Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Biz ki reyḥān ḫaṭṭuñuñ ḥayrānıyuz
Dem-be-dem yā ḳaşlaruñ ḳurbānıyuz
Bilmezem ki n’eyledi zülf-i ḫamuñ
Key perīşān-ḥāl ü ser-gerdānıyuz

In English

1. We, who are admirers of your basil-like down, are every moment a sacrifice to your bow-brows. I do not know what your curling lock has done; we are so very distraught and dizzy-headed. (We have understood the word "yā" as "bow" and, from the context, the word "key" as "very".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a four-line tuyugh; in the edition it is the fourteenth of the tuyughs (tyğ 14). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The rhyme is the sound "-ānı" and the redif is the suffix "-yuz" (we are): ḥayrānıyuz, ḳurbānıyuz, ser-gerdānıyuz; the third line ("ḫamuñ") is unrhymed. The quatrain is found in all three manuscripts (VT 178b, VY 150a, Ü 62b). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The phrase "reyḥān ḫaṭ" in the first line carries two senses. The Kubbealtı gives "hat" the senses script and the beard and moustache newly appearing on the young, and "reyhan" the sense sweet basil. "Reyhânî", according to the same dictionary, is a style of calligraphy in the character of muhakkak and of the thickness of nesih. The down on the beloved's face is green like basil; at the same time it recalls the script called "reyhânî". The TDV records that Münîrî himself states that he wrote in all kinds of calligraphy; carrying a term of the art of writing into the language of love gains meaning together with this information (our reading).

We have understood the word "yā" in the second line as "bow", on the basis of the likening of the eyebrow to a bow; the word can also be read as the conjunction "ya" (or), but this reading does not fit the sense of the line. The lovers are admirers of the down and a sacrifice to the brows. In the last two lines a likeness is drawn between the hair and the lover: the Kubbealtı explains "sergerdan" as dizzy-headed, distraught. The hair is curled and dishevelled; the lover too has become distraught and dizzy because of it. The words "bilmezem ki n'eyledi", I do not know what it has done, express this likeness as bewilderment.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

Online sources