Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her nefes göñlüm ġam-ı ‘ışḳıyla yārüñ biñ yaşar
Sen gerek ṭurma gözüm ḳan dök gerek her dem yaşar
Varuban cān virürem kūyında didüñ dil-berüñ
Kim ne dir var ey göñül saña tek er ol iş başar
Ḫaddüñ añduḳça gözümüñ yaşları seyl olduġı
İrse hengām-ı bahār elbette ırmaḳlar ṭaşar
Sen şeh-i çābük-süvāra göñlüm olaldan esīr
Leşker-i ġam dil ḥiṣārını gelüp her dem ḳuşar
Geçdi kūh-ı ġamdan irdi vaṣla sözümle Münīr
Bes mes̱eldür bu ki ey dil ṭanışıḳlu ṭaġ aşar

In English

1. With grief for the beloved's love my heart lives a thousand (years) with every breath; O my eye, either shed blood without pause or be ever in tears.

2. You said, "I will go and give my life in the beloved's quarter"; let anyone say what he will, go on, O heart: only a hero like you can accomplish that deed. The couplet can be read in two ways: the expression "saña tek er" can be understood as "a hero like you", and it can also be read as "a lone hero, a matchless man".

3. No wonder the tears of my eye become a flood whenever I recall your cheek; when the season of spring comes, the rivers surely overflow.

4. Ever since my heart fell captive to you, nimble horseman king, the army of sorrow comes and besieges the fortress of the heart at every moment.

5. With his words (by taking counsel) Münîr crossed the mountain of sorrow and attained union; O heart, this is a proverb: one who takes counsel crosses mountains.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the ninety-second of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 92). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The number of this ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the sound sequence "-şar": yaşar, yaşar, başar, ṭaşar, ḳuşar and aşar. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 119a, Ü 29a); it is not in the VY manuscript. According to the apparatus, Ü gives the order "ḳan dök gözüm ṭurma" for "ṭurma gözüm ḳan dök" in the first couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most marked features of the ghazal are its plays of sound and its popular idiom. Both lines of the opening couplet (matla) end with the word "yaşar"; in the first it means "lives", in the second "fills with tears", and so a perfect pun (cinas) is formed. The TDV article says that Münîrî applied every kind of pun with success and that he was also successful in the tradition of setting proverbs and idioms into poetry. The identification of this pun is ours.

In the expression "saña tek er" in the second couplet, the word "tek" appears to be used in the sense of "like"; this reading is our own inference and, if correct, may count as an example of the use of archaic words to which TDV points. The heart has resolved to give its life at the beloved's door; the poet praises it for this valour. The third couplet is a clear example of the figure irsal-i mesel (the proverbial proof): the tears becoming a flood are explained by a familiar event of nature, the rivers overflowing when spring comes. The relation between cheek, rose and spring also gives the couplet a congruence of images (tenasüp).

The fourth couplet is a scene of siege. The beloved is a nimble horseman king; once the lover's heart becomes his captive, the army of sorrow begins to besiege the fortress of the heart. The verb "ḳuşar" appears here to mean "besieges"; this is an inference. There is a congruence of images on the theme of war among the words "şeh" (king), "süvār" (horseman), "esīr" (captive), "leşker" (army) and "ḥiṣār" (fortress).

The pen-name couplet closes with a proverb: "ṭanışıḳlu ṭaġ aşar." The proverb that lives on today in the dictionary of the Turkish Language Association in the form "danışan dağı aşmış, danışmayan düz yolda şaşmış" (one who asks has crossed the mountain, one who does not ask has lost his way on level road) is explained as "one who asks someone who knows about what he does not know overcomes even the hardest tasks". It appears that Münîrî's word "ṭanışıḳlu" comes from the same root as "danışan" in this proverb and that the saying in the couplet is an older form of it; this is our own observation. Münîr too, by his words, that is, by taking counsel and conversing, has crossed the mountain of sorrow and attained union.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

  • Türk Dil Kurumu, Güncel Türkçe Sözlük, entry "danışan dağı aşmış, danışmayan düz yolda şaşmış". https://sozluk.gov.tr/

Online sources