Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Yüzüñi görmeyen kimse mu‘ayyendür ki gözsüzdür
Anı her göz görür ṣanma egerçi küllīsi gözdür
Dem-ā-dem yüzüme urur ciger ḳan’olduġın eşküm
Benüm ḫod ansuz işüm yoḳ n’idelüm çün ki yüzsüzdür
Be-ġāyet müşkil olurdı hemān cevrüñ be-kām ise
Belā vü miḥnet ü derdüñ hele şudur ki düpdüzdür
Gözümüñ merdümi her dem dür-i eşki nis̱ār eyler
Göñül yaşlu gözüm ṣan kim bugün deryā-yı Hürmüzdür
Bizi āḫir ġam-ı dil-ber helāk ider didüñ bir gün
Eyü didüñ Münīrī sen ki bu daḫı gelür sözdür

In English

1. It is certain that whoever has not seen your face is eyeless; though all of them have eyes, do not think that every eye sees it.

2. My tears keep throwing it in my face that the liver has turned to blood; I have no business at all without them, what can we do, (the tear) is shameless (literally faceless).

3. Had your cruelty been as (you) wished, the matter would have been very hard; the calamity, affliction and pain you give have at least this (good) side, that they are perfectly straight (open, without guile). The couplet is not entirely clear; it is uncertain according to whose wish the word "be-kām" means.

4. The pupil of my eye scatters the pearls of tears at every moment; the heart takes my wet eye today for the sea of Hormuz.

5. One day you said, "The grief of the heart-stealer will destroy us in the end"; Münîrî, you said well, this too is a word that (will come true).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the seventieth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 70). The metre is "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün". Ersoy's list of refrains places this ghazal among those with the refrain (redif) "-dür" (it is); the rhyme is the "-üz/-öz" sound before it: gözsüz, göz, yüzsüz, düpdüz, Hürmüz, söz. Apart from Hürmüz, all the rhyme words are Turkish. The poem is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 113b). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal turns around the words "göz" (eye) and "yüz" (face). In the opening couplet (matla) "gözsüz" (eyeless) and "göz" (eye) both serve as rhymes in the same couplet: whoever has not seen the beloved's face is eyeless, yet not everyone who has eyes can see it. To see requires not only an eye but a gaze worthy of it; this interpretation is our own inference.

In the second couplet the idiom "yüzüne vurmak" (to throw in one's face) means, in its dictionary sense, "to state someone's fault openly"; here the tear throws it in the lover's face that the liver has turned to blood, that is, by flowing down his face it lays this secret bare. The idiom works in both its figurative and its literal sense. The couplet closes with the word "yüzsüz": the tear is shameless, but it is also a thing without a face. The three separate uses of the word "yüz" turn the couplet into a chain of puns. This is our own observation.

The third couplet is not entirely clear. "Be-kām" means, in its dictionary sense, "according to one's wish". The lover says that cruelty could have been harder, but that at least calamity and pain are "düpdüz", that is, without guile. The word "düpdüz" is an intensified Turkish adjective and brings the sound of spoken language into the couplet. The lining up of the words "belā" (calamity), "miḥnet" (affliction) and "derd" (pain) shows what the lover suffers as a heap; the word "hele" (at least) seeks a small consolation within this heap. This reading is our own inference.

In the fourth couplet the tears are likened to pearls and the wet eye to the sea of Hormuz. Hormuz is the name of a place at the mouth of the Persian Gulf; in classical poetry it is named for its pearls. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among "dür" (pearl), "nis̱ār" (scattering) and "deryā" (sea). That Hormuz is known for its pearls rests on general knowledge; this connection is our own observation.

The pen-name couplet is a dialogue. One day Münîrî said "the grief of the heart-stealer will destroy us"; the poet confirms his own words: this too is one of the words that will come true. That the ghazal closes on the sounds "göz, yüz, söz" carries the unity of sound before the refrain to the very end.

Bibliography

Online sources