Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Şol ki boynuma ḥamāyil gibi ṣalmaz ḳolını
Bellüsüz bārī bilür mi ‘acabā biz ḳulını
Reh-ber ol yār işügine yüri var sen de göñül
Gözlerüm yaşı yitürmezse ne deñlü yolını
Da‘vī ḳılduġıçün sūzum ile yandısa şem‘
Yiridür ṭutsa ne idi kesilicek dilini
Dil-i bī-çāre ḳarār eyleyecek yir bulımaz
Hindū-yı zülfüñ oda ṣalduġıçün fülfülini
Şem‘-veş terk-i ser itmek neyidi bārī Münīr
Bir keret görsevüz ol şem‘-i Çigil maḥfilini

In English

1. That (beloved) who does not let his arm fall round my neck like a sword-belt, it is not clear whether he at least knows us as his servant.

2. O heart, you too, go on; be a guide to the beloved's threshold, if only the tears of my eyes, however many, do not make you lose the way.

3. If the candle, rivalling my burning, has burned, it deserves to have its tongue cut; what would it matter (if they cut it)? (The candle's tongue is its wick.)

4. Because the "Hindu" of your tress (the dark mole) has thrown its black pepper into the fire, the helpless heart can find no place to settle.

5. Münîr, what need was there to give up one's head like a candle? If only we had once seen the gathering of that candle of Çigil.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the three hundred and twenty-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 328). 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 "-ını"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-l": ḳol, ḳul, yol, dil, fülfül and maḥfil. 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 opening couplet contains a simile drawn from dress. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "hamâil" as the belt running from the right shoulder to the left hip, at the end of which the sword is hung. The lover wants the beloved to wind his arm round his neck like such a belt; since the beloved does not do so, it is not even clear whether he knows the lover as his servant. There is a pun (cinas) between the two rhyme words of the opening couplet, "ḳol" (arm) and "ḳul" (servant).

In the second couplet the heart is made a guide on the road to the beloved's threshold. The Kubbealtı notes that "eşik" (threshold) had the form "işik" in Old Turkic; "işügine" in the couplet preserves this old form. The tears' making one lose the way implies that the lover cannot see before him for weeping.

The third and fifth couplets are built on the motif of the candle. The Kubbealtı explains "şem'" as candle and, under the same entry, quotes a couplet by Leskofçalı Gālib naming the candle and the moth together. In the third couplet the candle has set out to rival the lover's burning; the penalty for such a claim is to have its tongue cut. The candle's flame is likened to a tongue, and the trimming of its wick to the cutting of a tongue (our reading).

The fourth couplet is built with words of colour and spice. The Kubbealtı also gives "Hindû" the sense, in older literature, of a mole on the face or body; it explains "fülfül" as black pepper and notes that in divan literature it was used by extension for the beloved's mole. The "Hindu" of the tress, the black mole, has thrown its pepper into the fire. A likeness seems to be drawn between pepper thrown into the fire, which cannot stay still, and the lover's heart, which cannot find its place (our reading).

In the pen-name couplet the beloved is the "şem'-i Çigil", the candle of Çigil. According to the article "Dîvânü Lugāti't-Türk" in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, one of the Turkic dialects collected in Mahmud of Kashgar's work is the Çigil dialect. That the beloved is named after a Turkic people shows that he is thought of as a Turkic beauty (our observation). Münîrî also uses the phrase "şem'-i Çigil" in the pen-name or final couplets of other poems in his divan (among the Turkish ghazals tg 189 and tg 314, among the Persian ghazals fg 25 and fg 103). The phrase "şem'-veş terk-i ser" in the couplet means to give up one's head like a candle; since the candle burns away with the flame at its head, the lover too is willing to give his head like a candle, but would at least like to see once the gathering where that candle burns (our reading).

Bibliography

Primary sources

Books

Online sources