Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Veh ki bu ḳatı göñül şöyle ki ṭaş pāresidür
N’eylesün şol kim anuñ ‘āşıḳ-ı bī-çāresidür
Şāḫ-ı gül kim gül-i sürḫ ile gülistānda durur
Nāvek-i yār ile ṣan kim cigerüm pāresidür
Seg raḳībüñ yüregi aġrısını ben bilürem
Tīr-i ġamzeñden olan baġrumuzuñ yarasıdur
Yüzüñ aġında görüp beñlerüñi didi göñül
Beni sevdāya ṣalan şöyle bu göz ḳarasıdur
Ne dilin çeyneriki disene ṭosṭoġru Münīr
Ḫod bilürler ki ḫam-ı zülfüñüñ āvāresidür

In English

1. Alas, this hard heart (of the beloved) is as it were a piece of stone; what can the one who is its helpless lover do?

2. The rose branch standing in the rose garden with its red rose is as if it were a piece of my liver (pierced) by the beloved's arrow.

3. I know the heartache of the cur of a rival; (that ache) is the wound opened in our breast by the arrow of your glance. The couplet can be read in two ways: what pains the rival's heart is this wound in the lover's breast (out of jealousy), or the rival too has been wounded by the same arrow.

4. Seeing your moles on the white of your face, the heart said: What has cast me into sevda (both love and black melancholy) is this black of the eye.

5. Münîr, why do you keep chewing your tongue? Say it straight out; they know already that (you) are the vagabond of the curl of your lock.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the sixty-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 69). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". According to Ersoy's list of refrains, this is the only ghazal in the divan with the refrain (redif) "-sidür". The rhyme words are pāre, bī-çāre, pāre, yara, ḳara and āvāre; the long "â" of the Persian words is used together with the short "a" of the Turkish "yara" (wound) and "ḳara" (black). The word "pāre" (piece) is used twice as a rhyme, in the opening couplet and in the second, with the same meaning. These two observations are our own. The poem is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 113b, VY 101a, Ü 34b); no variant readings are recorded in the apparatus. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet (matla) the beloved's heart is likened to a piece of stone. The words "ḳatı" (hard, harsh) and "ṭaş" (stone) express the beloved's mercilessness; before this stone the lover is helpless. In the second couplet the branch with red roses in the rose garden is likened to a liver torn to pieces by the beloved's arrow. A relation of colour is drawn between the redness of the rose and the blood of the liver; a likeness may also be thought of between the arrow and the rose's thorn, which is an inference.

The third couplet can be read in two ways. The lover says that he knows well the rival's heartache. This ache is the wound opened in the lover's breast by the arrow of the glance: either the rival is jealous of the lover's wound and his heart aches from it, or the rival too has been struck by the same arrow and the lover recognises his pain from his own. The text is open to both readings.

The fourth couplet is built on a play of colour. The moles on the "aġ" (white) of the beloved's face have cast the heart into "sevdā". "Sevdā" means, in its dictionary sense, both "love" and "black bile, melancholy"; in old medicine it is associated with the colour black. "Göz ḳarası" also means, in its dictionary sense, "the pupil of the eye" and, figuratively, "a black that catches the eye". The contrast between white and black joins the congruence of images (tenasüp) between sevda and black. This analysis is our own observation.

In the pen-name couplet the poet addresses himself. "Dilini çeynemek" (to chew one's tongue) means, in its dictionary sense, "to mumble, not to speak plainly". The poet asks himself to say openly the truth that everyone already knows: that he is the vagabond of the curling lock. There is a contrast between "ṭosṭoġru" (straight out) and "ḫam" (curling, crooked): the vagabond of the curling lock should speak his word straight.

Bibliography

Online sources