Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Tār-ı zülfüñ ḳāmetümi çeng ider
Eşkümi şevḳ-ı ruḫuñ gül-reng ider
Leblerüñ [kim] başına teng-şekkerüñ
Söze geldükçe cihānı teng ider
Gül yüzüñçün işidüp efġānumı
Nāleme murġ-ı seḥer āheng ider
Ṣaḳlama benden yüzüñ k’āyīnenüñ
Gözden ıraġ olma yüzin jeng ider
Leblerüñ sırrın Münīrī ṣormadan
Gözlerüñ yoḳ yire niçün ceng ider

In English

1. The string of your lock bends my stature like a harp (çeng, a stringed instrument with a curved body); longing for your cheek turns my tears rose-coloured.

2. Your lips, which are in themselves a narrow (tiny) sugar, make the world narrow (for lovers) whenever they come to speech. The couplet can be read in two ways: the word "başına" may mean "by itself, in itself", or it may point to the "head" of the lip, that is, the tip of the mouth. The word "kim" in this line is Ersoy's emendation in the edition, made according to metre and sense.

3. Hearing my cry for your rose face, the bird of dawn (the nightingale) keeps time with my lament (accompanies it).

4. Do not hide your face from me; for if a mirror is far from the eye, rust takes hold of its face.

5. Before Münîrî has even asked the secret of your lips, why do your eyes make war for nothing?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the ninety-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 98). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün"; this is the short, three-foot form of the four-foot pattern often used in ghazals. Ersoy's list of refrains places the ghazal among those with the refrain (redif) "ider" (makes); the rhyme is the "-eng" sound before it: çeng, reng, teng, āheng, jeng and ceng. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 120b, Ü 35a); it is not in the VY manuscript. Ersoy has emended the word "[kim]" in the second couplet according to metre and sense; the square brackets mark this emendation in the edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The rhyme words of the ghazal are very close to one another in sound, and the poet draws puns from this closeness. Between "çeng" (a stringed instrument) in the first couplet and "ceng" (war) in the last there is only a single letter's difference; between "teng" (narrow) in the second couplet and "jeng" (rust) in the fourth there is a closeness of the same kind. The identification of this play on çeng and ceng between the beginning and the end of the ghazal is ours.

The opening couplet (matla) begins with musical images. "Tār" is both a strand of hair and the string of an instrument; "çeng" is a stringed instrument with a curved body. The string of the beloved's lock bends the lover's stature like this instrument; the lover's body, bent double with pain, is likened to the harp. In the second line the tears are dyed rose-coloured, that is, with blood, by longing for the cheek.

In the second couplet the word "teng" is used twice and in two different senses. In the first the lip is a tiny, "narrow" sugar; in the second, when this lip begins to speak, it makes the world "narrow" for lovers. In divan poetry the beloved's mouth is praised for its smallness; here the same narrowness turns into the lover's distress.

In the third couplet the bird of dawn, that is, the nightingale, is like a musician accompanying the lover's lament; the word "āheng" (harmony) continues the musical image. The fourth couplet carries a piece of wisdom: a mirror made of metal rusts if it is not looked into. The beloved's face is a mirror; if it stays far from the lover's eye, that mirror too grows dark. The manner of speaking is close to irsal-i mesel (the proverbial proof).

In the pen-name couplet the beloved's eyes are like people who start quarrels for no reason. Before the lover has even asked the secret of the lip, the eyes have begun a war. A relation of guardianship is set up between eye and lip; the eyes are imagined as guarding the secret of the lip; this is an inference.

Bibliography

Online sources