Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḥıżr-ı ḫaṭṭuñ ṣanemā çeşme-i ḥayvān getürür
Nitekim la‘l-i lebüñ mühr-i Süleymān getürür
Düzd-i şeb-rev mi durur zülf-i siyāhuñ ‘acabā
K’eteg’altında nihān şem‘-i şebistān getürür
Cān-fezā leblerüñüñ gelse ḫayāli göñle
Ġālib oldur ki revān s̱ıḳletini cān getürür
Ḫaṭṭ-ı reyḥānı muḥaḳḳaḳ bu ki şīrīnlik içün
Levḥ-i sīm üzre yazup āyet-i Ḳur’ān getürür
Gördügümce direm ol serv-i sehī-ḳaddi Münīr
Müntehā naḫl durur ṣan gül-i ḫandān getürür

In English

1. O idol of beauty, your down (the fine greenish hair on the face), which is like Khidr, brings the fountain of the water of life; just as your ruby lip brings the seal of Solomon.

2. I wonder, is your black lock a thief that prowls by night, that it brings, hidden under its skirt, the candle of the night chamber (your face)?

3. If the image of your life-giving lips should come to the heart, most likely the soul would at once take up its weight (the burden of hosting it) and bring it. The couplet can be read in two ways: "revān" means "at once, running" and also "the flowing soul"; on that reading the second line can also be understood as "the flowing soul carries its weight".

4. Surely the reyhânî script of the down (down as green as basil; the reyhânî style of calligraphy), for the sake of sweetness, writes a verse of the Qur'an on a tablet of silver (the white face) and brings it.

5. Münîr, whenever I see that straight-statured cypress I say: it is the uttermost (loftiest) sapling; it seems to bring forth a laughing rose (an open mouth and face).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the eighty-first of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 81). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives this ghazal the refrain (redif) "getürür" (brings); the rhyme is the "-ān" sound before it: ḥayvān, Süleymān, şebistān, cān, Ḳur'ān and ḫandān. The ghazal is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 116b, VY 103a, Ü 38a); according to the apparatus, however, the fifth couplet, the pen-name couplet, is missing from VY. The Ü manuscript reads "mihr-i" (of love, of the sun) for "Ḥıżr-ı" in the first couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal describes the beloved's face through things that "bring" something. In the opening couplet (matla) the down on the cheek is likened to Khidr. Khidr is associated with greenness and is the one who found the water of life; the greenish down newly appearing on the face likewise lies around the lip, which is reckoned the water of life. The ruby lip of the second line brings the seal of Solomon. Solomon's seal is the sign of sovereignty; the red stone of the lip is imagined as the stone of that seal, and its power over hearts is tied to this. This last interpretation is an inference.

The second couplet sets a scene. The black lock is a thief prowling by night, hiding a candle under its skirt. The darkness of the lock is the night, and the face showing beneath it is the candle that lights the night chamber. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) around the idea of night between "düzd-i şeb-rev" (night-prowling thief) and "şem‘-i şebistān" (candle of the night chamber).

The fourth couplet is built on terms from calligraphy. "Reyḥānī" and "muḥaḳḳaḳ" are the names of two of the six classical scripts known as aklâm-ı sitte; in the couplet "muḥaḳḳaḳ" is used in the sense of "surely", but it also recalls the name of the script. "Ḫaṭṭ-ı reyḥān" is both the basil-green down and the reyhânî script. The silver tablet is the white face; the down seems to have written a verse upon this tablet. According to the TDV article, the poet states in his Mihr ü Müşterî that he wrote in every kind of script; the same article also says that he applied every kind of pun (cinas) with success. The bringing together of two script names in one couplet is our own observation.

In the pen-name couplet the beloved's stature is likened to a cypress. The phrase "müntehā naḫl" (the uttermost sapling) may recall the Sidrat al-Muntaha, the lote tree of Paradise; this is an inference. The cypress is a tree that bears neither fruit nor flowers; this cypress, however, brings forth "a laughing rose", that is, it carries at its top a face that laughs like an opened rose. In the third couplet the words "s̱ıḳlet" (weight) and "revān" (flowing, light) also stand in contrast.

Bibliography

Online sources