Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Açdıġum göñlüm evine gözümi bāb gibi
Gördüm anı ki ḫayālüñe senüñ bāb gibi
Naḳş-ı na‘l-i süm-i esbüñe güneş secde ider
Düşmegin rūy-ı zemīn üstine miḥrāb gibi
Ġoncasın göñlüñ açılsun diyü ey lāle-‘iẕār
Yaş döker gözlerümüz kūze-i dūlāb gibi
Rūşen oldı dehenüñ noḳṭasını görmek ile
Dāyire çekdügi ḫaddüñ gül-i sīr-āb gibi
Mihr-i ruḫsāruñı gözde göreli eşk-i Münīr
Ṭurmaz ider ḥareket şevḳ ile sīm-āb gibi

In English

1. I opened my eye like a door onto the house of my heart; I saw that the eye is like a door for your image. (Both lines of the opening couplet end with the word "bâb"; see the commentary.)

2. The sun bows in prostration to the print of your horse's shoe, for that print falls on the face of the earth like a prayer niche (mihrab). (The arched shape of the horseshoe print is likened to a mihrab.)

3. O tulip-cheeked one, our eyes shed tears like the jars of a water-wheel, so that the bud of your heart may open.

4. By seeing the dot of your mouth it became clear that your cheek, like a fresh rose, had drawn a circle (round that dot).

5. Ever since it saw the sun of your cheek in the eye, Münîr's tear does not keep still; with longing it trembles and moves like quicksilver.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the three hundred and fifteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 315). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". In the list of refrains in his introduction Ersoy gives the refrain of this ghazal as "gibi" (like); the rhyme rests on the sound "-āb": bāb, bāb, miḥrāb, dūlāb, sīr-āb and sīm-āb. Both lines of the opening couplet end with the same rhyme word, "bāb". The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 172b, VY 145a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet the same word enters the rhyme twice. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "bap – bab" the senses door, each of the chapters of a book, and matter, subject. In the first line "bāb" is plainly a door: the lover opens his eye onto the house of the heart like a door. In the second line too the nearest sense is door; the eye is the door through which the beloved's image enters the heart. We think the word in the second line can also be read in the sense "matter, subject", but we cannot say this for certain (our reading).

The second couplet is built from the words of worship. The Kubbealtı explains "na'l" as the original form of the word "nal" (horseshoe) used in older texts, and "mihrap" as the recess in the qibla wall of places of worship before which the imam stands. The horseshoe print, with its arched shape, resembles a mihrab; and the sun bows in prostration to this mihrab. The sun's bending to the ground is shown as the reverence felt even for the hoofprint of the beloved's horse.

The third couplet contains "dolap", which the Kubbealtı explains as the device for drawing water from a garden well and notes was also used in older texts in the forms "dōlāb – dūlāb"; in the same entry Zâtî's line "Döküp göz yaşını devrân elinden zâr zâr inler" describes the weeping of the water-wheel. The Kubbealtı explains "kûze" as jar, jug. The jars of the water-wheel pour out water without pause; the lover's eyes likewise shed tears so that the bud of the beloved's heart may open. The link between the bud opening with water and the tears is the couplet's fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil).

In the fourth couplet a relation between the dot and the circle is drawn. The Kubbealtı gives "rûşen" the senses bright, luminous and manifest, and "sîrâb" the senses well watered and fresh, tender. The beloved's mouth is a dot; the cheek has drawn a circle round this dot like a fresh rose. Once the dot is seen, the existence of the circle is understood as well (our reading).

The pen-name couplet brings in "sîmâb", which the Kubbealtı explains as an old word for quicksilver; in the couplets of Fıtnat Hanım and Leskofçalı Gālib under the same entry quicksilver is mentioned together with trembling and torment. The Kubbealtı gives "mihr" the senses sun and love. When the sun of the cheek is reflected in the eye, the lover's tear cannot stay in place and trembles with longing like quicksilver.

Bibliography

Online sources