Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Ġamzeñ kim anuñ sīnede tīr-i seḥeri var
Her kūşede biñ ‘āşıḳ-ı ḫūnīn cigeri var
Ben ḫaste göñülden nice dermān umayın kim
Benden beter anuñ daḫı bir derd-i seri var
Ta‘cīl ile gitdügi ṣabā ḫāk-i derüñden
Gül-zāra meger lāle-ruḫuñdan ḫaberi var
Eyyām-ı ġam içün iñen incinme göñül kim
Devrān-ı feraḥ gibi anuñ da güẕeri var
Sen nāle-i şeb-gīri ḥarīf itdüñ is’ey dil
Derd ile Münīrüñ daḫı āh-ı seḥeri var

In English

1. Your glance has dawn arrows in the breasts (arrows that never miss, like the sighs of dawn); in every corner it has a thousand lovers with bleeding livers.

2. How should I hope for a cure from my sick heart, when it too has a headache (a trouble) worse than mine?

3. Since the morning breeze has left the dust of your door in such haste, it seems it has news of your tulip cheek (to carry) to the rose garden.

4. O heart, do not be too grieved over the days of sorrow; for, like the season of joy, they too have their passing.

5. O heart, if you have taken the night-long lament as your companion, Münîr too, with his pain, has his sigh at dawn.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the eighty-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 88). The metre is "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". Ersoy's list of refrains places the ghazal among those with the refrain (redif) "-I var" (has); the rhyme is the "-er" sound: seḥeri, cigeri, seri, ḫaberi, güẕeri and seḥeri again. The word "seḥer" (dawn) of the opening couplet becomes a rhyme once more in the pen-name couplet; this is our own observation. The ghazal is found in three manuscripts of the divan and in two anthologies of response poems (VT 118a, VY 99a, Ü 32b, PB 167b, MN 133a). According to the apparatus, VT and Ü read "derinden" for "derüñden" (from your door) and "ruḫından" for "ruḫuñdan" (from your cheek) in the third couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain "var" (there is, has) expresses a possession in each couplet: the arrows and lovers of the glance, the heart's trouble, the breeze's news, the passing of sorrow, Münîr's sigh. The expression "tīr-i seḥer" (dawn arrow) in the opening couplet recalls the likening of the sighs and prayers offered at dawn to arrows that never miss their mark; here these arrows are given to the glance. This interpretation is an inference. "Ḫūnīn ciger" (bleeding liver) is an established expression for the lover's suffering.

The second couplet carries a plain and poignant observation. The lover wishes to turn to his own heart for a remedy; but the heart's own trouble is worse than his. "Derd-i ser" means headache in its dictionary sense and, figuratively, a trouble or a burden on one's head. A sick man hoping for a cure from another sick man lends the couplet a light note of irony.

In the third couplet the morning breeze (saba) is thought of as a messenger. It leaves the dust of the beloved's door in haste, because it is to carry news of the beloved's tulip cheek to the rose garden. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) based on flower names between "lāle-ruḫ" (tulip-cheeked) and "gül-zār" (rose garden).

The fourth couplet is a piece of worldly wisdom and comes close to the manner of a proverb: as the days of joy pass, so do the days of sorrow. There is a contrast between "eyyām-ı ġam" (days of sorrow) and "devrān-ı feraḥ" (season of joy). In the pen-name couplet the heart is addressed: if the heart has taken the night-long lament as its companion, Münîr too has the sigh he heaves at dawn. A contrast between night and morning is set up between "nāle-i şeb-gīr" (night-long lament) and "āh-ı seḥer" (sigh of dawn).

Bibliography

Online sources