Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Bu vech ile gören kişi Ḥüseyni
‘Aceb mi ey dil olursa Ḥüseynī
Ḫadeng-i ġamzeñe bilsem kim ey dost
Kim ögretdi ki bu iġmāż-ı ‘aynı
Ḫayālüñ menzilidür diyü sīne
Revān itdüm gözümden ḳulleteyni
Nigārā ḥāṣılı ‘ışḳuñ elinden
Ṭaġıldı ‘aḳlı hep çalḳandı beyni
Lebüñden cānumuz ḳarżü’l-ḥasendür
Münīrī dir iseñ virsün o deyni

In English

1. O heart, is it any wonder if one who sees Hüseyn with such a face becomes Hüseynî? (The couplet can be read in two ways; see the commentary.)

2. O friend, if only I knew who taught the arrow of your glance this closing of the eye (narrowing one eye to take aim, or turning a blind eye).

3. Saying that my breast is the lodging of your image, I made "two kulle" of water flow from my eyes. (Two kulle of water is, in Islamic law, the quantity of water that impurity does not defile; see the commentary.)

4. O beauty, in short, at the hands of your love (the heart's) reason has scattered altogether and its brain has been churned.

5. Our soul is an interest-free loan from your lip; if you say "let Münîrî repay that debt", let him repay it.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the three hundred and twenty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 321). The metre is "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün". In the list of refrains in his introduction Ersoy gives the refrain of this ghazal as "-İ"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-eyn": Ḥüseyn, Ḥüseyn, ‘ayn, ḳulleteyn, beyn and deyn. Most of the rhyme words are Arabic. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 174a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on a pun. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "Hüseynî" in three separate entries: pertaining to Hüseyin (the Prophet's grandson); one of the oldest simple modes (makam) of Turkish music; and it notes that this name of the mode is formed from the Arabic "ḥuseyn", "little beauty", with the relative suffix. The Kubbealtı also gives "vech" the senses face, countenance and manner, way. Accordingly the couplet can be read in two ways. In the first reading "Ḥüseyn" names the beloved, the beauty, and it is natural that one who sees him with such a face should become Hüseynî, that is, attach himself to him and follow his way. In the second reading Hüseynî is a musical mode, and what is meant is that the lover who sees the beloved begins to lament in the hüseynî mode. In the couplet by Nef'î that the Kubbealtı quotes for this mode, the lover laments like the nightingale "from hüseynî". We cannot say for certain which sense comes to the fore (our reading).

In the second couplet the word "iğmâz", which the Kubbealtı explains as closing the eyes, turning a blind eye, comes together with "ayn" (eye). The glance is an archer who shoots arrows; the question is who taught this archer to wink. The archer's narrowing of one eye as he takes aim and the beloved's turning a blind eye to the lover's state are joined in the same phrase (our reading).

The third couplet is built on a term taken from Islamic law. According to the article "Kulle" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, kulle is a word meaning a large water jar, and a hadith states that water to the volume of two kulle (kulleteyn) does not take on impurity. The lover has made two kulle of water flow from his eyes to make his breast a lodging for the beloved's image: the tears are abundant enough to cleanse this lodging, and they are at the same time a pure water that nothing can defile. It is also possible that the two eyes correspond to the two kulle (our observation).

The pen-name couplet is built with the words of loan and debt. The Kubbealtı explains "karzıhasen" as a loan given without interest and without any return, and "deyn" as money taken to be repaid after a fixed time. The soul is a loan given from the beloved's lip; if the beloved wishes, the lover will pay this debt, that is, give up his soul. The idea of the lip bestowing life, which Münîrî also uses in the pen-name couplet of tg 317, is here turned into an account of debit and credit.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "Hüseynî", "vecih – veçh – vech", "iğmaz", "ayn", "karzıhasen" and "deyn". https://lugatim.com/s/Hüseynî

Online sources