Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Vaḳthā gül yüzi fikriyle ki dil ḫurrem olur
Sünbül-i ter ṣaçuñ añup yine key der-hem olur
Dem-i fürḳatde ki ḳan oldı ser-ā-ser yüregüm
Pür-nem olmazsa gözüm şimdiki dem bes ne'm olur
Ġonca beñzetdügiçün kend’özin ol piste-lebe
Urup aġzını ṣabā büzdi meger k’epsem olur
Zāhid-i şehr eger añmazsa ne var beñlerüñi
Dāne-i ḫālüñe ḫod meyl idicek ādem olur
N’olduġı ḥāletümüz derd ile ẓāhir be Münīr
Ża‘fımuz günde ḳavī ṭāḳatümüz key kem olur

In English

1. At times the heart grows joyful with thought of your rose face; (but) recalling your fresh hyacinth hair it grows utterly distraught again.

2. If at the moment of separation my heart has turned wholly to blood, what if my eye is not wet now (when else would it be)?

3. Because the rosebud likened itself to that pistachio-lipped one, the morning breeze struck its mouth and puckered it; so (the rosebud) falls silent (epsem).

4. What if the ascetic of the city does not mention your moles? In any case, a human being (ādem; also Adam) is drawn to the grain of your mole.

5. Münîr, what our state is, is plain from our pain: our weakness grows stronger every day, while our strength greatly declines.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the seventy-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 79). The metre is "fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilâtün fe‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains places this ghazal among those with the refrain (redif) "olur" (becomes); the rhyme is the "-em" sound before it: ḫurrem, der-hem, ne'm, epsem, ādem, kem. The poem is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 116a, VY 102a, Ü 31b). Four variants are recorded in the apparatus; all belong to Ü and VY and do not change the meaning appreciably: Ü has "añubanı" instead of "añup", "ebsem" instead of "k'epsem", and "n'ola" instead of "ne var"; in VY one of the occurrences of the word "dem" in the second couplet is missing. The letters that could not be printed in the footnote have been read by completing them from the text. To whom and when it was written is not known.

The refrain and rhyme of the ghazal are the same as those of tg 62 ("-em olur"). The two ghazals share the rhymes "ne'm olur", "epsem olur" and "kem olur"; the image of something falling silent before the pistachio lip is also common to both. This is our own observation.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) is built on a contrast. The heart becomes "ḫurrem" (joyful) when it thinks of the beloved's rose face, and "der-hem" (distraught, dishevelled) when it recalls her hyacinth hair. The word "der-hem" means, in its dictionary sense, both "distraught" and "tangled"; a relation is thus drawn between tangled hair and a distraught heart. There is also a garden congruence (tenasüp) between rose and hyacinth.

The second couplet is built on a question. The heart has turned wholly to blood at the moment of separation; if the eye is not wet now, when will it be? That the blood of the heart flows from the eye as tears is a frequent idea in classical poetry; the word "pür-nem" (full of moisture) expresses this flow.

The third couplet is a play on the mouth that recalls the pistachio-and-almond couplet of tg 62. The rosebud ventured to liken itself to the beloved's small, pistachio-like mouth, and the morning breeze, to punish it, struck its mouth and puckered it; so the rosebud falls silent. The closed, puckered form of the rosebud is explained by this punishment. This is an example of hüsn-i talil (a fanciful attribution of cause); the analysis is our own observation.

In the fourth couplet the word "ādem" carries a double entendre (tevriye): in its dictionary sense it means "human being", but it also recalls the name of Adam. The beloved's mole is a "dāne", a grain; the grain of wheat is associated with Adam's expulsion from paradise. Even if the ascetic does not mention the moles, a human being, just like Adam, is drawn to this grain. This analysis is our own inference.

The pen-name couplet closes with a contrast. "Ża‘f" (weakness) becomes "ḳavī" (strong) every day, while "ṭāḳat" (strength) becomes "kem" (lacking). This reversal, in which weakness grows strong and strength grows weak, tells the lover's wasting away in a short formula.

Bibliography

Online sources