Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ḥüsnüñdür āftāb anuñ māh gencidür
Ḳaddin mehüñ hilāl iden ebruñ rencidür
Naḳş itdi levḥ-i ḥüsnüñe ṭāvūs ḳuyruġı
Gūyā berāt-ı ḥüsnüñe zülfüñ nişāncıdur
Ḫaṭṭ-ı ʿiẕār u ḫāl-i ruḫ u zülf ü kirpügüñ
Her biri ḫaste dillere bir ḳara ṣancıdur
Mihrī ʿaceb mi mihrüñi sīnemde ṣaḳlasam
Dil şehryārınuñ hele gör key güvencidür
ʿAhdüm budur ki būseñe ḳarşunda cān virem
Ṣun leblerüñi ṣanma Maḳāmī yalancıdur

In English

1. The sun is your beauty, and the moon is its treasure; what bends the moon's stature into a crescent is the distress caused by your eyebrow.

2. The peacock's tail has worked ornament on the tablet of your beauty; it is as if your lock were the nişancı who draws the monogram on the patent of your beauty.

3. The down on your cheek, the mole on your face, your lock and your eyelashes: each of them is a black pang piercing sick hearts.

4. O Mihrî, is it strange if I keep your love hidden in my breast; see how trusted a treasure it is for the sovereign of the heart. Since "mihr" means both love and the sun, the poet plays on Mihrî's name.

5. My vow is this: to give up my life before you in return for your kiss. Offer your lips; do not think Makâmî a liar.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets; its rhyme and refrain (redif) are built on the sound group "-ncıdur" at the end of the words "gencidür, rencidür, nişāncıdur, ṣancıdur, güvencidür, yalancıdur". The poet's pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre; Mihrî's reply on the same pattern is given in Mehmet Arslan's edition in the metre mef'ûlü fâilâtü mefâîlü fâilün. The text is taken from Âşık Çelebi; according to the edition's note, the word "Gūyā" in the second couplet reads "ṣankim" in manuscripts B, A, S and F. The fourth couplet addresses Mihrî by name, so it is clear that the poem was written directly to her.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with praise that raises the beloved's beauty above the brightest bodies of the universe. The sun is her very beauty, the moon the treasury of that beauty; the moon's bending into a crescent is a distress born of envy of the beloved's eyebrow. The second couplet brings an image taken from the chancery: the peacock's colourful tail adorns the tablet of beauty, and the lock is like the nişancı who draws the monogram (tuğra) on the patent of beauty. The nişancı was the official of the imperial council who drew the tuğra on the sultan's decrees; the curling lock is likened to the curved lines of the tuğra. In the third couplet the down on the cheek, the mole, the lock and the eyelash are listed one by one, and each becomes a "black pang" piercing the heart; the shared black colour works together with the double sense of "sancı", both pain and piercing.

The fourth couplet is the wittiest point of the ghazal. "Mihr" in Persian means both sun and love; when the poet says he keeps Mihrî's love hidden in his breast, he ties the sun image of the first couplet to her name. "Dil şehryârı", the sovereign of the heart, guards this love like a secure treasure. In the last couplet the lover vows to give his life in return for a kiss and asks to be believed: do not think "Makâmî yalancıdur", that Makâmî is a liar. This last line is a typical example of the use of the pen name, in which the poet speaks of himself in the third person.

Historical Context

According to Âşık Çelebi, Makâmî and Mihrî Hatun were contemporaries and kept company at Prince Ahmed's court in Amasya. The biographer writes that Makâmî sent this ghazal to Mihrî "üzilmek üslûbında" and immediately gives Mihrî's reply. In her reply, written in the same metre, rhyme and refrain, Mihrî turns down Makâmî's compliments: her beauty is neither the sun nor the moon's treasure, her eyebrow is no bow nor her lock a nişancı; from now on her kiss will be "a heartache lasting years". This reply of Mihrî's appears as ghazal 51 in Arslan's edition of the divan and is given on a separate page in the Mihrî Hatun category of our site. Together the two poems are among the rare documents showing male and female poets bantering in verse at the poetic gatherings of Prince Ahmed's court.

Bibliography

Online sources