Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yansa şem‘-i ḥüsnüñe pervāne-i dil diñlenür
Görmesem bir dem yüzüñi çeşm-çerāġum diñlenür
Hīc ṭurmaz gözlerüm yaşı yoluñda bir nefes
Gerçi giderken piyāde vaḳthā bir diñlenür
Her ne dirsem sırr-ı ‘ışḳuñdan dile iḫfāyile
Ṭuyulur fī’l-ḥāl ṭut kim söyledügüm diñlenür
Muttaṣıl ‘ışḳ ehline it gibi ürürsin raḳīb
Sen beni bārī esirge arada bir diñlen ür
Ey ṣabā yansun Münīrī gibi bülbül ġam degül
Di yaluñlandur gel odın saña kim dir diñlen ür

In English

1. The moth of the heart finds rest only if it burns in the candle of your beauty; if I do not see your face for a moment, the lamp of my eye goes out.

2. The tears of my eyes do not stop for a single breath on your path; yet even one who goes on foot rests now and then as he walks.

3. Whatever I say of the secret of your love, even if I say it hiding it within the heart, it is at once found out; you would think that what I say is listened to (by all).

4. O rival, you bark like a dog at the people of love without pause; at least spare me: rest now and then, (then) bark.

5. O morning breeze, let the nightingale burn like Münîrî, no matter; say to it: "Come, fan your fire into flame"; who tells you "rest, then blow"? The couplet is obscure and can be read in two ways: the word "ür" here seems to mean "blow" rather than "bark", describing the breeze fanning the fire (this reading is an inference); the last line can also be understood as "who is it that tells you 'rest, then blow'? Blow without pause."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the eighty-fourth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 84). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is "diñlenür"; in the last two couplets the same sequence of sounds is divided into two words, "diñlen ür" (rest, bark or blow). The number of this ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The words before the refrain (dil, çerāġum, bir, söyledügüm, bir, dir) do not form a regular rhyme; this is our own observation. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 117a, VY 93b). According to the apparatus VY reads "yaluñ yandur" for "yaluñlandur" (make it flame) in the last couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole play of the ghazal lies in its refrain. In older Turkish "diñlenmek" carries both the sense "to rest, to find ease" and the sense "to cease, to go out"; the same sound can also be read as the passive of the verb "to listen", "to be listened to, to be heard". In the opening couplet (matla) the moth finds rest when it burns in the candle, while the lamp of the eye goes out when the beloved's face is not seen. In the second couplet the traveller on foot rests now and then as he walks, but the tears never stop. In the third couplet the word is in the passive sense: the secret the lover hides is at once found out, and all he says is listened to. In this way the same refrain appears with three different senses in the first three couplets.

In the fourth and fifth couplets the refrain is split in two as "diñlen ür" and gives an example of the composite pun called cinas-ı mürekkeb. The fourth couplet is the liveliest place in the ghazal. The rival is a dog that barks at lovers without pause; the poet asks him at least to spare him, to rest now and then and only then bark. The words carry a satirical finesse. The TDV article says that Münîrî applied every kind of pun (cinas) with success.

The pen-name couplet is obscure. The morning breeze (saba) is addressed: even if the nightingale burns like Münîrî, no matter; the breeze should tell it to make its fire flame. The word "ür" seems to be used here in the sense of "to blow", describing the wind fanning the fire; in this way a pun also arises between "bark" in the fourth couplet and "blow" in the fifth. This reading is our own inference. In the pen-name couplet Münîrî identifies himself with the burning nightingale. In the theme of the rose and the nightingale the nightingale burning with the fire of love is a familiar image; here the breeze is imagined as a wind that makes the fire grow.

Bibliography

Online sources