Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her kirpük oḳı baña ne bu nīşi gösterür
Ḫışm ile egri egri ḫo baḳışı gösterür
İlüñ yüzini ben niteki umaram ḥabīb
Baña raḳīb-i cilf-i bed-endīşi gösterür
Derd-i ġamuñla şöyle ki meşhūr-ı ‘ālemem
Oldur diyü bu bendeñi her kişi gösterür
Ḥālüñ ne tīr-i ġamzesiyile didükçe dil
Fī’l-ḥāl yüregümde olan rīşi gösterür
El ṣundum idi zülfine göründi ḫadd-i yār
Didüm revān Münīr ki iş işi gösterür

In English

1. Why does every arrow of the eyelash show me this sting? It shows, of course, its crooked, angry glance.

2. O beloved, just as I look for the faces of others, (you) show me the frivolous, ill-minded rival. The couplet is not entirely clear; the syntax of the first line may be understood otherwise.

3. Through the pain of your grief I have become so famous in the world that everyone points out this servant of yours, saying "That is he".

4. As often as the heart is asked "How do you fare with the arrow of her glance?", it at once shows the wound in my heart.

5. I had stretched my hand toward her lock, and the beloved's cheek came into view; I said: "Go on, Münîr, one thing leads to another (iş işi gösterir)."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the seventy-third of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 73). The metre is "mef‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". According to Ersoy's list of refrains, this is the only ghazal in the divan with the refrain (redif) "gösterür" (shows); the rhyme is the "-iş" sound before it: nīşi, baḳışı, bed-endīşi, kişi, rīşi, işi. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 114b) and Istanbul University (Ü 30a) manuscripts and is absent from the Vienna manuscript. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain "gösterür" tells in every couplet of one thing showing another, and builds the ghazal on seeing and showing. The arrow of the eyelash shows its sting, the beloved shows the rival, people point out the lover, the heart shows its wound; and in the last couplet one thing shows (leads to) another. This is our own observation.

In the opening couplet (matla) the beloved's eyelashes are likened to arrows. "Nīş" means, in its dictionary sense, "needle, thorn, sting"; a link is drawn between the piercing of the lashes and the beloved's angry, crooked glance. The doubling "egri egri" (crookedly) carries the sound of spoken Turkish. A contrast may also be thought of between the straightness of the arrow and the crookedness of the glance; this is an inference.

The second couplet is not entirely clear. In the phrase "raḳīb-i cilf-i bed-endīş", "cilf" means, in its dictionary sense, "light, coarse, foolish", and "bed-endīş" "ill-minded". While the lover is waiting for the beloved's face, the rival appears before him. Naming the rival with these epithets says that someone who does not deserve to be beside the beloved has settled there; the syntax of the first line, however, gives no certainty as to who shows whom. This explanation is our own inference.

The third couplet tells of the lover's fame. The pain of love has made him so well known that everyone points him out, saying "that is he". To be "meşhūr-ı ‘ālem" (famous in the world) is here not a boast but the laying bare of grief. In the fourth couplet the heart does not answer in words those who ask how it fares with the arrow of the glance; it shows the wound in the heart. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "tīr" (arrow) and "rīş" (wound).

The pen-name couplet closes with an idiom. The saying "iş işi gösterir" means, in its dictionary sense, "one thing leads to another". The lover has stretched his hand toward the beloved's lock, and when the lock parted the cheek came into view; this gives courage for the next step. The TDV article states that Münîrî was successful in placing idioms and proverbs in poetry; the couplet is an example. Since the verb "göster-" of the refrain also appears within the idiom, the last couplet joins the refrain with the idiom.

Bibliography

Online sources