Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef ‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Mihr-i ruḫuñ ki yir yüzinüñ āftābıdur
Rūşen budur ki mihr-i felek ‘aks-i tābıdur
Açdum gözümden iki ḳapu ḫāne-i dile
Gördüm ḫayālüñüñ kim ikisi de bābıdur
Bu ḳanlu yaşlarum ki götürdi vücūdumı
Deryā-yı eşkümüñ ṣanasın kim ḥabābıdur
Ey bī-maḳām-ı ‘ışḳ di sen ṭurma ṣay hele
Gösterdügüñ senüñ daḫı barmaḳ ḥisābıdur
Oldı seḥer yili de hevā-dārı dil gibi
Bir tāze sünbülüñ ki gül-i ter niḳābıdur
‘İlm-i naẓarda māhir olursa n’ola Münīr
Her laḥẓa ezber itdügi ḥüsnüñ kitābıdur

In English

1. The sun of your cheek is the sun of the face of the earth; it is plain (and bright) that the sun in the sky is the reflection of its radiance.

2. I opened two doors from my eyes into the house of the heart; I saw that both are the doors of your image.

3. You would take my body, which these bloody tears of mine have swept away, for a bubble on the sea of my tears.

4. O you who have no station in love, come, do not stop, count away; what you show is nothing but counting on the fingers. The couplet is obscure; on one reading it mocks the man who claims to love but has no place in love, whose love rests on reckoning.

5. The dawn breeze too, like the heart, has become the admirer (and the very air) of a fresh hyacinth lock that is the veil of your rose face.

6. Is it a wonder if Münîr becomes a master in the science of speculation (naẓar)? What he learns by heart at every moment is the book of your beauty.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the forty-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 48). The metre is "mef ‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is "-ıdur" (it is); Ersoy's list of refrains also gives this ghazal with the refrain "-ıdur" together with tg 56. The rhyme is the sound "-âb": āftāb, tāb, bāb, ḥabāb, ḥisāb, niḳāb, kitāb. The poem is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 108b, VY 93b, Ü 25a). According to the apparatus VY reads "di" for "ṣay" in the fourth couplet; the fifth couplet is missing in Ü. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) builds an image of reflection. The beloved's cheek is the sun of the earth; the sun in the sky only reflects the light it takes from it. The usual order is reversed: the true source of light is the beloved. The word "rūşen" in its dictionary sense means both "plain, evident" and "bright, luminous"; both senses work together in the line. Identifying this double entendre (tevriye) is our own work.

In the second couplet the eyes are likened to the two doors of the house of the heart. House, door (bāb) and opening form a congruence of images (tenasüp); the only thing that enters through the eyes is the beloved's image. In the third couplet the lover's body is likened to a bubble (ḥabāb) floating on the sea made by his bloody tears. The bubble suggests both lightness and brief life; it is a fitting comparison for a body grown thin and close to vanishing.

The fourth couplet is the most obscure place in the ghazal. "Bī-maḳām" in its dictionary sense means "without station, without place"; "barmaḳ ḥisābı" is counting on the fingers, that is, simple reckoning. The couplet seems to mock the man who claims to be a lover though he has no rank in love: all he displays is a matter of reckoning. This reading is our own inference; the VY reading "di" does not markedly change the meaning.

In the fifth couplet the word "hevā-dār" has two senses: hevā means both air, wind, and desire, passion. The dawn breeze, being wind, is air already; but like the heart it is also enamoured of the beloved's lock. The relation between the hyacinth lock and the rose face is conveyed by the lock covering the face like a veil. In the pen-name couplet "‘ilm-i naẓar" in its dictionary sense is the science of reasoning and disputation, while "naẓar" also means a look. Because the poet learns by heart the book of the beloved's beauty by looking at it at every moment, he is a master "in the science of naẓar". Identifying this double entendre is our own work.

Bibliography

Online sources