Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey cemāli lāle-zārı gül-bün-i cān gül-şeni
‘Andelīb-i zāruñı iñledüci dirler seni
Ḫūşe-çīn ḳıldı ḫadüñ devrinde her bir gül-ruḫı
Sünbül-i zülfüñ hevāsı birle bu gül ḫırmeni
Aġzına la‘lüñ ki ṣu ṭamzırmaz oldum dir iseñ
Hīc bir müflis anı ḳılmış degül nice ġanī
Ḫār elinden gül-şen-i dehr içre yetdi cānuma
İḫtiyār itsem ‘aceb mi āḫir ey dil kül-ḫanı
Sāl āb u āteş olmaġın bu yıl şöyle Münīr
Yaḳmaḳ u yıḳmaḳ diler göñlüm gözüm her dem beni

In English

1. O beauty whose face is a tulip garden and the rose garden of the rose-shrub of the soul; they call you the one who makes your moaning nightingale moan (all the more).

2. Longing for the hyacinth of your tress has made every rose-faced one, in the age of your cheek, a gleaner of ears of grain from this rose harvest (a beggar).

3. If you say "I have stopped dripping a drop of water from my ruby lip into (the lover's) mouth", (know that) no pauper has ever done that, but many a rich man has. (The meaning of the couplet is not entirely clear; see the commentary.)

4. At the hands of the thorn in the rose garden of the world my soul has had enough; O heart, would it be any wonder if in the end I chose the furnace of the bathhouse?

5. Münîr, because this year the year (sâl) has been water and fire in this way, my heart and my eye seek at every moment to burn me and to tear me down.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the three hundred and twenty-seventh of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 327). 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 "-en / -an": gül-şen, sen, ḫırmen, ġan(ī), kül-ḫan and ben. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 176a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets of the ghazal are built with words of the garden and the field. In the opening couplet the beloved's face is a tulip garden, the rose garden of the rose-shrub of the soul; the lover is the nightingale moaning in this garden. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "andelîb" as nightingale. Calling the beloved "the one who makes the nightingale moan" says that beauty increases the lover's cries.

In the second couplet the image of the garden passes into the image of the harvest. The Kubbealtı explains "hûşe" as ear of grain, sheaf, cluster; "hûşe-çîn" as one who gleans ears of grain; and "hırmen" as harvest, threshing floor. The beauty of the cheek is a harvest of roses, and the rose-faced ones smitten with the hyacinth of the tress have become paupers gleaning ears from this harvest. The other beauties have lost their own beauty before the beloved and are content to gather what is left over from his harvest (our reading). There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words hûşe, hırmen and sünbül (hyacinth).

The third couplet is not clear. "Ağzına su tamzırmamak" seems to mean not to let even a single drop of water drip; we did not find the form "tamzırmak" in the Kubbealtı. The Kubbealtı explains "müflis" as bankrupt, penniless, and "ganî" as rich. The ruby lip is the symbol of wealth; to begrudge a drop of water from it is reckoned the act not of the poor but of the rich. The couplet can be read as a jibe likening the beloved's stinginess to that of the rich (our reading).

In the fourth couplet contrasts are drawn between rose and thorn, rose garden and furnace. The Kubbealtı explains "külhan" as the large furnace beneath the floor of bathhouses that provides the heating, and quotes Fuzûlî's line "Külhanım eksik değil hâkisterimde ahkerim" (I lack no furnace; there are live coals in my ashes). The thorns of the world's garden have wearied the lover of his life; it is no wonder if he chooses the furnace instead of the rose garden. The likeness of sound between "gül-şen" and "kül-ḫan" adds a further point to the couplet (our observation).

In the pen-name couplet the word "sâl", which the Kubbealtı explains as Persian for year, comes side by side with the Turkish "yıl" (year). The year's being water and fire is tied to the lover's eye being water (tears) and his heart being fire: the heart seeks to burn, the eye to tear down. There is a leff ü neşr (ordered pairing) between water and tearing down, fire and burning (our observation). It is not known whether this couplet alludes to a flood or a fire that took place in that year.

Bibliography

Online sources