Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Olalı göñül Ka‘be-i kūyuñda mücāvir
Her dem gözümüñ yaşı olur şöyle müsāfir
Bu çeşm ü ḳad ü zülf ile ebrū ki var ey dost
Anlardan olur günde belālar baña ṣādır
Ḳāyil degülem mihr-i vücūdına nigāruñ
Ma‘nīde hemān yoḳ gibidür şol k’ola nādir
Bir gice şebīḫūn ḳılur üstüñe ġam-ı ‘ışḳ
Didüm saña ey dil hele ol vaḳtüñe ḥāżır
Dil düşdise fikr-i dehen-i yāra Münīrī
Bitdi işi diseñ ne anuñ oluban āḫir
Her pāresi şīşe ki ṣına nīşter olur
Bes şīşe durur ṣınmasa yegdür dil-i şā‘ir

In English

1. Ever since the heart became a mücavir (one who settles beside the Kaaba to live in worship) in your Kaaba-like quarter, the tears of my eyes too become at every moment such a guest (a pilgrim traveller).

2. O friend, these eyes, this stature, this lock and this brow that you have: every day calamities issue to me from them.

3. I do not believe in the existence of the beloved's mihr (fidelity, love; mihr is also the sun), for what is very rarely found is, in meaning, as good as non-existent.

4. I told you, O heart: "One night the grief of love will make a night raid (şebīḫūn) upon you; at least be ready for that hour."

5. Münîrî, if the heart has fallen into thought of the beloved's mouth, then, (if you ask) what became of it in the end, say "its business is done". The couplet can be read in two ways: it can also be taken as "if you say its business is done, who knows what became of it in the end".

6. A glass whose every piece, when it breaks, becomes a lancet: so the poet's heart is a glass, and it is better that it does not break.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the sixtieth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 60). The metre is "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); its absence from Ersoy's list of refrains also shows this. The rhyme rests on the sound "-ir": mücāvir, müsāfir, ṣādır, nādir, ḥāżır, āḫir, şā‘ir. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 111b) and Vienna (VY 92b) manuscripts and is absent from the Istanbul University manuscript. To whom and when it was written is not known.

There is a notable feature in the structure of the ghazal: the pen name occurs in the fifth couplet, while the ghazal continues for one more couplet after it. Since the usual arrangement places the pen name in the last couplet, this is a departure; this is our own observation.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) is built with religious terminology. The beloved's quarter is likened to the Kaaba; the heart has become a "mücāvir" there, that is, like those who settle around the Kaaba to live in worship, it does not leave. The tears, by contrast, are a "müsāfir" (guest, traveller); like a traveller who comes and goes, they flow without pause. Between mücavir and misafir there is both a closeness of sound and a contrast between the settled and the traveller.

The second couplet counts out the elements of the beloved's beauty one by one, eyes, stature, lock and brow, and makes them all the source of the calamities that befall the lover. This is not an instance of leff ü neşir (listing and matching); it is a couplet of summing up and judgment. In the third couplet the word "mihr" means, in its dictionary sense, both "love, fidelity" and "sun". The lover does not believe in the beloved's fidelity, because it is seen so rarely that it counts as non-existent. The link between "nādir" (rarely found) and "yoḳ gibi" (as good as non-existent) is a subtle play of logic.

In the fourth couplet the grief of love is likened to an enemy soldier making a night raid. "Şebīḫūn" means, in its dictionary sense, a night raid; the lover had warned his heart in advance and told it to be ready. The fifth couplet is built on the beloved's mouth. In divan poetry the mouth is often so small as to be almost non-existent, and is even called "non-existent"; the heart that falls into thought of the mouth having its business finished can be understood as falling into this non-existence. This interpretation is our own inference.

In his introduction Ersoy notes that Münîrî says the poet's heart is like a wine glass and that it too must not be broken, and gives the last couplet of the ghazal as an example. The couplet starts from the fact that when a glass breaks, each of its pieces becomes as sharp as a lancet. The poet's heart is such a glass; if it breaks, its pieces cut, and so it is better that it should not break. The turning of the broken heart into cutting shards changes the poet's wounded feeling into a warning.

Bibliography

Online sources