Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Ey kemāl-i ḳudretüñüñ ‘aḳl-ı kül ḥayrānıdur
Her dü ‘ālem sırruñuñ cān ile ser-gerdānıdur
On sekiz biñ ‘ālem ü ger ṣad hezār ender-hezār
Pür durur bir lem‘añ ile hep anuñ tābānıdur
Devlet-i vaṣluñdan ayru düşmegin bī-çāre dil
Sīne-i dil-sūz lā-büd külbe-i aḥzānıdur
Baña zindān oldı hicrüñle bu giñ dünyā belī
Füsḥat-i meydān kimine kiminüñ zindānıdur
Pertev-i ḥüsnüñ kim oldur ḳurratü’l-‘ayn-ı Münīr
Göñlümüñ şem‘-i sürūr u nūr-ı çeşm-i cānıdur

In English

1. O you, at the perfection of whose power the Universal Intellect (the first, all-embracing intellect) stands in wonder; both worlds wander dizzy, with their very souls, before your secret.

2. The eighteen thousand worlds, and even a hundred thousand times a thousand (countless) worlds, are filled by a single gleam of yours; all of them shine with that gleam.

3. Because the wretched heart has fallen away from the good fortune of union with you, the burning breast is of necessity a hut of sorrows.

4. Through separation from you this wide world has become a prison to me, yes; the breadth of the open field is ease to some and a prison to others.

5. The radiance of your beauty, which is the light of Münîr's eyes (ḳurratü'l-‘ayn, his dearest delight), is the candle of joy of my heart and the light of my soul's eye.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the fifty-sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 56). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains places this ghazal, together with tg 48, among those with the refrain (redif) "-ıdur" (it is); the rhyme is the "-ân" sound before it: ḥayrān, ser-gerdān, tābān, aḥzān, zindān, cān. The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 110b); it is not recorded in the other two manuscripts of the divan or in the anthologies. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets of the ghazal have the air of a prayer of supplication (münacat). The "Universal Intellect" is in wonder at the power of the being addressed, both worlds are bewildered before its secret, and the eighteen thousand worlds are filled by a single gleam of it. At first reading these words seem directed to God. From the third couplet on, however, the vocabulary of love poetry arrives, "union", "separation" and "beauty", and the address turns to the beloved. The couplets can be read in two ways: either the whole poem is spoken to the beloved, who is exalted with hyperbole in the first two couplets, or divine beauty and the beloved's beauty are deliberately kept intertwined. Which is meant cannot be settled from the text; this is our own observation.

"On sekiz biñ ‘ālem" (eighteen thousand worlds) is a Turkish expression; the "ṣad hezār ender-hezār" that follows it is a Persian numerical hyperbole meaning, in its dictionary sense, "a hundred thousand times a thousand". By lining up the numerical expressions of two languages one after the other, the feeling of countlessness is enlarged. There is a closeness of meaning between "lem‘a" (gleam) and "tābān" (shining).

The "külbe-i aḥzān" of the third couplet is, in its dictionary sense, a "hut of sorrows". We take it that the phrase recalls the house of grief to which the prophet Jacob withdrew after he was parted from his son Joseph, and that the breast suffering the pain of separation is likened to this hut; this is an inference. The fourth couplet builds a contrast between breadth and narrowness: the world is wide, but for one parted from the beloved it is a prison. The second line turns this experience into a saying valid for everyone.

The pen-name couplet is woven of words of light: "pertev" (radiance), "şem‘" (candle), "nūr" (light). The poet's pen name "Münīr" also means, in its dictionary sense, "illuminating, bright"; thus the pen name takes part in the congruence of images (tenasüp) of the couplet. "Ḳurratü'l-‘ayn" (light of the eye) and "nūr-ı çeşm" (light of the eye) repeat the same meaning in two different phrases.

Bibliography

Online sources