Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İrdi beñzer meger ol zülf-i perīşāna ṣabā
Ki düşer ṭaġlara dīvāne gibi bī-ser ü pā
Şol ki baş ḳoşmadı zülf-i siyeh-i yāra göñül
Ne bilür kim nedür āşüftelere bād-ı hevā
Dest-gīr olsa ben üftādeñe demdür keremüñ
Pāy-māl itmedin iñen beni şol zülf-i dü-tā
Niçe bir ver-hem ider baña maḥalleñde raḳīb
İt üni birle kim ölmez ḫo bulur rızḳı gedā
Yā Rab ol ġonca-lebi göre mi bir daḫı Münīr
Esmeden gül-şenine ‘ömrümüzüñ bād-ı fenā

In English

1. The morning breeze (saba) must have touched those dishevelled tresses, for like a madman, head and foot in confusion, it roams off into the mountains.

2. One who has not bound his heart to the beloved's black tresses, what does he know of the wind of longing for those distraught with love?

3. If you will take the hand of me, the fallen one, now is the very time for kindness; come before those twofold tresses trample me utterly underfoot.

4. How much longer will the rival rage and pick quarrels with me in your quarter? No one dies of a dog's barking; the beggar too finds his daily bread.

5. O Lord, before the wind of extinction blows on the rose garden of our life, will Münîr ever see that rosebud-lipped one again?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel); in the edition it is the fifth of the Turkish ghazals (tg 5). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-ā": ṣabā, pā, hevā, dü-tā, gedā, fenā. To whom and when it was written is not known.

The poem is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 99b, VY 79b, Ü 18b), and also in two anthologies of response poems, the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası (PB 33b) and Edirneli Nazmî's Mecma‘u'n-nezâ'ir (MN 20a). The variants Ersoy records are minor: in couplet 2 the Vienna manuscript reads "baş ḳomış idi" for "baş ḳoşmadı", and the Vatican manuscript "siyeh-kāra" for "siyeh-i yāra"; in couplet 4 the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası gives, in place of "raḳīb", another word whose letters are imperfectly printed in the edition, which can be read as "ḥasūd" (envious), and this reading is ours; in Nazmî's anthology "çü" stands in place of "ḫo" in the same couplet. The phrase "bir daḫı" (once more) in couplet 5 is absent from the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is woven throughout with the image of wind: in the opening couplet (matla) "ṣabā" (the morning breeze), in the second couplet "bād-ı hevā" (the wind of longing), and in the pen-name couplet (mahlas) "bād-ı fenā" (the wind of extinction). The first wind touches the beloved's tresses and goes mad, the second is the longing that sweeps away the lover's heart, and the third is the death that will lay waste the garden of life. These three faces of the wind are our own observation.

In the opening couplet the morning breeze's aimless roaming in the mountains is explained by a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil): the wind has touched the beloved's dishevelled tresses, fallen in love and gone mad. "Bī-ser ü pā", in its dictionary sense, means "without head or foot", that is, distraught, not knowing what one does. The madman wandering into the mountains recalls Mecnun (Majnun), who wandered into the deserts because of his love.

In the second couplet the idiom "bād-ı hevā" carries two meanings. In its dictionary sense it means "idle whim"; but the words "bād" (wind) and "hevā" (air) also carry on the image of wind. One who has not bound his heart to the tresses cannot know this wind that sweeps away those distraught with love. In the third couplet the words "dest-gīr" (one who takes the hand, a helper), "pāy-māl" (trampled underfoot) and "üftāde" (fallen) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) around hand, foot and falling. "Zülf-i dü-tā" is the twofold, doubled tress. "İñen", in its Old Turkish dictionary sense, means "very, utterly", and it is an example of Münîrî's use of old words.

In the fourth couplet there is the air of a proverb. The rival keeps raging at the lover and picking quarrels; the poet, however, says "it üni birle kim ölmez", no one dies of a dog's barking. The rival is likened to a dog, the lover to a beggar: the beggar finds his bread though the dog may bark. This is the art of irsal-i mesel, supporting a statement with a proverb. The pen-name couplet ends with a prayer. The beloved's lip is a rosebud and life is a rose garden; before the wind of extinction blows on this garden, the lover wishes to see the beloved once more.

Bibliography

Online sources