Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sāḳī yine hengām-ı bahār oldı getür mey
Nūş idelüm ol rūḥ-ı revān-baḫşı pey-ā-pey
Tā ki ḳıla bu ḳavl-i ter-āhengi naġam-ney
Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney
Evrāḳ-ı cemālin yile virdise ne var gül
Ṭutdısa dilin ya n’ola ḫᵛānende-i bülbül
Yād-ı ruḫuñ ile direm içüp ḳadeḥ-i mül
Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney
Bezm-i ġamuñ içre bugün ey dil-ber-i şeh-nāz
Endūhı ḥarīf eylemişem ġuṣsayı hem-rāz
‘Işḳuñ meyini nūş idüben eylerem āġāz
Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney
Ger cām-ı ġam-ı ‘ışḳuñı nūş ideyidi Cem
Cām ile geçen ‘ömri içün yirdi çoḳ ġam
Āḫir bu neşāṭ ile yine dirdi açup fem
Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney
Girdükçe felek çarḫa vü ḳılduḳça yir ārām
Olsun şeh-i devrānumuz emrine cihān rām
Kim ḳulları Cem-vaḳt oluban eyde içüp cām
Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney
Ḥaḳḳā k’olalı devr-i şehenşāh-ı zamāne
‘Ayş ile neşāṭ iş oluban ehl-i cihāna
Çeng ü def ü nāy ile çalınur bu terāne
Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney
Ṣayd itdi Münīrī diyü söyletdi ḥabībi
Öldürdi diseñ ne ġam u raġm ile raḳībi
Demdür ki diyem ben daḫı bu naġme-ṭabībi
Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney

In English

1. Cupbearer, the season of spring has come again, bring wine; let us drink, cup after cup, that wine which grants life to the soul. So that the reed flute may turn this freshly tuned song into melody: "Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney." (The last line is a refrain built of syllables imitating the sound of the ney, the reed flute, and it ends with the word "ney"; the word "dir" among the syllables may also be understood as "der", "says", in which case the line reads "the ney says …". "Ḳavl", in its dictionary sense, means "word, saying"; in music it is also the name of a type of composition.)

2. What does it matter if the rose has given the leaves of its beauty to the wind; what if the singing nightingale has lost its tongue? Remembering your cheek, I drink the cup of wine and say: "Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney." ("Evrāḳ", in its dictionary sense, means both leaves and pages; "yile virmek", to give to the wind, means to scatter and squander. The rose sheds its petals and the nightingale falls silent, yet the lover plays and sings all the same.)

3. O beloved, proud as a king, today in the gathering of your sorrow I have made grief my drinking companion and care my confidant. Drinking the wine of your love, I begin: "Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney." ("Şeh-nāz", in its dictionary sense, means "with a king's pride", and it is also the name of a musical mode (makam); standing next to the words ney and melody, this second meaning also comes to mind. "Ḥarīf" here means a drinking companion.)

4. Had Cem drunk the cup of sorrow of your love, he would have grieved greatly over the life he spent with his cup. In the end, with this joy, he too would open his mouth and say: "Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney." (Cem, in its dictionary sense, is the name of Jamshid, the legendary king of Iran; in divan poetry he is remembered for his cup. The line says that even a life spent with the cup comes to nothing before the cup of love.)

5. As long as the heavens turn and the earth stays at rest, may the world submit to the command of the king of our age. So that his servants, happy in their days like Cem, may drink the cup at the feast and say: "Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney." ("Eyde" means at the feast. "Cem-vaḳt", word for word "of Cem's time", is one who enjoys his days as Cem did.)

6. Truly, since the reign of the king of kings of the age began, the business of the world's people has become pleasure and joy. With the harp (çeng), the frame drum and the ney this tune is played: "Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney."

7. The beloved hunted me down and took the name "Münîrî" on his lips; what matter if you say he killed me to spite the rival. Now it is time for me too to sing this melody that heals all pains: "Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney." (The first line can be read in two ways: the beloved hunted the poet and made him speak his name, or the poet made the beloved say that he had been caught. "Naġme-ṭabīb", word for word "physician of melody", is a tune that cures pain.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a murabba (quatrain stanza poem), that is, a musammat built of four-line stanzas. In the edition it appears as Murabba 1, under the bare heading "Murabba‘", and it consists of seven stanzas, twenty-eight lines in all. The first three lines of each stanza rhyme with one another: "mey / pey-ā-pey / ney" in the first stanza, "gül / bülbül / mül" in the second, "şeh-nāz / hem-rāz / āġāz" in the third, "Cem / ġam / fem" in the fourth, "ārām / rām / cām" in the fifth, "zamāne / cihāna / terāne" in the sixth and "ḥabībi / raḳībi / ṭabībi" in the seventh. The fourth line is a refrain repeated unchanged in every stanza, and through the word "ney" it is tied to the rhyme of the first stanza. Ersoy therefore defines the poem as a "mütekerrir murabba‘", a murabba with a refrain; the TDV article likewise records that the divan contains a "murabba‘-ı mütekerrir". The metre is "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün". Ersoy notes that Münîrî wrote his terci-bends, his murabba and his tahmis in metres of the hezec family; this murabba and the Persian tahmis that immediately follows it are written in the same pattern.

The murabba is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 174a). According to Ersoy, a copyist's error placed the poem among the ghazals in that manuscript; in the edition it takes its place among the musammats, after the kasides and terci-bends. It is the only murabba in the divan. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Ersoy describes the poem as an emotional, exuberant piece that speaks of the cupbearer, spring, the beloved and the sound of the ney. Its most distinctive feature is its refrain. In the line "Tā din dere dir tān tenā ten tene dir ney" the only meaningful word is the final "ney"; the remaining syllables imitate the sound of the reed flute and the instruments of the gathering. Each stanza is thus built as speech and closes with a tune: in the first stanza the ney turns the words into melody, in the second the lover drinks the cup and sings this sound, in the fourth even Cem opens his mouth and repeats the tune, in the sixth the same air is played on harp, drum and ney. Throughout the poem the refrain works like the chorus of a song sung at a drinking party.

The content of the stanzas moves from spring and the gathering to love, from there to a prayer and praise, and finally to the stanza with the pen name (mahlas). The first four stanzas work the familiar images of spring poetry and the drinking party: the cupbearer, wine, rose, nightingale and the beloved's cheek. In the third stanza the lover has sat down at the gathering of sorrow and made grief his drinking companion and care his confidant; sorrow itself is thus described as a gathering. The fifth and sixth stanzas pray for the king called "şeh-i devrān" and "şehenşāh-ı zamāne" and say that under his reign the world has found joy. The king's name does not appear in the poem, so the text does not allow us to say who is meant. In the seventh stanza the pen name comes with the image of the beloved hunting the poet and killing him to spite the rival.

In terms of figures of speech the poem is an example of congruence of images (tenasüp): the words ney, ḳavl, naġam, terāne, çeng, def and nāy call up one another from the field of music, and sāḳī, mey, ḳadeḥ, mül and cām from the field of the drinking party. That "şeh-nāz" is also the name of a musical mode creates the possibility of a double entendre (tevriye) among these musical words. The mention of Cem in the fourth stanza is an allusion: the king remembered for his cup, had he tasted the cup of love's sorrow, would have mourned the life he spent with his own cup. The expression "Cem-vaḳt" in the fifth stanza ties the same name, this time, to the king's servants. In the second stanza the rose shedding its leaves and the nightingale falling silent recall the transience of spring, yet the lover is said to go on drinking in memory of the beloved's cheek; that the word "evrāḳ" carries the meanings of both leaf and page gives this stanza an added depth of sound and sense.

Bibliography

Online sources