Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her dil kim olur derd-i ġam-ı ‘ışḳ ile memzūc
Geh yil gibi yiler geh olur derd ile meflūc
Dil ḫāk-i derüñden nicesi ayrıla ey dost
Olmışdur ezelden işigüñ tozıla memzūc
Bir būseyile cānumı bey‘ eylemiş idüñ
Şimdi dönüben ḳalma nigārā ḳuluña güç
Etbā‘-ı raḳīb ile görüp ẕāt-ı ḫabīs̱in
Didüm ki dilā çıḳdı meger reh-ber-i Ye’cūc
Göz yaşı ki ḳan oldı bu vech ile Münīrī
Başladı yürek yaraları vardı meger uç

In English

1. Every heart that is mingled with the pain of love's sorrow at times runs like the wind and at times is struck with palsy from pain.

2. O friend, how should the heart part from the dust of your door? Since pre-eternity it has been mingled with the dust of your threshold.

3. You had bought my soul in exchange for a kiss; now, my beloved, do not go back on your word and leave your servant in hardship.

4. Seeing the rival with his train and noticing his foul person, I said: O heart, so the guide of Gog (Ye'cûc) has appeared.

5. O Münîrî, this is why the tears have turned to blood: the wounds of the heart came to a head and began to open; so they had an end (an opening reaching to the eye). The couplet is not certain; "başladı" can also be read as "began to bleed".

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the thirty-fifth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 35). The metre is "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif). The rhyme words are memzūc, meflūc, memzūc, güç, Ye'cūc and uç. The rhyme word of the opening couplet, "memzūc", is set again in rhyme position in the second couplet. That Arabic words ending in "-ūc" are rhymed with the Turkish "güç" and "uç" shows that the poet was content with likeness of sound in the rhyme; this is our own observation. The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 106a). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) describes how love tosses a person between two extremes. In the phrase "yil gibi yiler" two words from the same root are used side by side (yel, wind, and yelmek, to run); this is an instance of derivation (iştikak). The heart at times runs like the wind and at times cannot stir, like one struck with palsy. This contrast between motion and stillness turns the instability of love into a concrete picture.

In the second couplet the idea of pre-eternity (ezel) comes to the fore: the heart has been mingled with the dust of the beloved's threshold since pre-eternity, so it cannot possibly leave it. The use of the word "memzūc" (mingled) for a second time after the opening couplet shows that the heart, mingled with pain in the first couplet, is now mingled with earth.

The third couplet uses the language of trade. The beloved has bought the lover's soul in exchange for a kiss; the lover now asks that this bargain not be undone. The word "bey‘" in its dictionary sense is a contract of sale; the party who withdraws after such a contract stands accused of breaking faith. Our understanding of the phrase "ḳalma ... ḳuluña güç" in the second line as "do not leave your servant in hardship" is our own inference. In the fourth couplet the rival and those around him are likened to Gog (Ye'cûc). Gog and Magog (Ye'cûc and Me'cûc) are, in the dictionary sense, the peoples named in the Qur'an who work corruption on earth; the rival is mocked by being shown as the guide of this horde. This comparison, one of the insults aimed at the rival in divan poetry, lends the poem a harsh tone.

The pen-name couplet is obscure. The turning of tears into blood is ascribed to the opening of the heart's wounds. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the words "baş" (head) and "uç" (tip, end): the wound has come to a head, and it turns out that it has an end as well. The reading that the end of the wounds reaches as far as the eye, so that the blood mixes with the tears this way, is our own inference. The couplet is also open to reading the verb "başladı" in the sense of "began to bleed".

Bibliography

Online sources