Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dirler ki yümn-i ṭal‘at ile irte ‘īd olur
Ḳurbān-ı vaṣl-ı yār olan ey dil şehīd olur
Ol tīġ-i āb-dāra özendügi ḫaste dil
Bilür ki böyle şerbet-i ṣāfī müfīd olur
Gencīne-i ḫayālüñi ḥıfẓ itmege müdām
Dārü’s-sa‘ādet-i dile ẕikrüñ kelīd olur
Gerd-i rehine öykünemez şeyḫ-i şehr anuñ
Pīr-i muġāna ṣıdḳ ile şol kim mürīd olur
Ġayb olsa n’ola zülf-i ḫamuñda dil-i Münīr
Rūşendür ol ki ẕerre gice nā-bedīd olur

In English

1. They say that through the good omen of (your) face tomorrow will be the feast; O heart, whoever becomes a sacrifice for union with the beloved becomes a martyr.

2. The sick heart, which longs for that gleaming, well-tempered (keen) sword, knows that such a pure sherbet is beneficial.

3. To guard the treasure of your image for ever, remembering you becomes the key to the palace of felicity (Dārü's-sa‘āde) of the heart.

4. Even the sheikh of the city cannot match the dust of the path of one who has become, in sincerity, the disciple of the elder of the Magians (pīr-i muġān, the tavern master).

5. What if Münîr's heart is lost in your curling lock? It is plain (rūşen: both plain and bright) that a mote is invisible at night.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the sixty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 61). 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 is the "-îd" sound before it: ‘īd, şehīd, müfīd, kelīd, mürīd, nā-bedīd. The poem is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 111b, VY 96a, Ü 29b); no variant readings are recorded in the apparatus. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) builds a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the words feast and sacrifice. Through the good omen of the beloved's face tomorrow will be the feast; just as sacrifices are made at the feast, the lover who becomes a sacrifice for union becomes a martyr. This link among "‘īd" (feast), "ḳurbān" (sacrifice) and "şehīd" (martyr) makes the lover's death appear part of a celebration. Which feast is meant is not stated in the couplet; it may be thought that the word "sacrifice" recalls the Feast of Sacrifice, which is an inference.

In the second couplet the beloved's sword is described as "āb-dār". The word means, in its dictionary sense, "watery, lustrous" and is used of a tempered, keen sword. Drawing on this sense of "water", the poet likens the sword to a sherbet: the sick heart knows that this pure sherbet will heal it. Thus death becomes a medicine given to the sick.

The third couplet is built on a treasure, a palace and a key. There is a congruence of images among "gencīne" (treasure), "Dārü's-sa‘āde" (in its dictionary sense, house of felicity) and "kelīd" (key). The image of the beloved is a treasure kept in the palace of the heart; the key that guards it is the remembrance of the beloved. The word "ẕikr" also evokes, in Sufism, the remembrance of God; considered together with the Sufi vocabulary of the fourth couplet, this evocation grows stronger, which is our own observation.

The fourth couplet works the contrast between the rind (the free-spirited reveller) and the ascetic. Even the sheikh of the city cannot reach the dust of the path of the rind who is sincerely bound to the elder of the Magians (pīr-i muġān). The words "pīr" (elder), "mürīd" (disciple) and "şeyḫ" (sheikh) are taken from the language of the Sufi orders but carried into the setting of the tavern. Ersoy's assessment in his introduction of the poet as a rind and a lover matches this couplet.

In the pen-name couplet the heart is likened to a mote and the beloved's lock to the night. A mote is visible only in sunlight; in the dark of night it becomes invisible. That the heart is lost in the black lock is therefore no surprise. The word "rūşen" means both "plain, evident" and "bright"; the word for brightness forms a contrast with the mote lost in darkness.

Bibliography

Online sources