Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dökdi cevāhiri ṣu gibi çeşm-i eşk-bār
Gül-zār-ı kūyuña getürince iki bıñar
Şehlā gözi füsūnına aldanma ey göñül
Miskīnligine mestüñ iñen olmaz i‘tibār
Şeh-bāz-ı zülfüñi ki gönül ṭutdı cān virüp
Her gören eydür anı ki vallāh zihī şikār
Kirpüklerümi ḳan ile taḥrīr içün ḳomış
Naḳḳāş-ı ṣun‘ yüzümi itdükde zer-nigār
Bildüñ dil-i raḳībi urup ḳatı göñlüñe
Seng-i miḥekle bes bilinür ḳalb-i kem-‘ayār
Yoḳdur mecāl-i cān ki gide sīneden Münīr
Yoḫsa helāk iderdi beni ġam hezār-bār

In English

1. When the weeping eye brought two springs to the rose garden of your quarter, it poured out jewels like water. "To pour out like water" here means both to make flow as water does and to spend lavishly; the jewels are tears.

2. O heart, do not be deceived by the spell of that dark-grey (şehla) eye; there is no trusting the languor (the drowsy, harmless look) of a drunkard.

3. Everyone who sees the falcon of your lock, which the heart took in hand at the cost of its life, says: "By God, what a prey." The couplet can be read in two ways: the prey may be the falcon of the lock caught by the heart, or the heart hunted by the falcon of the lock.

4. When the painter of creation made my face worked in gold (all yellow), he left my eyelashes to outline (taḥrīr: draw lines, write) in blood.

5. You struck the rival's heart against your hard heart and knew (what it was); a debased, counterfeit (ḳalb) coin is, after all, known by the touchstone.

6. Münîr, the soul has no strength to leave the breast; otherwise grief would have destroyed me a thousand times over.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the eighty-sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 86). The metre is "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the "-ār" sound: eşk-bār, bıñar, i‘tibār, şikār, zer-nigār, kem-‘ayār and hezār-bār. The number of this ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The ghazal is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 117b, VY 98b, Ü 32a); according to the apparatus the second couplet is missing from VT and VY. Its opening couplet is cited in the biographical anthologies as Münîrî's sample couplet (see Historical Context). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with the image of tears and jewels. The two weeping eyes are two springs that water the beloved's quarter like a rose garden; the flowing tears are the jewels these springs pour out. The idiom "to pour out like water" works in the couplet with both its senses: the jewels both flow like water and are spent like water, that is, without reckoning. The redness of bloody tears may be the basis of the comparison with jewels; this is an inference.

The second couplet is a warning and comes close to the manner of a proverb. "Şehlā" means a bluish-grey eye; the beloved's eye is of this colour and languid. Just as the drowsy state of a drunkard is not to be trusted, the innocent look of this languishing eye must not deceive. The third couplet is taken from the world of the hunt: the lock is a falcon, and the heart has taken it in hand at the cost of its life. The way the relation of falcon and prey leaves it unclear who is hunter and who is hunted gives the couplet a two-way reading.

The fourth couplet is built with terms from the arts of illumination and painting. "Naḳḳāş-ı ṣun‘" (the painter of creation) is the Creator; he has made the lover's face a yellowed surface, that is, one worked in gold. "Taḥrīr" means both writing and, in illumination, drawing the outlines of the ornament; the eyelashes are like brushes drawing lines in blood upon this yellow surface. Reading the word taḥrīr also as a term of illumination is our own observation.

In the fifth couplet the word "ḳalb" is a pun (cinas): it means both heart and a debased, counterfeit coin. "Seng-i miḥek" (touchstone) is the hard stone used to test the fineness of gold; the beloved's hard heart is likened to this stone. When the rival's heart was rubbed against that stone, its falseness came to light. There is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "ḳatı" (hard) and "seng" (stone). The pen-name couplet closes with a paradox: the lover's soul has grown so weak that it has not even the strength to leave the body; it is this very weakness that protects him from being killed a thousand times by grief.

Historical Context

The opening couplet of the ghazal appears in three biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) as Münîrî's sample couplet. Latîfî, in his entry on Münîrî, introduces him as a native of Amasya, one of the eulogists of Sultan Ahmed son of Sultan Bayezid, and one of the accomplished and learned men of the age; he says that although his learning and knowledge were great, people remained unaware of his merits because he was not counted among the famous poets, that he had two divans, Persian and Turkish, and he gives the couplet with the words "Bu maṭlaʿ anuñdur" (this opening couplet is his). Gelibolulu Âlî too, in the entry on Münîrî in the Künhü'l-ahbâr, names him as one of the eulogists of Prince Sultan Ahmed and one of the learned intimates admitted to his private gatherings, and records the same opening couplet with "Bu maṭlaè anuñdur". Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi introduces Münîrî as the eulogist poet of Sultan Ahmed, says that his poems had long since disappeared from view, and also quotes this opening couplet.

The text in the anthologies shows small differences from the divan. The words read "cevāhiri" (the jewels) and "kūyuña" (to your quarter) in the divan appear as "cevâhirin" and "kûyuña" in Latîfî, "cevâhirini" and "kûyuna" in Âlî, and "cevâhirin" and "kûyuna" in Kınalızâde. The word "bıñar" (spring) at the end of the line appears as "pıñar" in Latîfî and as "bıñar" in Âlî; in the edition of Kınalızâde, however, "iki bekâr" is read. This last reading does not fit the sense of the couplet; it is probably a copying or reading error. This assessment is our own inference.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources