Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Zülfüñ ucından cihānı ṭutdısa dīvāneler
Nergis-i mestüñ ḫarābıdur hezārān ḫāneler
Āteş-i ruḫsāruñ ile göyünen diller midür
Ḫaddüñ üzre görinen bu ḫāl-i müşgīn dāneler
Derd ü ġam geldi dile gitdi ḳarār u ṣabr u hūş
Āşnālar cem‘idür gitse n’ola bī-gāneler
Oldı siḥr-i ġamzeñ ile ḫāne-i taḳvā ḫarāb
Leblerüñ yādına ma‘mūr olalı mey-ḫāneler
Yanduġum görüp cemāli şem‘ine yārüñ Münīr
Dün gice ta‘līme geldi bir bölük pervāneler

In English

1. If madmen, (clinging) to the tip of your lock, have taken hold of the world (it is no wonder); thousands of houses are the ruins of your drunken narcissus eye.

2. These musk-scented grains of moles seen on your cheek, are they hearts burning in the fire of your cheek?

3. Pain and sorrow came to the heart; rest, patience and reason departed. (The heart) is a gathering place of acquaintances; what matter if strangers leave?

4. Ever since the taverns flourished with the memory of your lips, the house of piety has been ruined by the magic of your glance.

5. Münîr, seeing me burn in the candle of the beloved's beauty, a company of moths came last night to take lessons.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the ninety-third of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 93). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives the ghazal the refrain (redif) "-ler" (plural suffix); the rhyme is the "-āne" sound before it: dīvāne, ḫāne, dāne, bī-gāne, mey-ḫāne and pervāne. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan and in two anthologies of response poems (VT 119a, Ü 38b, PB 131b, MN 94b). According to the apparatus Ü reads "görinen" (seen) for "göyünen" (burning) in the second couplet; "diller midür" in the same line appears as "diller mi ki" in VT and "diller mi kim" in Ü. VT reads "ṣabr-ı dil" for "ṣabr u hūş" in the third couplet, and PB and Ü read "düşdi" for "oldı" in the fourth. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Most of the rhyme words of the ghazal contain the word "ḫāne" (house) or are related to it in sound: dīvāne, ḫāne, bī-gāne, mey-ḫāne. The poet joins this closeness of sound with images of the house, of ruin and of festivity. This observation is our own.

In the opening couplet (matla) the madmen have clung to the tip of the beloved's lock; the lock is as much a rope that lets them take hold of the world as a chain that binds them. "Cihānı ṭutmak" means both to seize the world and to fill every place. In the second line the beloved's eye is likened to the narcissus; the languid look of the narcissus flower is the basis of the theme of the drunken eye. This drunken eye has ruined thousands of houses of the heart. The word "ḫarāb" means both ruined and drunk and works in the couplet in both senses at once.

The second couplet is an example of hüsn-i talil (fanciful aetiology): the black moles on the beloved's cheek are hearts that have burned in the fire of that cheek. The blackening of what burns is given as the cause of the moles' blackness. The verb "göyünmek" is used in the couplet, as the context requires, in the sense of "to burn"; the reading "görinen" in the Ü manuscript suggests that a more familiar word was put in place of this old one; this is an inference.

In the third couplet the heart is imagined as a house. Pain and sorrow are the acquaintances of this house; rest, patience and reason are its strangers. When the acquaintances come, it is natural for the strangers to leave. There is a contrast between "āşnā" (acquaintance) and "bī-gāne" (stranger). The fourth couplet is built on the contrast of "ma‘mūr" (flourishing) and "ḫarāb" (ruined): the taverns flourish with the memory of the beloved's lip, while the house of piety is ruined by the magic of the glance. This is an application of the familiar contrast between the world of the ascetic and the world of the rind (the free-spirited drinker).

The pen-name couplet reverses the theme of the candle and the moth. Moths are known for casting themselves into the candle; here, however, on seeing the lover burn in the candle of the beloved's beauty, they come to take lessons from him. The lover is counted a master even over the moths in the art of burning.

Bibliography

Online sources