Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṭut ki yön yoḳdur cemālüñ āftābın göresi
Āstānuña ‘aceb yol var mı yüzüm süresi
Dün gice meh-tāb içinde bulup itüñ izini
Şol ḳadar k’öpdüm ḳapardı küllī aġzum yöresi
Yüregümde görüben peykānuñı göñlüm gibi
Şöyle kim cānum sevindi yir bulamaz ṭurası
Va‘de-i ḫām ile ben bī-çāresin ḳıldı helāk
Ḫub idi meh-rūlaruñ olmasa ey dil bu rāsı
Şimdi baġrum ḳanın aḳıdur gözüm her dem Münīr
Ḳalmadı bir ḳaṭre beñzer hergiz āb-ı şūrası

In English

1. Suppose there is no way to see the sun of your beauty; is there perhaps a way for me to rub my face upon your threshold?

2. Last night, finding the footprint of your dog in the moonlight, I kissed it so that the whole circle of my mouth swelled up.

3. Seeing the head of your arrow in my heart, like my heart (lodged within it), my soul so rejoiced that it can find no place to stand still.

4. (The beloved) has destroyed helpless me with an unripe (unfulfilled) promise; O heart, it would have been good if the moon-faced ones did not have this "rāsı". (We could not determine the meaning of the rhyme word "rāsı"; see the commentary.)

5. Münîr, my eye now sheds the blood of my liver at every moment; it seems not a single drop of its salt water is left.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the three hundred and twenty-sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 326). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The rhyme rests on the sound "r" at the ends of the lines and the suffix "-esi / -ası" that follows it: göresi, süresi, yöresi, ṭurası, rāsı and şūrası. Although Ersoy gives the numbers of the neighbouring ghazals in the list of refrains in his introduction, the number of this ghazal does not appear there (our observation). 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 opening couplet begins with an expression of humility. The lover accepts that he cannot look directly at the sun of the beloved's beauty; at least he seeks a way to rub his face on the threshold. There is a contrast between not being able to look at the sun and rubbing one's face on the threshold: one is above, the other on the ground. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives the word "yön" the sense side, direction; in the line it seems to be used for "way, possibility" (our reading).

The second couplet is the most striking scene of the ghazal. The Kubbealtı explains "mehtap" as moonlight. At night, in the moonlight, the lover found the footprint of the beloved's dog and kissed it so ardently that the circle of his mouth swelled up. The Kubbealtı traces the verb "kabarmak" to the Old Turkic form "kāpar-mak" and explains it as to swell, to become swollen; "ḳapardı" in the couplet is this old form. Kissing the footprint of the beloved's dog is the most extreme expression of the lover's devotion to everything belonging to the beloved. That so coarse a detail as the swelling of the mouth enters the poem so openly is an example of Münîrî's manner of speech, close to everyday life (our observation).

In the third couplet appears "peykân", which the Kubbealtı explains as the sharp iron at the tip of an arrow, the arrowhead, and in the same entry also gives by extension the sense of the beloved's eyelash. Seeing the head of the beloved's arrow lodged within his heart like his own heart, the lover cannot keep still for joy. The wound turning into joy is the contrast (tezat) of the couplet.

We could not determine the meaning of "rāsı", the rhyme word of the fourth couplet. We found no entry in this form in the Kubbealtı; the entries "râst" (straight, right) and "re's" (head) do not fully fit the sound and sense of the line. The first line of the couplet is clear: the beloved has destroyed the lover with an unripe promise he did not keep. The second line seems to say that it would have been good if the moon-faced ones did not have this habit, but the meaning of the word "rāsı" remains uncertain.

In the pen-name couplet appears the word "şûr", which the Kubbealtı explains as salty, brackish, bitter. The salt water of the tears has run out, and the eye now sheds the blood of the liver. The passage from salt tears to bloody tears shows that the lover's suffering has reached its extreme.

Bibliography

Online sources