Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

İt gibi ursalar raḳīb-i segi
Ġam degüldür naṣiblü yir kötegi
Dem-i serd-i ecel de ṣovuṭamaz
Āteş-i ‘ışḳ ile yanan yüregi
Yaraşur her ne cā ki yürürseñ
Şöyle sāde güzel nedür bezegi
Ṭut ki zülfeyüñ iki Hindūdur
Her birinüñ gül ile pür etegi
Senüñ ile görür cihānı Münīr
Sensin el-ḥaḳ görür gözüm bebegi

In English

1. If they beat the cur of a rival like a dog, it is no grief; this is a beating taken in a favoured place. (Even when beaten, the rival is at the beloved's door, that is, in a fortunate place; our reading.)

2. Even the cold breath of death cannot cool the heart that burns with the fire of love.

3. Wherever you walk, it becomes you; you are so simply beautiful, what need is there of ornament.

4. Suppose your two curls are two Hindus; the skirt of each is full of roses. (The black locks have fallen over the rose-like cheeks.)

5. Münîr sees the world through you; truly, you are the pupil of my seeing eye.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the three hundred and sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 306). The metre is "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün". In the list of refrains in his introduction Ersoy gives the refrain of this ghazal as "-İ"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-eg": köteg, yüreg, bezeg, eteg and bebeg. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 170b, VY 143a); in the Vienna manuscript the word "Hindūdur" in the fourth couplet appears as "Hindū durur". It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the rhyme words of the ghazal are Turkish: kötek (beating), yürek (heart), bezek (ornament), etek (skirt) and bebek (pupil). In this respect the poem illustrates well two features that the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi notes in Münîrî: the many archaic words found in his poems, and his success in the tradition, beginning with Necâtî, of using local idioms.

In the opening couplet the rival is likened to a dog. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "kötek" as a beating and notes that the word also passed into Persian, Bulgarian and Serbian. The phrase "naṣiblü yir kötegi" has the ring of a proverb, but we have not been able to verify a proverb in this form in the sources. The meaning of the couplet can be built in two ways. In the first reading the beating of the rival is no grief to the lover, because the rival has deserved it. In the second the couplet is a confession of jealousy: even when beaten, the rival is at the beloved's door, and even a beating taken there is a stroke of fortune (our reading).

The second couplet rests on the contrast of heat and cold. The Kubbealtı explains the Persian "serd" as cold. The cold breath of death freezes everything, but the heart burning with the fire of love is not put out even after death. The third couplet uses "bezek", which the Kubbealtı assigns to Old Anatolian Turkish and explains as ornament, adornment, with an example from Yûnus Emre. The beloved's beauty needs no ornament; its simplicity becomes it everywhere.

In the fourth couplet the black curls are likened to Hindus. The Kubbealtı gives one sense of "Hindû" as a person from the people of India, and one sense in older literature as a mole on the face; in both senses the word calls up blackness. The two curls resemble two Hindus with skirts full of roses: the black hair seems to have fallen over the red cheeks and filled its skirts with roses.

The pen-name couplet contains the image of the pupil of the eye. The Kubbealtı gives one sense of "bebek" as the pupil of the eye and brings an example from Nâmık Kemal. Münîr sees the world thanks to the beloved; the beloved is the pupil of his eye. The repetition of the verb "sees" in both lines binds the couplet together: both the seeing and the seeing eye are the beloved.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "kötek", "serd", "bezek", "Hindû" and "bebek". https://lugatim.com/s/bezek

Online sources