Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Görmez ise yüzüñi çeşm-i ḥasūd
Görmesün tā ebed hüve’l-maḳṣūd
Şāḫ-ı gülsin ḥaẕer ḳıl āhumdan
Żarar ider dıraḫt-ı sebze ḫo dūd
Gözlerümden ḫayāli gitmedügi
Ḫūb olur ṣoḥbet itmege ser-i rūd
Ḫaṭṭ-ı reyḥānı ṭutdı gül yüzini
Cāme geyse benefşe n’ola kebūd
Derd-i ‘ışḳuñla virdi cānı Münīr
Oldı bes şöyle ‘āḳıbet maḥmūd

In English

1. If the envious eye does not see your face, may it not see it to eternity; that is what is desired.

2. You are a rose branch; beware of my sigh, for smoke does harm to a green tree.

3. Since his image never leaves my eyes, it is pleasant to converse at the head of a stream (my eyes have become a stream of tears, and his image sits by its bank).

4. The basil-like down has covered his rose face; what if the violet (mourning) puts on a dark blue robe?

5. Münîr gave up his life with the pain of your love; so his end was praiseworthy and blessed.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the forty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 41). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün mefâ‘ilün fe‘ilün"; this short metre gives the ghazal a quick and plain diction. The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-ûd": ḥasūd, maḳṣūd, dūd, rūd, kebūd, maḥmūd. To whom and when it was written is not known.

The poem is found in the three manuscripts of the divan (VT 107a, VY 89a, Ü 23b), in the anthology of Edirneli Nazmî (MN 65b) and in the anthology in the Süleymaniye Library, Hasan Hüsnü Paşa 1031 (HHP 103b). According to the apparatus, in the second couplet HHP reads "çü" for "ḫo"; in the fourth couplet HHP and MN read "n'ola benefşe" for "benefşe n'ola"; and in the fifth couplet HHP reads "pes" for "bes".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) resembles a curse against the envious. If the envious eye does not see the beloved's face, let it never see it; the Arabic formula "hüve'l-maḳṣūd" (that is what is desired) closes the statement with a firm verdict. In the second couplet the beloved is likened to a rose branch and the lover's sigh turns into smoke. The idea that smoke harms a green tree is said like a sentence of observation; the couplet reminds the beloved, with a light threat, that the lover's sigh may touch him.

The third couplet carries an obscure but graceful image. The eyes have become a stream with tears; and since the beloved's image never leaves the eyes, it sits on the bank of the stream. Conversing at the head of a stream is a familiar scene of the old gatherings of pleasure. This interpretation is our own inference.

In the fourth couplet the down covering the beloved's face is a sign that the beauty has begun to come to an end. The violet's putting on a dark blue (kebūd) robe can be understood as its mourning for this; "kebūd" in its dictionary sense is sky blue, dark blue. Ascribing the violet's colour to this mourning is a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). There is also a congruence of plants (tenasüp) between the down likened to basil and the violet. In the pen-name couplet the phrase "‘āḳıbet maḥmūd" is a set expression wishing a good end; in the poet's eyes, to die of the pain of love is an end worthy of praise.

Historical Context

The notable feature of the ghazal is that it is the source of a testimony about the poet's profession. As Ersoy relates in his introduction, in the anthology of response poems of unknown compiler in the Süleymaniye Library, Hasan Hüsnü Paşa no. 1031, there is a poem by Münîrî rhyming in "-ûd", and the heading of this poem bears the phrase "Münîrî-i Kâdî" (Münîrî the judge). On the basis of this record Ersoy writes that the poet's profession was that of a judge (kadı), and notes that the poem in the anthology is also found in the divan. This is the only ghazal for which the apparatus records an HHP witness.

This information should be weighed together with the other records of Münîrî's life. Ersoy also reports, on the basis of Hüseyin Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi, that the poet was Şehzade Ahmed's chancellor (nişancı) between 910 and 915 (1504-1510). To which years the epithet "Kâdî" in the anthology belongs is not explained in the sources.

Bibliography

Online sources