Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Çün dest-i ḳader ḳurdı ḳaşuñ gibi kemānı
Bes ḳıldı hedef tīr-i ḳażāya dil ü cānı
İnanmaz idüm ‘ışḳa vü ‘uşşāḳa gülerdüm
Şimdi başa geldi baña ṭar itdi cihānı
Seyr itse maḥalleñde n’ola her yaña göñlüm
Dünyāda bilüpdür bugün ol bāġ-ı cinānı
Şol işi ki derd-i ġam-ı ‘ışḳuñ baña ḳıldı
Hergiz dil ile olmaz anuñ şerḥ ü beyānı
Gün gibi görinür ki ‘ıyān ola Münīrī
İñen yaḳar oldı beni bu sūz-ı nihānı

In English

1. When the hand of fate strung a bow like your brow, it made heart and soul the target for the arrow of destiny.

2. I did not believe in love and lovers and used to laugh at them; now it has befallen me and has made the world narrow for me.

3. What if my heart wanders every way in your quarter? Today it has come to know (this quarter) as the garden of paradise in the world.

4. What the pain and grief of your love has done to me can never be told or explained in words.

5. Münîrî, this hidden burning has begun to burn me sorely; it is plain as the sun that it will (soon) come into the open.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the three hundred and twenty-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 329). The metre is "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü 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 "-ān": kemān, cān, cihān, cinān, beyān and nihān. 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 ghazal is written in plain, unadorned language; most of its words are close to everyday speech. The opening couplet is built with words of archery. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "kemân" as bow and "tîr" as arrow and, by extension, the beloved's eyelash; it gives the word "kazâ" the sense of the coming to pass of fate in the form and at the time appointed by God in eternity. The hand of fate has strung a bow like the beloved's brow and has made the lover's heart and soul the target for the arrow of destiny. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among bow, arrow and target; the likening of the beloved's brow to a bow is the simile of the couplet. Presenting what befalls the lover as a decree of fate turns love into an inescapable destiny.

The second couplet is a couplet of confession. The lover once did not believe in love or lovers and used to laugh at them; now the same thing has befallen him and the world has become narrow for him. The couplet rests on the idea that the state one mocks comes upon the mocker, and it is spoken in the manner of a proverb (our observation). The phrase "to make the world narrow" also seems an idiom taken from everyday speech.

In the third couplet the beloved's quarter is likened to paradise. The Kubbealtı explains "cinân" as the gardens of paradise. The heart wanders every way in the quarter, because it has come to know it as the garden of paradise in the world. In the fourth couplet the word "şerh", which the Kubbealtı explains as explaining or interpreting a text in detail, comes together with "beyân" (explanation): the pains love has brought cannot be expounded in words.

The pen-name couplet is built on the contrast between the open and the hidden. The Kubbealtı explains "nihan" as hidden, concealed, and "sûz" as burning, a burn and, figuratively, suffering, pain. The "sûz-ı nihân", the hidden burning, burns the lover so fiercely that it can no longer be concealed; what is plain as the sun is that this hidden fire will come into the open. There is a contrast (tezat) between "ıyân" (manifest) and "nihân" (hidden). The joining in one line of the sun, through the phrase "like the sun", and of fire, through the verb "to burn", suggests the hidden burning turning into a bright light (our reading).

Bibliography

Online sources