Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Tā ki düşdi ‘ışḳ ile bī-çāre dil
Bulmadı derdine hergiz çāre dil
Ḳābil-i merhem degüldür ḥāṣılı
Tīr-i ġamzeñden yidiyse yara dil

In English

1. Ever since the helpless heart fell into love, it has never found a remedy for its pain. In short, if the heart has taken a wound from the arrow of your glance, that wound is not one that a salve can heal.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a four-line tuyugh; in the edition it is the third of the tuyughs (tyğ 3). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif is the word "dil" (heart); the rhyme is formed by the words "bī-çāre", "çāre" and "yara". The third line ("ḥāṣılı") is unrhymed, which fits the "a a x a" pattern that the TDV gives for the tuyugh. The quatrain is found in all three manuscripts (VT 177a, VY 148b, Ü 61a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The rhyme words of the first two lines come from the same root: the "bī-çāre" (helpless, literally remedy-less) heart cannot find a "çāre" (remedy) for its pain. The word entering the rhyme first in its negative and then in its positive form states helplessness twice through a play of sound. "Yara" (wound) in the fourth line also comes close to these two words in sound; the tuyugh's fondness for punning rhyme appears in this quatrain of Münîrî not as a full pun but as a repetition of near sounds.

The last two lines pronounce a verdict with the word "ḥāṣılı", in short. The TDV notes that in the tuyugh the first two or three lines prepare the ground for the thought and the verdict is stated briefly and pithily in the last line; this quatrain follows that pattern. The Kubbealtı explains "gamze" as looking from the corner of the eye with a languid glance; this glance is an arrow, and the wound it opens is one that no salve can close. The Kubbealtı gives "bîçâre" the senses helpless, powerless, and "çâre" the senses way out and medicine, cure; under "merhem" (salve) it cites Râmi Paşa's line "Biz ol âşıklarız kim dâğımız merhem kabûl etmez" (we are those lovers whose brand accepts no salve). The words salve, wound and remedy come from the field of medicine, and there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among them. The wound's not healing is spoken as a complaint, but it is at the same time a praise of the depth of love (our reading).

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