Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Mihr-i ḥüsnüñ ḫāk idüpdür āftāb-ı enveri
Olsa ṭañ mı ḥüsnüñe māh-ı şeb-ārā müşterī
Sebze-zār-ı gül-şen-i Rıḍvān u bāġ-ı Cennete
Sāye ṣaldı Ḫüsrevā ṭāvūs-ı zülfüñ şeh-peri
Bāġ-ı ‘ālem gül-şen-i ḫaddüñle gül-zār olmaġın
Reşk ider ṣaḥn-ı zemīne gül-şen-i nīlūferī
Seg raḳībi yār ile görüp didi bī-çāre dil
Dīve yā Rab yār olur mı şöyle bir nesl-i perī
Ḫūn idüpdür baġrumı mey-gūn lebi şevḳı Münīr
Ḳan ile ṭolsa ‘aceb mi gözlerümüñ sāġarı

In English

1. The sun of your beauty has turned the most radiant sun to dust (cast it into the shade); is it any wonder if the night-adorning moon becomes a buyer (müşteri; also the planet Jupiter, Müşterî) of your beauty.

2. O Khusraw (O my sovereign), the royal plume of the peacock of your curl has cast its shade over the greenery of Rıdvan's rose garden and the garden of Paradise.

3. Since the garden of the world has become a rose garden through the rose garden of your cheek, the lotus-blue rose garden (the sky) envies the courtyard of the earth.

4. Seeing the cur of a rival with the beloved, the wretched heart said: "O Lord, can such a fairy-born one be the companion of a demon?"

5. Münîr, longing for her wine-coloured lip has turned my breast to blood; is it any wonder if the cups of my eyes fill with blood.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the three hundred and eleventh of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 311). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". In the list of refrains in his introduction Ersoy gives the refrain of this ghazal as "-ī"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-er": enver, müşter, şeh-per, nīlūfer, per(ī) and sāġar. The word "sāġarı" in the pen-name couplet, however, ends not in "-erī" but in "-arı"; we think the rhyme loosens here (our observation). The ghazal is found in the three manuscripts of the divan (VT 171b, VY 147b, Ü 60a) and in the Pervâne Bey anthology (PB 620b); in the Istanbul manuscript the word "‘ālem" in the third couplet is missing. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the heavenly bodies shrink before the beloved's beauty. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "enver" as most luminous, very bright, and quotes Nesîmî's line "Güneş eyler yüzün katında sücûd" (the sun bows down before your face); it gives "mihr" the senses of sun and love. For "müşterî" the Kubbealtı opens two separate entries: one who buys, a buyer, and the planet Jupiter. Both are heard in the couplet: the night-adorning moon becomes a buyer of the beloved's beauty, while the same word, calling up the name of a star in the sky, adds one more planet beside the moon and the sun. This is a double entendre (tevriye). The Kubbealtı explains the epithet "şeb-ârâ" as night-adorning and quotes Nâbî's phrase "hilâl-i şeb-ârâ".

The second couplet is built from the words of paradise and sovereignty. The Kubbealtı explains "Rıdvan" as the angel who keeps the gate of paradise and, by extension, paradise itself, and "şehper" as the longest feather of a bird's wing, noting that this feather was fixed to the front of turbans and to sultans' turbans as well. The curl is a peacock; its royal plume casts shade over the gardens of paradise. The address to the beloved as "Khusraw", together with the royal plume, creates an air of kingship (our reading); there is no sign in the couplet that a real ruler is meant.

In the third couplet earth and sky change places. The Kubbealtı explains "nilüfer" as a water plant with white, pink, blue and yellow flowers. With the phrase "gül-şen-i nīlūferī" the sky seems to be meant as a garden of lotus colour (our reading). Because the earth has become a rose garden through the beloved's cheek, the sky envies the courtyard of the earth.

In the fourth couplet two words face each other: the Persian "dîv", to which the Kubbealtı gives the senses devil and giant, and "perî", to which it gives the sense of the most comely and beautiful among the jinn and, by extension, a very beautiful person; the same dictionary also mentions the pair "dîv ü perî". The cur of a rival is the demon, the beloved of fairy descent; the heart is astonished at this unbecoming companionship. The pen-name couplet brings in "sâgar", which the Kubbealtı explains as a wine cup. Longing for the beloved's wine-coloured lip has turned the lover's breast to blood, and his eyes have become two cups full of blood; the likeness of colour between wine and blood carries the couplet.

Bibliography

Online sources