Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Ehl-i diller yüzüñe rūḥ-ı muṣavver didiler
Teşne-cānlar lebüñe şehd-i mükerrer didiler
Ey gözüm nūrı senüñ la‘l-i şeker-bāruñı ben
Her kime ṣordum ise şehd-i mükerrer didiler
Ḥüsninüñ nüsḫasını beñzedicek gül yüzüñe
Söz degüldür bu sözüñ ṭınma hey ebter didiler
İricek zülf-i siyāhına gör ey bād-ı nesīm
Dil-i bīmārımuzuñ ḥāli mükedder didiler
Çarḫa girdiyse bu vech ile güneş n’ola Münīr
Ol mehüñ gün yüzine ẕerrece beñzer didiler

In English

1. The people of heart called your face "spirit given form"; the thirsting souls called your lip "honey refined again and again".

2. O light of my eye, whomever I asked about your sugar-raining ruby lip, they said "refined honey".

3. When (someone) likened the copy of beauty to your rose face, they said: "This word is no word; be silent, you incomplete one (ebter)." The couplet can be read in two ways: "ḥüsnüñ nüsḫası" can be understood as a copy of the beloved's beauty, or as the rose, reckoned the very specimen of beauty.

4. O gentle breeze, when you reach (his) black lock, see: they called the state of our sick heart "troubled (clouded)".

5. Münîr, is it any wonder if the sun has entered its sphere (whirling) in this way? They told it: "it resembles that moon's sunlike face by a mote (only a speck)."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the ninety-fifth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 95). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains gives the ghazal the refrain (redif) "didiler" (they said); the rhyme is the "-er" sound before it: muṣavver, mükerrer, mükerrer, ebter, mükedder and beñzer. The first and second couplets end with the same expression "şehd-i mükerrer" (refined honey); this repetition is our own observation. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 119b, Ü 38b). According to the apparatus Ü reads "bī-çāremizüñ" (of our helpless one) for "bīmārımuzuñ" (of our sick one) in the fourth couplet; in the fifth couplet it gives an entirely different first line, "Raḳṣ urup şāh-ı felek döndügi çarḫ üzre" (the king of the sky dancing and turning on the wheel), and an entirely different opening for the second line, "ṣūret-i yāra meger" (to the beloved's form, it seems). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a chain of "they said". In each couplet a judgement passed by others on the beloved's beauty is reported; the poet has his own praise spoken by the mouths of others. This manner of speaking gives the ghazal an air of testimony.

In the opening couplet (matla) the beloved's face is called "rūḥ-ı muṣavver" (spirit given form). The spirit is something invisible; the beloved's face is the form in which the spirit has become visible to the eye. "Şehd-i mükerrer", used for the lip, means honey strained and refined again and again. The second couplet repeats this expression exactly; in this way the judgement of the people of heart becomes a general opinion that gives the same answer whoever is asked.

The third couplet is built with terms of books and manuscripts. "Nüsḫa" is a manuscript copy of a work; "ebter" means, in its dictionary sense, cut off at the end, incomplete. The use of "ebter" for manuscripts whose end is missing, in the description of manuscripts, sets up a congruence of images (tenasüp) in the couplet between nüsḫa and ebter. The identification of this relation of terms is ours. One who likens the copy of beauty to the beloved's rose face is held to have spoken an incomplete and wrong word, for the original cannot be likened to the copy.

In the fourth couplet the gentle breeze is asked to look when it reaches the beloved's lock. "Mükedder" means both sorrowful and turbid; the black, dishevelled lock is like an image of the lover's clouded heart. This link between the lock and the heart is a relation often made in divan poetry.

In the pen-name couplet the sun is turning in its sphere. The poet finds a cause for this turning: the sun has been told that it resembles the beloved's sunlike face only "ẕerrece". "Ẕerrece" evokes both "by a mote, a little" and "like a mote". Like the motes turning in sunlight, the sun too keeps turning after these words. This punning reading is our own inference. The wording of the Ü manuscript, with its dance and its wheel, carries the same image of turning.

Bibliography

Online sources