Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Merdüm-i çeşmüm ki ṭurmaz dāne-i eşki ṣaçar
N’eylesün bilür kim anı ‘āḳıbet eken biçer
Dīdeden gitdi ḫayālüñ diyü cānā sīneme
Yaşlu gözüm niçün aġlar ḫod bilür ḳonan göçer
Yüzümi ḫāk itdügüm yoluñda ey bād-ı ṣabā
Tūtyā-yı gerd-i rāhı dil-berüñ gözümd’uçar
Yaşlarum sīm-i müẕābı göñlüñe kār itmedi
Gerçi kim dirlerdi sīm-i bī-daġal ṭaşdan geçer
Gerçi ṣudan jeng alur yüzi Münīr āyīnenüñ
Göñlümüñ āyīnesin gör kim ‘iẕār-ı yār açar

In English

1. The pupil of my eye scatters the grain of tears without pause; what can it do, it knows that in the end whoever sows reaps.

2. O beloved, why does my wet eye weep, saying "your image has gone from the eye (and settled) in my breast"? It knows already that whoever halts moves on.

3. O morning breeze, because I made my face dust on your path, the tutty (an eye salve) of the dust of the beloved's path flies into my eye.

4. The molten silver of my tears did not avail with your heart; yet they used to say "pure (unalloyed) silver passes through stone".

5. Münîr, it is true that the face of a mirror gathers rust from water; (but) look at the mirror of my heart, which the beloved's cheek brightens (polishes). The couplet can be read in two ways: "jeng alur" can also be understood as "its rust is taken off, it is wiped clean".

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the seventy-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 71). 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) "-ar". The rhyme words are ṣaçar, biçer, göçer, uçar, geçer and açar; the rhyme is built on the sound "ç", while the "-ar" and "-er" forms of the refrain are used together. This is our own observation. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 114a) and Vienna (VY 158a) manuscripts and is absent from the Istanbul University manuscript. One variant is recorded in the apparatus: in VT "çeşm" is written instead of "çeşmüm" in the opening couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is another example of Münîrî's habit of placing proverbs in poetry; the TDV article states that the poet was successful in this tradition. In the opening couplet (matla) the saying "whoever sows reaps" joins an image from farming: the pupil scatters the grain of tears like seed, because it knows that in the end the sower will reap. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words "dāne" (grain), "ṣaç-" (to scatter) and "biç-" (to reap). The hope that tears will one day be repaid is told through this farming image.

In the second couplet the saying "whoever halts moves on" is built with the language of travel and halting. The beloved's image has left the eye and settled in the breast; the eye weeps at this, yet it already knows that whoever halts will one day move on. The image's halting and moving on like a guest expresses the constant motion within the lover.

In the third couplet the word tutty (tūtyā) means, in its dictionary sense, a salve applied to the eye. The lover has made his face dust on the beloved's path; the morning breeze lifts the dust of this path and carries it to his eye, and the dust becomes a cure. That the dust of the beloved's path is medicine for the eye is a known idea in classical poetry.

The fourth couplet is built on money and stone. The tears are likened to molten silver. "Sīm-i bī-daġal" means, in its dictionary sense, "pure, unalloyed silver"; the saying "passes through stone" seems to carry a double entendre (tevriye) between pure silver being current coin everywhere and its piercing through stone. We take it that the stone recalls the beloved's hard heart; this is an inference. The silver tears have not penetrated the stone heart.

The pen-name couplet is built on the mirror and water. The face of a mirror gathers rust from water; but the lover's mirror of the heart, despite the tears, shines through the beloved's cheek. The couplet can be read in two ways; "jeng alur" can be understood as "it is cleaned of rust" as well as "it gathers rust". The pen name "Münīr" means, in its dictionary sense, "illuminating", and sets up a relation of meaning with the shining mirror.

Bibliography

Online sources