Original Persian Text

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

‘İzzetem nezd-i seg-i kūyet füzūn şod behr-i ān
Her geh ārem tuḥfe ḫod-rā ya‘nī muşt-ı üstüḫᵛān
Merdüm-i çeşm-i siyehdür cevşen altından deñer
Zülfüñ ucından görinen dāne-i ḫālüñ hemān
Ān seg-i kū yār-ı dīrīn-i menest ender-miyān
Ger nemek ḥaḳḳī ne-dāred hest bārī ḥaḳḳ-ı nān
Çeşm-i ḫūn-rīzüñle gören ḳaşlaruñ yāsını dir
Türkdür bīmār gūyā başı ucında kemān
Der-reh-i sevdā-yı ‘ışḳ-ı yār ger şod cān-ı men
Şod ṭufeyl-i rūḥam ey dil ‘ālem-i bālā-yı cān
Görüp ol serv-i revānuñ seyrini didi Münīr
Yetişürem ben de ol serve virürse ‘ömr emān
Dil görüp dürr-i bināgūşını yārüñ didi kim
Gerçi kevkebdür ḳılur her laḥẓa şems ile ḳırān

In English

1. My esteem with the dog of your street has grown for this reason: each time I bring it myself as a gift, that is, a handful of bones.

2. The grain of your mole seen at the tip of your curls is the very match of the pupil of a black eye looking out from beneath a coat of mail. (The couplet is in Turkish, and Ersoy does not give its meaning. We have taken the word "deñer" in the sense of "is worth, matches"; the construction of the line is not entirely clear. According to Ersoy's apparatus, the Vatican manuscript has "içinden" (from within) in place of "ucından" (at the tip).)

3. That dog of the street is my old friend between us; even if there is no right of salt, there is at least the right of bread.

4. Whoever sees the bow of your brows together with your blood-shedding eye says: a sick Turk lies there, and at his head, as it were, hangs a bow. (The couplet is in Turkish; "yā" in old Turkish means bow.)

5. O heart, if my soul goes along the way of passion for the beloved's love, the higher world of the soul becomes a hanger-on following my spirit. (The couplet can be read in two ways: "ṭufeyl", in its dictionary sense, means one who comes uninvited in another's train, a dependant; Ersoy understands the line as "my spirit, like a little child, rises to the heaven of the soul".)

6. Seeing the walk of that swaying cypress, Münîr said: if life grants me respite, I too shall reach that cypress. (The couplet is in Turkish.)

7. Seeing the pearl in the beloved's earlobe, the heart said: though it is a star, every moment it comes into conjunction with the sun. (The couplet is in Turkish; according to Ersoy's apparatus it is missing from the Vienna manuscript.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet ghazal (gazel); in the edition it is the hundred and twenty-eighth of the Persian ghazals (fg 128). The edition places it among the Persian ghazals, and Ersoy gives the meaning of only couplets 1, 3 and 5. Couplets 2, 4, 6 and 7, whose meaning is not given, are Turkish: endings and words such as "siyehdür", "görinen", "zülfüñ", "didi", "yetişürem" and "ḳılur" show this clearly. The ghazal is thus a mülemma (macaronic poem) in which Persian and Turkish couplets are mixed. The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains; the rhyme is the sound "-ān": üstüḫᵛān, hemān, nān, kemān, cān, emān, ḳırān. Ersoy counts this ghazal among his examples of kafiye-i müreddefe (rhyme with a long vowel before the rhyme letter). The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 92b) and Vienna (VY 73a) manuscripts. The pen name (mahlas) is in the sixth couplet, and one more couplet follows it; this last couplet is missing from the Vienna manuscript. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The Persian first and third couplets describe the relationship between the lover and the dog in the beloved's street. The lover offers himself, that is, a handful of bones, to the dog and so gains esteem in its eyes; the same image occurs in the second couplet of fg 121, a little earlier in the edition. In the third couplet the dog is the lover's old friend, and between them there is, if not the whole of the proverbial right of salt and bread, at least its bread. "Nemek" (salt) and "nān" (bread) together recall a well-known idiom of friendship and loyalty.

The Turkish couplets are built with images of war and of stars. In the second couplet the twisting curls are likened to a coat of mail woven ring by ring, and the mole seen at the tip of the curls to the pupil of a black eye looking out from under the mail. In the fourth couplet the beloved's eye is likened to a sick Turk, and the brow to the bow hanging at his bedside. In divan poetry the languid look of the eye is called the "sick eye", while Turk is the familiar epithet of the beautiful, warlike beloved. "Ḫūn-rīz" (blood-shedding), "kemān" (bow) and "yā" (bow) form a congruence of images (tenasüp). Since the bow of the brow stands right above the eye, the image of the bedside is apt.

The fifth couplet raises the ghazal to a Sufi height: if the lover's soul goes the way of love, even the higher world follows in its train. In the sixth couplet the beloved is called "serv-i revān", the cypress that walks swaying; the word "seyr", in its dictionary sense, means both walking and watching. The Turkish verb "yetişmek" also means both to reach someone and to grow up tall like a sapling; used with the cypress, it calls up this second sense as well. This double entendre (tevriye) is our own observation.

The last couplet speaks the language of astronomy. The pearl in the earlobe is a star, and the beloved's face is the sun. "Ḳırān", in its dictionary sense, is the coming together of two heavenly bodies in the same sign of the zodiac; since the pearl stands right beside the face, it is every moment in conjunction with the sun. "Kevkeb" (star), "şems" (sun) and "ḳırān" (conjunction) form a congruence of images.

Bibliography

Online sources