Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Şekker lebüñ ki ṭūṭī-i cāna ġıdā virür
Biñ dürlü ẕevḳ ile dile her dem ṣafā virür
‘Ayn-ı hidāyet olmaġın ey pertev-i cemāl
Görmek yüzüñi dīde-i cāna celā virür
Ṣıdḳ ile vaṣl-ı yāra düriş ṭurma rūz u şeb
Her kişinüñ murādını ey dil Ḫudā virür
Men‘ itmesün gözüm yaşın ol serv-ḳadde diñ
Gül-zār-ı ḥüsnine bu ḫū neşv ü nemā virür
Şem‘ ü çerāġ bu gice ḥācet degül Münīr
‘Aḳs-i cemāl şöyle ki nūr u żiyā virür

In English

1. Your sugar lip, which gives food to the parrot of the soul, gives the heart delight at every moment with a thousand kinds of pleasure.

2. O radiance of beauty, because (your face) is the very essence (‘ayn: essence, and also eye) of right guidance, seeing your face gives lustre (polish) to the eye of the soul.

3. O heart, strive sincerely, night and day, for union with the beloved, do not stand still; it is God who grants everyone his wish.

4. Tell that cypress-statured one not to stop the tears of my eyes; this habit (shedding tears) gives freshness and growth to the rose garden of her beauty.

5. Münîr, tonight there is no need of candle or lamp; the reflection of (the beloved's) beauty gives such light and brightness.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the fifty-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 59). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". According to Ersoy's list of refrains, this is the only ghazal in the divan with the refrain (redif) "virür" (gives); the rhyme is the "-â" sound before it: ġıdā, ṣafā, celā, Ḫudā, nemā, żiyā. The poem is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 111a, VY 95b, Ü 28a); no variant readings are recorded in the apparatus. To whom and when it was written is not known.

In his introduction Ersoy says that Münîrî was not very successful in handling aruz (quantitative metre), that the shortening of long syllables (zihaf), counted as a fault, is frequent in his verse, and he gives the opening couplet of this ghazal as an example. Zihaf is the reading of a syllable that should be long as short for the sake of the metre. According to Ersoy, the second syllable of the word "ṭūṭī" in the opening couplet is in fact long but must be read short because of the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The main theme of the ghazal is that the beloved's beauty gives life, like light and food. In the opening couplet (matla) the soul is likened to a parrot and the beloved's lip to sugar. The link between the parrot and sugar is a relation often made in classical poetry; because the lip speaks sweet words it becomes sugar, and the soul that listens to it becomes the parrot fed on sugar. This interpretation is our own inference.

In the second couplet the word "‘ayn" carries a pun. In the phrase "‘ayn-ı hidāyet" the word means "essence, the very thing", but since in its dictionary sense it also means "eye", it connects with the "dīde-i cān" (eye of the soul) of the second line. The beloved's face is the essence of right guidance, and seeing it polishes the eye of the soul. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "pertev" (radiance) and "celā" (polish, lustre).

The third couplet is the advice-giving couplet of the ghazal. The heart is told to strive with constancy night and day; the second line supports this advice with a general maxim, "it is God who grants everyone his wish". In the fourth couplet tears are thought of as water watering the garden of the beloved's beauty. The word "ḫū" in the text means, in its dictionary sense, "habit, disposition"; accordingly the line can be construed as "this habit (shedding tears) gives freshness to her rose garden". There is a congruence of images between "gül-zār" (rose garden) and "neşv ü nemā" (growth and increase).

The pen-name couplet completes the theme of light. The beloved's beauty is so bright that there is no need of candle or lamp at night. The poet's pen name "Münīr" means, in its dictionary sense, "illuminating"; its appearance in the same couplet as the words "nūr" and "żiyā" opens the way to a play of sound and meaning. The refrain "virür" tells in every couplet of one thing giving something to another: the lip gives food, the face gives lustre, God gives one's wish, tears give freshness, beauty gives light.

Bibliography

Online sources