Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Bilmez misin ey dil ki cihān mülk-i fenādur
Dīvānelik ammā kişiye ḫaylī belādur
Virilmedi mektūb-ı mu‘āfiyye saña ḫod
Her sā‘at işüñ şöyle niçün sehv ü ḫaṭādur
‘Ālem ki ser-ā-ser ṭoludur tīr-i ḥavādis̱
Göz dikme feżāsına ki dīvān-ı ḳażādur
Her kim ki yiler der-peyine düşüben anuñ
Bilür dem-i āḫirde k’işi hīc ü hebādur
Dil virme ṣaḳın pīre-zen-i dehre yañılup
Āl ile seni avlamasun ‘işve-nümādur
Key ḫūb idi menzil-geh-i ‘ālem göñül ammā
Müşkil bu ki mihmān-keş-i pür-cevr ü cefādur
Ma‘nīde içi mār gibi zehr ile pürdür
Ṣūretde egerçi görinen ḥüsn ü behādur
Bāzīçe-i hengāme-i devr-i felek içre
Ser-geşte göñül ḥayret ile bī-ser ü pādur
Kim bile ki bu perde-i ġayb içre neler var
Bār-ı ġam-ı fikr ile felek ḳaddi dü-tādur
Dünyā-yı denī fikr ile büt-ḫāne idinme
Göñlüñ ki senüñ maḫzen-i esrār-ı Ḫudādur
Şeh ṣanma k’anı tāc u nigīn ile ider faḫr
Sulṭān-ı cihān faḳr ile ‘ālemde gedādur
Devlet didigüñ şol seni bī-şevḳ iden ise
Let yegdür anuñ gibiden ol renc ü ‘anādur
Çün bir dem imiş varlıġıñuñ bildüñ esāsı
Bu vech ile cān-kenligüñ āḫir ne belādur
‘Ömrüñ ḫo s̱ebātı yoġudıġını bilürsin
Her laḥẓa başuñda bu nice bād-ı hevādur
Maḳṣūd-ı cihān olmış iken ẕāt-ı şerīfüñ
Sen böyle ẕelīl oldıġuñ āḫir ne revādur
Vech’ola mı bed-nām ile efsāneligüñ kim
‘Ālem ṭolu āvāzuñ ile ṣavt u ṣadādur
Sensin bu dü kevnüñ bugün ey cān yaraşuġı
Bir sehl iş ile kend’özüñi bozma ḫaṭādur
Niçün viresin himmetüñi nefsin eline
Kim dir ki Süleymān yüzügi dīve sezādur
Ḥayvāndan eḍaldür ne beşer nefsine uyan
İnsān aña dirler ki bugün merd-i Hüdādur
Zinhār özüñe ḫisseti sen pīşe idinme
Merd olanuñ işin ḫo bilürsin ki seḫādur
Ey dil gözüñ aç kend’özüñi ġaflete virme
Eyyām-ı firāḳ ile yine vaṣla ṣalādur
Gerçi görinür kāse-i pür-zehr-i helāhil
‘Ālem yine ehl-i dile ḫoş cām-ı ṣafādur
‘Ahdüñ ḳanı k’itmişdüñ anı rūz-ı ezelde
İnkār ne mümkin ki Ḫudā aña güvādur
Ḳalb ile deġalden kişi aṣṣı mı ḳılur kim
‘Ālemde ‘amel diyü işüñ zerḳ u riyādur
Aṣṣı vü ziyānı ne ‘abā-y-ile ḳabānuñ
İllā kişiye lāzım olan ṣıdḳ u ṣafādur
Ger ‘āḳıl iseñ ‘ışḳ ile me’nūs olagör kim
Biñ cān-ı cihān derd-i ġam-ı ‘ışḳa fedādur
Faḫr-i dü cihān pey-revinüñ gerdini her dem
Çek çeşm-i cihān-bīnüñe kim kuḥl-i cilādur
Ger pādşeh-i mülk-i fenā da k’olasın sen
Şol şāha ġulām ol ki o sulṭān-ı beḳādur
Güm-rāh olana ẓulmet ü cürm ü güneh içre
Şem‘-i ruḫı güftārı anuñ bedr-i dücādur
Ḫurşīd-i cemāli dü cihān mülkini ey dil
Ḳıldıysa münevver n’ola kim nūr-ı Ḫudādur
Her zāġ-ı siyeh-dil ala mı diline anı
Bülbül gibi esrāda çün ol naġme-serādur
Yol mı bulur ol Ḫüsreve her ḫaṣm-ı denī kim
Menzil-gehi her laḥẓa anuñ ḳurb-ı denādur
Ol nūr-ı fer-i merdümek-i çeşm-i cihān-bīn
Ümmīd-i dil ü cān u murād-ı dü serādur
Şol dürr-i yetīm-i ṣadef-i ‘ālem-i cān kim
Bir görmege anı dü cihān nīm-bahādur
Elfāẓ-ı dürer-bārı durur cevheri ‘aḳluñ
Enfās-ı revān-baḫşı dil ü cāna ġıdādur
Ẕātını anuñ nūr-ı Ḫudā görmeyen aḥvel
Çıḳsun nice gözdür kim o bī-nūr u żiyādur
Her laḥẓa yüzi nūrını ol ‘arż ider ammā
Göstermeyen anı bize bu rūy-ı siyādur
Ben nicesi vaṣf ideyüm ol şāh-ı dü kevni
Maḥbūb-ı Ḫudā mā-ḥaṣal-ı ‘arż u semādur
Ey ḫᵛāce-i kevneyn ü şeh-i devr-i zamāne
Devrüñde ser-ā-ser dün ü gün Ḥaḳḳa ṣalādur
Her kimse ki şer‘üñ yolını gözlemez ey dost
Sulṭān-ı cihān ise de bī-berg ü nevādur
Evc-i felek-i ḳadr-i refī‘üñde görinen
Gūyā dü cihān mülki hemān cirm-i Sühādur
Yetişdügiçün ṭurra-i müşkīnüñe bir kez
Ḫoş-būy ile ‘ālemde adı bād-ı ṣabādur
Bu ḫaste-dil-i ‘āṣī-i bī-çāre-i mücrim
Yüz süre mi işigüñe kim dār-ı şifādur
Redd itme Münīrī ḳuluñı ḫāk-i derüñden
Çün kān-ı keremsin işüñ iḥsān u ‘aṭādur
Bir nāme-siyehdür bilürem şöyle velīkin
Her ḥāl ile ol ḫāk-i reh-i āl-i ‘abādur
Cürm ü günehüm çoḳdur iñen yüzüme urma
Şehden kerem ü luṭf u ḳuluñ işi ḫaṭādur
Ey ẓāt-ı şerīf ālüñ ü aṣḥābuña her dem
Minnet Ḥaḳa işüm ki dürūd ile du‘ādur
Ben rū-siyehüñ tuḥfesi sen ser-vere lāyıḳ
Hergiz bilürem yoḳ durur illā ki s̱enādur

In English

1. O heart, do you not know that the world is the realm of mortality? Yet to go mad for its sake is a great calamity for a person.

2. You were never given a letter of pardon; why then is your conduct every hour so full of error and fault? ("Mektūb-ı mu‘āfiyye" is, in its dictionary sense, a "letter of exemption", a document that frees a person from responsibility.)

3. Do not set your eyes on the expanse of a world that is full from end to end of the arrows of events; for it is the court of fate and decree.

4. Whoever runs in pursuit of it learns at the last breath that man is nothing and void. ("Yilmek" means in its dictionary sense "to run, to hasten".)

5. Beware of being deceived into giving your heart to the old crone of the world; let her not hunt you with guile, for she is one who flaunts her coquetry. ("Āl" means in its dictionary sense "guile"; beside the old crone it can also be read in the sense of "rouge".)

6. O heart, the lodging of the world would have been a fine lodging; but the trouble is that it is a host who treats its guests with cruelty and torment. ("Mihmān-keş" means in its dictionary sense "one who entertains guests"; through the sense "killer" of the word "keş" it is also understood as "killer of guests".)

7. Though in outward form it seems beauty and worth, in meaning its inside is full of poison like a snake.

8. Within this game made of the tumult of the turning of heaven, the bewildered heart is left in wonder without head or foot. ("Bī-ser ü pā" means in its dictionary sense "without head or foot", that is, destitute and helpless.)

9. Who can know what lies behind this veil of the unseen? The stature of heaven has been bent double under the burden of the grief of thought.

10. Do not make the base world a house of idols in your thoughts; for your heart is the treasury of God's secrets.

11. Do not take for a king the one who boasts of his crown and signet ring; the sultan of the world is the one who is a beggar in the world through poverty. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the true sultan is the one who chooses poverty and becomes a beggar; or even the sultan of the world is a beggar in terms of poverty.)

12. If what you call fortune (devlet) leaves you without zeal, a "let" is better than such a thing; it is toil and stubbornness. ("Let" means in its dictionary sense "blow, slap", and it also lies hidden in the last syllable of the word "devlet".)

13. Since you have learned that the foundation of your being is but a moment, what calamity, after all, is this agony of yours? ("Cān-kenlik" means in its dictionary sense the death agony, and figuratively great toil.)

14. You know that your life has no permanence at all; what is this wind of vain desire blowing in your head at every moment? ("Bād-ı hevā" means in its dictionary sense both "blowing air" and "vain desire, pride".)

15. When your noble being has become the purpose of the world's creation, how can it be fitting that you are fallen so low?

16. Is it fitting that you become a byword with a bad name, when the world is full of your voice and its echo?

17. O soul, today you are the ornament of these two worlds; it is a fault to ruin yourself over a trifling matter. ("Yaraşuk" means in its dictionary sense "what becomes one, ornament".)

18. Why should you give your resolve into the hands of the self? Who says that Solomon's ring befits a demon? (There is an allusion to the story of Solomon's signet ring falling into the hands of a demon.)

19. One who follows his self is not human, he is more astray than the beasts; a human being is the one who is today a man of God.

20. Beware of making meanness your habit; you know that the work of a manly person is generosity. ("Ḫisset" means in its dictionary sense "meanness, baseness".)

21. O heart, open your eyes, do not give yourself to heedlessness; even with the days of separation there is still a call to union. ("Ṣalā" means in its dictionary sense "call, invitation".)

22. Though the world looks like a bowl full of deadly poison, to the people of the heart it is still a pleasant cup of delight. ("Helāhil" is, in its dictionary sense, a deadly poison.)

23. Where is the covenant you made on the day of pre-eternity? How could denial be possible, when God is its witness? (The covenant made on the day of pre-eternity is known as the pledge the souls gave to God at creation.)

24. Does anyone profit with false and adulterated coin? What you do in the world in the name of "good works" is hypocrisy and show. ("Ḳalb" means in its dictionary sense both "heart" and "counterfeit coin"; "daġal" is fraud, "zerḳ" hypocrisy.)

25. Neither the aba nor the caftan brings profit or loss; what a person needs is only sincerity and purity of heart. ("‘Abā" is, in its dictionary sense, the coarse woollen cloak of the dervish, and "ḳabā" the caftan.)

26. If you are wise, see that you befriend love; for may a thousand souls of the world be sacrificed to the pain of love's grief.

27. At every moment apply to your world-seeing eye the dust of the feet of the one who follows the Prophet, the pride of the two worlds; for it is the kohl that gives the eye its brightness.

28. Even if you were the king of the realm of mortality, become the servant of that king who is the sultan of eternity.

29. To one who has lost his way in darkness, crime and sin, the candle of his face and his words are the full moon of the dark night.

30. O heart, is it any wonder if the sun of his beauty has lit up the realm of the two worlds? He is the light of God.

31. Can every black-hearted crow take him upon its tongue? He is the one who sings like a nightingale on the night of the Isra. ("Esrā" seems to point to the verse of the Isra that tells of the Night Journey; it also has a likeness of sound with "esrār", "secrets".)

32. Can every base enemy find a way to that Khosrow? His lodging at every moment is the nearness of "denâ". ("Denā" means in its dictionary sense "he drew near" and points to the verse describing the nearness of the Ascension; it makes a play of sound with the word "denī", "base", in the same couplet.)

33. He is the light of the pupil of the world-seeing eye; the hope of heart and soul, the desire of the two worlds.

34. He is the single and peerless pearl in the shell of the world of the soul; for one sight of him the two worlds are worth half the price. ("Dürr-i yetīm" means in its dictionary sense "a single, peerless large pearl"; the word "yetim" (orphan) also recalls that the Prophet grew up an orphan.)

35. His pearl-scattering words are the essence of reason; his life-giving breaths are nourishment to heart and soul.

36. One who does not see his being as the light of God is cross-eyed; what kind of eye is that, may it be put out, it is without light or brightness.

37. At every moment he shows the light of his face; but what keeps it from us is this black face of ours. (The black face stands for sinfulness.)

38. How shall I describe that king of the two realms? He is the beloved of God, the essence of earth and heaven. ("Mā-ḥaṣal" means in its dictionary sense "what results, the essence".)

39. O master of the two worlds and king of the age, in your age, from end to end, night and day, there is a call to God.

40. O friend, whoever does not keep to the path of your sacred law is destitute and without provision, even if he is the sultan of the world. ("Bī-berg ü nevā" means in its dictionary sense "without leaf or provision", that is, poor.)

41. Seen from the summit of the heaven of your lofty worth, the realm of the two worlds seems like the tiny body of the star Suha. (Suha is, in its dictionary sense, a very faint, small star in the constellation of the Great Bear.)

42. Because it once reached your musk-scented lock, the name of the morning breeze is spoken in the world with fragrance.

43. May this sick-hearted, rebellious, helpless and guilty servant rub his face on your threshold, which is a house of healing?

44. Do not turn away your servant Münîrî from the dust of your door; since you are the mine of generosity, your work is bounty and gift.

45. He is a sinner whose record is black, I know this; but in every state he is the dust of the road of the Âl-i abâ. (Âl-i abâ means in its dictionary sense "the people of the cloak" and refers to the Prophet's household.)

46. My crimes and sins are many, do not cast them too much in my face; from the king come grace and kindness, and from the servant fault. ("İñen" means in its dictionary sense "very, much".)

47. O noble being, thanks be to God that my work at every moment is blessings and prayers upon your family and your companions.

48. I know that the gift of a black-faced one like me, fit for a lord like you, is nothing at all but praise.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a Turkish kaside (qasida) of forty-eight couplets and bears the number Kaside 6 in the edition. The kaside is a long verse form in which both lines of the first couplet and the second lines of the other couplets run on the same rhyme. The metre is the "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün" pattern of the hezec measure. The rhyme is the sound "-ā" (fenā, belā, ḫaṭā, ḳażā, hebā, ‘anā, revā, ṣadā, seḫā); the redif (refrain word) is "-dur". The heading in the edition is "Fī'l-mev‘iẓa ve'n-neṣāyiḥ", "On admonition and counsel". Ersoy counts this poem as one of the two admonitory (mev‘iza) kasides of the divan; the other is the Persian Kaside 5 that comes just before it. The poem is found in all three manuscripts (VT 14a, VY 22b, Ü 9b); in the Vienna manuscript the heading is "Mev‘iza", in the Istanbul manuscript "ve lehū" (another of his). According to Ersoy's apparatus, couplet 25 is missing from the Vatican manuscript and couplet 45 from the Istanbul manuscript. Some of the variant readings affect the sense: in couplet 21 the Istanbul manuscript reads "gaflete salma" (do not cast into heedlessness) for "gaflete virme", and in couplet 48 the Vatican manuscript reads "Hüsreve" (to the Khosrow) for "ser-vere" (to the lord). There is no information on for whom or when it was written.

Ersoy and the TDV article say that the influence of Ahmed Paşa and Atâyî stands out in Münîrî's Turkish kasides. Ersoy also states that the kasides written in this metre with the rhyme "-ā" are nazires (response poems) to Ahmed Paşa, and adds that one of them bears the heading Bahariyyât. The statement is in the plural and this kaside carries the same metre and rhyme; but since Ersoy does not name the kasides by number here, it is not certain whether this poem falls under his finding.

Although the heading presents the poem as a kaside of admonition, the text is built of two parts. The first twenty-six couplets are counsels addressed to the heart: the transience of the world, not following the self, generosity, sincerity and love. When "the pride of the two worlds" is named in couplet 27, the poem turns to praise of the Prophet, that is, to the na‘t; couplets 28-42 tell of the Prophet's light, his Ascension and his exaltedness. After couplet 43 the poet speaks of his own sinfulness and asks for intercession. The pen name (mahlas) appears in couplet 44 in the form "Münīrī", and the last two couplets end with blessings and with praise offered as a gift.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the admonitory section the world, through a likeness also seen in couplet 15 of the Persian Kaside 5, is an old crone (5); outwardly beautiful, inwardly poisonous like a snake (7); a host who torments its guests (6). The word "mihmān-keş" in this last couplet is a phrase built on cinas (pun): in Persian "keş" means both one who draws or bears and one who kills; the world is both host and killer of guests. In couplet 5 the word "āl" names guile, and beside the old crone it also calls up the sense of rouge. In couplet 12 the play between "devlet" and "let" is a good example of Münîrî's fondness for cinas: a blow lies hidden within fortune, and fortune that leaves a person without zeal is worse than a blow. In couplet 24 the word "ḳalb" is used with tevriye (double entendre) in the senses of both heart and counterfeit coin; insincere good works are likened to trading with false money. In couplet 25 the dervish's aba and the fine caftan are compared within the same sound pattern.

Allusions are dense in both the admonitory and the na‘t sections. Solomon's ring is recalled in couplet 18, the covenant made on the day of pre-eternity in couplet 23. Couplet 19, like couplet 36 of the Persian Kaside 5, counts one who follows his self as more astray even than the beasts; the same word "eḍal" is used in both poems. In the na‘t section couplets 31 and 32 recall the Ascension; in couplet 32 the words "denî" (base) and "denā" (he drew near) set the baseness of the enemy against the Prophet's nearness to God on a single sound. The phrase "dürr-i yetīm" in couplet 34 suggests both the peerless pearl and the Prophet's orphanhood. In couplet 41 the two worlds appearing as small as the star Suha enlarges the praise through hyperbole.

The old words of Münîrî's Turkish can also be seen in the kaside: "yilmek" in the sense of running (4), "yaraşuk" in the sense of ornament (17), "let" in the sense of blow and "yeg" in the sense of better (12), "iñen" in the sense of very (46). The words "şehden kerem ü luṭf u ḳuluñ işi ḫaṭādur" in couplet 46 are built like a proverb filling the whole second line; the poet ties his wish for pardon to a general maxim. "Âl-i abâ" in couplet 45, for its part, calls back the word "‘abā" of couplet 25; set against the outward appearance counted worthless in the admonitory section, the exaltation here of the aba as the name given to the Prophet's household is notable.

Bibliography

Online sources