Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Pertev-i mihr-i cemāl olduġıçün başuña tāc
Her meh-i kec-küleh iltür başı üzre saña bāc
Ḳanlu yaşumla müjem yüzüme yir eyledügi
Zer ki bī-sikke ola olmaz iñen daḫı revāc
Sāḳīyā nabż-ı sürāḥīye el ur kim demidür
Teşne-dillikden olur nā-geh o da ḫaste-mizāc
Derd-i ‘uşşāḳa devā bulınur ey ḫᵛāce ḥakīm
Varsa zehr-i ecel-i ḫod diye ‘ālemde ‘ilāc
Sūziş-i şevḳ-ı ruḫ-ı yār ile her gice Münīr
Ḫāne-i dilde olur şu‘le-i ḳandīl ü sirāc

In English

1. Because the light of the sun of your beauty is a crown upon your head, every moon-faced beauty with a tilted cap (or: the crooked crescent) brings you tribute upon its head.

2. Because my eyelash, with my bloody tears, has left its mark (its stamp) upon my face, my face has gained value; for gold on which no coin-stamp is struck finds little currency.

3. O cupbearer, take the pulse of the flask, for it is time; it too, from thirst (the thirst of the heart), suddenly falls into a sickly temper.

4. O master physician, the pain of lovers finds a cure only if there is in this world a remedy called "the poison of death".

5. O Münîr, every night, with the burning of longing for the beloved's cheek, the flame of lamp and candle burns in the house of the heart.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the thirty-fourth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 34). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-âc": tāc, bāc, revāc, mizāc, ‘ilāc, sirāc. These words of Arabic and Persian origin carry a rhyme sound that is rare in Turkish. The poem is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 105b, VY 87b, Ü 22b). According to the apparatus VY reads "yol" (path) for "yir" (place) in the second couplet, and Ü reads "tā ki" for "nā-geh" (suddenly) in the third. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) is a scene of sovereignty. The sun of beauty becomes a crown on the beloved's head; the other beauties, like vassal lords, bring tribute (bāc). The phrase "meh-i kec-küleh" can be understood in two ways: a moon-faced beauty who flirts by tilting the cap to one side, or the crooked crescent in the sky. This double entendre (tevriye) is our own observation. The likeness of sound between tāc and bāc also gives the couplet the pleasure of a pun (cinas); the TDV writes that Münîrî successfully used every kind of pun.

The second couplet is obscure and rests on an image of coinage. In divan poetry the lover's yellow complexion is likened to gold. The eyelash leaving a mark on this face with bloody tears must have been thought of like the stamping of a coin on gold: unstamped gold does not pass in the market, and gains value once the stamp is struck. This explanation is our own inference. In the VY reading "yol" (path) the eyelash opens a path across the face, and the image turns towards the flow of tears.

The third and fourth couplets are built in the language of the old medicine. The words "nabż" (pulse), "ḫaste-mizāc" (of sickly temper), "ḥakīm" (physician), "devā" and "‘ilāc" (remedy) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) that complete one another. In the third couplet the flask is thought of as a patient; the cupbearer is asked to take its pulse, that is, to take it in hand and empty it into the cups. In the fourth couplet it is said that the only remedy the physician can find for the lovers' pain is the poison of death. The contrast between poison and remedy carries the idea that the pain of love ends only in death.

In the pen-name couplet the burning of longing becomes the lamp and candle that light the house of the heart. The painful and the illuminating sides of fire are thought of together. That there is a connection between the sense "illuminating" of the pen name "Münîr" and the lamp and candle is our own observation.

Bibliography

Online sources