Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

La‘lüñe öykündügiçündür meyüñ de ḥürmeti
Yoḫsa bu vech ile ol daḫı bulurdı ḥürmeti
Zāhidā ser-mest-i ‘ışḳ-ı yāra ṭolaşma iñen
Kişinüñ kendü elindedür bilürsin ḥürmeti
Rūz-ı ḥaşr ile beni ḳorḳutmasun diñ vā‘iẓe
Gösterür her dem ḳıyāmet baña yārüñ ḳāmeti
Gelmeden ḫayl-i ġamuñ daḫı ayaġın baṣmadan
Ṭutdı dil mülkin ser-ā-ser leşker-i ġam ḥaşmeti
Naḳd-i eşk ü çihrem ile la‘lüñi gözler Münīr
Bilür anı sīm ü zerle ḥāṣıl olmaz ḳıymeti

In English

1. The forbiddenness (hürmet) of wine too is because it imitated your ruby lip; otherwise, as it is, it too would have been held in respect (hürmet).

2. O ascetic, do not meddle much with one drunk with love of the beloved; you know that a man's respect lies in his own hands.

3. Tell the preacher not to frighten me with the Day of Judgement; the beloved's stature shows me the Resurrection (kıyamet) at every moment.

4. Before the cavalry of grief had even come or set foot there, the majesty of grief's army seized the whole realm of the heart.

5. Münîr watches for your ruby lip with the ready coin of his tears and with his (yellowed) face; but he knows its worth is not to be had with silver and gold. (The tears are likened to silver and the yellow face to gold.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the three hundred and twenty-fifth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 325). 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 "-İ"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-met": ḥürmet, ḥürmet, ḥürmet, ḳāmet, ḥaşmet and ḳıymet. The two instances of "ḥürmeti" in the opening couplet and the "ḥürmeti" in the second couplet are repetitions of the same word. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 175b). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The conceit of the ghazal lies in the two meanings of the word "hürmet". The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives this word the sense of respect arising from valuing a thing or a person, and the sense of being forbidden by religious law, of being prohibited. In the first line of the opening couplet the "hürmet" of wine is its being forbidden; in the second line the same word means respect. The poet attributes the prohibition of wine to its having tried to imitate and resemble the beloved's ruby lip: had wine not imitated the lip, it too would have been respected. The Kubbealtı explains "öykünmek" as to wish to resemble someone, to imitate him. Tying the prohibition to so poetic a cause is a fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil); the same word entering the rhyme with its two meanings is a perfect pun (tam cinas).

In the second couplet the word comes a third time. The ascetic is told not to meddle with the one drunk with love, for "a man's hürmet lies in his own hands"; whoever shows disrespect to another loses his own standing. The saying is uttered in the manner of a piece of advice and a proverb (our observation). The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi article on Münîrî notes that the poet was successful in setting proverbs and idioms in his poetry.

The third couplet takes up the preacher and the Resurrection. The Kubbealtı explains "kamet" as stature, figure, and "kıyamet" as the end of the world and the raising of the dead. The preacher tries to frighten the lover with the Day of Judgement; but the beloved's stature raises a resurrection for the lover at every moment. There is a pun based on likeness of sound, and a congruence of images, between kâmet and kıyamet; the lover's stance against the ascetic and the preacher binds the first three couplets of the ghazal together.

The fourth couplet is a picture of war. The Kubbealtı explains "haşmet" as an imposing appearance that awakens a sense of greatness, majesty. Before the horsemen of grief have even come, the mere majesty of the army has seized the realm of the heart. In the pen-name couplet the language of money is used. The Kubbealtı gives "nakd" as cash and "sîm" as silver. The lover holds cash in tears and gold in his yellowed face; silver corresponds to the tears and gold to the yellow face (our observation). But the worth of the ruby lip cannot be bought with this wealth.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "hürmet", "öykünmek", "kāmet", "kıyâmet", "haşmet", "nakit – nakd" and "sîm". https://lugatim.com/s/hürmet

Online sources