Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Şol semen-ber kim gül üzre sünbül-i ter depredür
Ṣanki ṭāvūs-ı cinān gül-şende şeh-per depredür
Ol sehī-servüñ ḳarārı gitdügi āhum görüp
İrse bes bād-ı ṣabā şāḫ-ı ṣanavber depredür
Göñlüme zülfüñ hevāsından ki düşdi lerzeler
Ṣanki berg-i bīde irdi bād-ı ṣarṣar depredür
Biñ dil-i dīvānenüñ zencīrini zülf-i hamuñ
Bilmezem kim her nefes n’eyler ser-ā-ser depredür
Gül-şen-i ḥüsnüñ görüp sevdālarum depreşdügi
Cinneti faṣl-ı bahār ey māh-peyker depredür
Ḫüsrevā şem‘-i cemālüñ şevḳına gūyā Münīr
Nīm-cān pervānedür düşmiş yire per depredür

In English

1. That jasmine-breasted beauty who stirs the fresh hyacinth (lock) upon the rose (cheek): it is as if the peacock of paradise were shaking its great wing feather (şeh-per) in the rose garden.

2. That straight cypress lost its composure on seeing my sigh; indeed, if the morning breeze but reaches it, it stirs the branch of the pine.

3. The tremors that have fallen into my heart from longing for your lock: it is as if a fierce gale (ṣarṣar) had reached a willow leaf and were shaking it.

4. Your curling lock, I do not know what it does at every breath, that it shakes from end to end (rattles) the chains of a thousand mad hearts.

5. That my passions stir on seeing the rose garden of your beauty, O moon-faced one, (is because) the season of spring stirs madness (cinnet).

6. O Khosrow (sovereign-like beloved), in longing for the candle of your beauty, Münîr is as it were a half-dead moth fallen to the ground; it flutters its wings.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the sixty-fifth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 65). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". According to Ersoy's list of refrains, this is the only ghazal in the divan with the refrain (redif) "depredür" (it stirs); the rhyme is the "-er" sound before it: ter, şeh-per, ṣanavber, ṣarṣar, ser-ā-ser, peyker, per. The verb "depre-" means, in its dictionary sense, "to stir, to shake, to make tremble". The poem is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 112b, VY 98a, Ü 32a). One variant is recorded in the apparatus: in VY and Ü "hevā" (air) is written instead of "ṣabā" (morning breeze) in the second couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the couplets of the ghazal are built on a single motion: the verb "depredür" in the refrain tells in each couplet of one thing shaking or making another tremble. The beloved stirs her lock, the breeze the pine branch, the gale the willow leaf, the lock the chains of the hearts, spring stirs madness; and in the last couplet the moth flutters its wings. This single motion carried by the refrain gives the ghazal a unified sequence of images. This is our own observation.

In the opening couplet (matla) the lock playing on the beloved's rose cheek is likened to the wing the peacock of paradise shakes in the rose garden. "Şeh-per" means, in its dictionary sense, the largest feather of a bird's wing. A contrast of colour may also be thought of between the bright-coloured wing of the peacock and the black lock on the beloved's face; this is an inference.

In the second couplet the lover's sigh turns into wind. The cypress has lost its composure on seeing the lover's sigh; the poet does not find this surprising, since even the morning breeze shakes the pine branch. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between cypress and pine, both being tall trees. In the third couplet the tremors in the heart are likened to a willow leaf that a gale keeps shaking. The thinness and lightness of the willow leaf express the weakness of the heart, and "ṣarṣar" (a fierce, cold wind) the violence of the longing for the lock.

In the fourth couplet the beloved's lock is the chain that binds the mad hearts. In classical poetry madmen are put in chains; that the lock shakes these chains at every breath means that the bound hearts too cannot keep still. In the fifth couplet the word "cinnet" means, in its dictionary sense, "madness". The idea that spring stirs madness joins the images of the madman and the chain in the fourth couplet.

In the pen-name couplet the lover is a half-dead moth fallen to the ground in longing for the candle; it is still fluttering its wings. Candle and moth are among the best-known pairs of classical poetry. The pen name "Münīr" means, in its dictionary sense, "illuminating"; its mention together with the moth that burns for the light opens the way to a play of sound and meaning.

Bibliography

Online sources