Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her ġonca-leb ki gül gibi ṣāḥib-uṣūl olur
Serv-i sehī gibi ḳad-i bālāña ḳul olur
Ölsem yolında dir idüm öldüm yüzin görüp
Lā-büd du‘ā-yı ṣubḥ-dem ey dil ḳabūl olur
Gözüm yaşı yir itse yüzümde ‘aceb midür
Her ḳanda ki ṣu aḳsa müdām anda yol olur
İncindi seg raḳīb ölicek ḫayli didiler
Bir itüñ öldügine neyiçün melūl olur
Āḫir gözüm yaşı beni ġarḳ idiser Münīr
Ẓāhir mes̱eldür ol ki ṭama ṭama göl olur

In English

1. Every rosebud-lipped beauty who, like the rose, has good manners (measured, well-bred conduct) becomes a slave to your lofty stature, straight as a cypress.

2. I used to keep saying "Let me die on your path"; seeing your face, I died. O heart, a prayer made at dawn is surely answered.

3. If the tears of my eyes have worn a place (cut a track) in my face, is that a wonder? Wherever water flows, a path always forms there.

4. When the cur of a rival died, they said, (the beloved) was much grieved; why should anyone be sad that a dog has died?

5. Münîr, in the end the tears of my eyes will drown me; "drop by drop it becomes a lake" is a proverb everyone knows.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the fifty-seventh of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 57). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains places this ghazal among those with the refrain (redif) "olur" (becomes). The rhyme words are uṣūl, ḳul, ḳabūl, yol, melūl and göl; this rhyme, which uses the sounds "u" and "o" together, rests on an approximate harmony of sound, which is our own observation. The poem is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 110b, VY 95a, Ü 26b). A single variant is recorded in the apparatus: in VT the order "ki ṭama ṭama" in the last line appears as "ṭama ṭama ki". To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most striking feature of the ghazal is that it is woven with sayings drawn from popular speech. The TDV article states that Münîrî was successful in the tradition of placing proverbs and idioms in poetry; this ghazal is a clear example. In the pen-name couplet the proverb "ṭama ṭama göl olur" (drop by drop it becomes a lake) is named, in the poet's own words, a "ẓāhir mes̱el" (an evident, well-known saying). Bringing in a proverb as proof and supporting the claim of the first line with it is the figure called irsal-i mesel (the use of a proverb). That tears gather drop by drop into a lake that will drown the lover is at once a hyperbole and an unexpected application of this saying.

The third couplet follows the same path. The statement "Her ḳanda ki ṣu aḳsa müdām anda yol olur" (wherever water flows, a path always forms there) is a general maxim in the guise of a proverb; it links the track that tears cut in the face to the path water opens where it flows. Here too the surprising claim of the first line is explained by an observation in the second that anyone would accept.

In the opening couplet (matla) the phrase "ṣāḥib-uṣūl" means, in its dictionary sense, "one who has good manners, well-bred, measured". A likeness is drawn between the measured poise of the rose on its branch and the well-mannered bearing of the beauty. That even rosebud-lipped beauties become slaves to the beloved's cypress stature is a hyperbole that raises the beloved above all other beauties.

The second couplet ties the answering of the lover's prayer to an ironic outcome: the lover who said "Let me die on your path" has truly died on seeing the beloved's face. The belief that a prayer at dawn is answered works here against the lover. The fourth couplet is a sharp mockery directed at the rival. Calling the rival "seg" (dog) is frequent in divan poetry; Münîrî takes it one step further and finds the beloved's grief at his death meaningless.

Bibliography

Online sources