikak) between "ḥayy" (living) and "ḥayāt" (life), and a closeness of meaning between "lā-yemūt" (undying) and "revān-baḫş" (life-giving). The lips are named with "yāḳūt" and "la‘l", that is, red precious stones.

The second couplet rests on a proverb: "The answer to a fool is silence." The tresses reach toward the lips, but the lips give them no answer. The curling of the tresses toward the lips and the lips' staying closed are explained by this proverb. The couplet is an example of the use of a proverb (irsal-i mesel). The Arabic original of the proverb is also widely known; this link is our own observation.

The third couplet alludes (telmih) to the story of Jonah being swallowed by a fish. The black tresses are likened to a fish that swallows the heart; the heart has vanished among the curls of the tresses. Considering that Jonah was at last delivered from the belly of the fish, the couplet also carries within it a hope of deliverance for the heart; this interpretation is our own inference.

In the fourth couplet the dimple of the chin is likened to a well and the tresses to a rope. The heart that wishes to escape the well is advised to take hold of the skirt of the tresses. The phrase "dāmen-i zülf" (the skirt of the tresses) makes one think of the tresses as a garment; the idiom "to cling to someone's skirt" also means to beg for help. In divan poetry the well of the chin recalls the well of Joseph.

In the pen-name couplet the lover's sigh turns into smoke inside the tomb. This smoke is so burning that no grass grows on the grave. That no grass grows on the grave is a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil) resting on a real sight. It is known that the word "ot" is used in Turkish both for grass and for fire; this second meaning harmonizes with the fire of the sigh. This double entendre (tevriye) is our own inference.

Bibliography

Online sources