Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Tīr-i ġamzeñden derūn-ı dil ki pāre pāredür
Şöyle mis̱l-i bādem andan sīne yāre yāredür
Berg-i gül ṣanmañ ki düşmişdür yire gül-zārda
Penbe-i dāġ-ı derūn-ı bülbül-i bī-çāredür
Şöyle kim ṭurmaz ḳılur ḳaṭ‘-ı menāzil dem-be-dem
Ṣanki eşküm yir yüzinde kevkeb-i seyyāredür
Bülbül-i dil-ḫaste iñler gül-sitān içinde gül
Ṣanki dirler gūş urup meyli bu āh u zāredür
Mihr-i ruḫsāruñdan ayru ḫod degül bir dem Münīr
Ẕerre-veş bilsem niçün ser-geşte vü āvāredür

In English

1. Because the inside of the heart is torn to pieces by the arrow of your glance, the breast too is all wounds (all split) like an almond.

2. Do not think that what has fallen to the ground in the rose garden is a rose petal; it is the (bloodied) cotton placed on the inner wound of the helpless nightingale.

3. Because it passes the stages of the road at every moment without pause, my tear is like a wandering planet upon the face of the earth.

4. The heart-sick nightingale laments in the rose garden; (the rose) seems to lend an ear and say: "its desire is this sighing and moaning." The couplet is obscure: the subject of the verb "dirler" (they say) is not clear; the line can also be understood as "those in the rose garden lend an ear and say that the nightingale's whole desire is sighing and moaning".

5. Münîr is not parted for a single moment from the sun of your cheek; I would like to know, (then,) why is he giddy and wandering like a mote?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the ninety-ninth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 99). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains places the ghazal among those with the refrain (redif) "-dür" (is); the rhyme is the "-āre" sound before it: pāre pāre, yāre yāre, bī-çāre, seyyāre, zāre and āvāre. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan (VT 120b, Ü 26b); it is not in the VY manuscript. According to the apparatus Ü reads "ṭalmaz" for "ṭurmaz" in the third couplet, "ṭut ki" for "ṣanki" in the fourth, and "cān" for "bir dem" in the fifth. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the opening couplet (matla) two reduplications stand side by side: "pāre pāre" (in pieces) and "yāre yāre" (wound upon wound). The likeness of sound between the two builds the harmony of the couplet. The breast being split all over like an almond may rest on the cracking of the almond shell or on the likening of the almond to the eye; this is an inference.

The second couplet is a fine example of hüsn-i talil (fanciful aetiology). In the poet's interpretation the red rose petals fallen to the ground in the rose garden are pieces of cotton, dyed with blood, placed on the wound of the helpless nightingale. "Penbe-i dāġ" (cotton for a wound) refers to the cotton laid on a wound in the old medicine. The theme of the rose and the nightingale is told here in the language of wounds and blood.

The third couplet is built with terms of astronomy. "Ḳaṭ‘-ı menāzil" means to pass the stages of a journey; the word "menzil" also evokes the stations of the moon and planets in the sky. The tear flowing without pause wanders over the face of the earth like a "kevkeb-i seyyāre" (planet) wandering in the sky. This congruence of images (tenasüp) between menzil and seyyāre is our own observation.

The fourth couplet is obscure. The nightingale laments in the rose garden; it is understood that the rose, or those in the garden, lend it an ear and say that the nightingale's only desire is sighing and moaning. The nightingale's love may be shown as a love that delights in lamenting more than in union. The reading "ṭut ki" (suppose that) in Ü gives the couplet a hypothetical tone.

The pen-name couplet rests on the theme of the sun and the mote. The motes of dust whirling in the air in sunlight are in divan poetry the symbol of the giddy lover. The poet here sets up a contradiction: Münîr is not parted for a moment from the beloved's sunlike cheek, yet he is giddy and wandering like a mote. The answer to the contradiction lies within the theme: the mote whirls because it is near the sun. This interpretation is our own inference.

Bibliography

Online sources