Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Dil zebūn u leşker-i ġam bī-‘aded
Yā İlāhe’l-‘ālemīn senden meded
Muṣḥaf-ı ḥüsn içre ḳaddi bir elif
Ol elif üzre mu‘anber ḳaşı med
Serv-ḳadler gerçi çoḳ durur velī
Saña boydaş olımaz bir serv-ḳad
Yıḳmasun diyü cihānı seyl-i eşk
Kirpigüm her yañadan baġladı sed
Diñle bir dem mācerā-yı eşkümi
Ḳapuña sāyil gelüpdür itme red
Tā dehānuñdan işitdüm bir nefes
Ḫıżr gibi bulmışam ‘ömr-i ebed
Ḫil‘at-ı şāhiye baş indirmezem
Ey Baṣīrī neme yitmez bir nemed

In English

1. The heart is helpless and the army of grief past counting; O God of the worlds, help from You.

2. In the Qur'an of beauty her stature is an alif, and above that alif her ambergris-scented eyebrow is a madda. (Alif is the perfectly straight first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and the madda the wavy lengthening sign placed above it; the stature is likened to the alif and the curved eyebrow to this sign.)

3. Cypress-statured beauties are many, it is true, but no cypress-statured one can be your equal in height. ("Boydaş" means both of the same height and an equal, a match.)

4. So that the flood of tears should not destroy the world, my eyelashes have built a dam on every side.

5. Listen for a moment to the story of my tears; a beggar has come to your door, do not turn him away.

6. Since I heard one breath from your mouth, I have found eternal life like Khidr. (Khidr is believed to have drunk the water of life that grants immortality.)

7. I do not bow my head to the sultan's robe of honour; O Basîrî, what need of mine does a felt cloak not meet? (The robe of honour, hil'at, is the kaftan granted by the sultan; felt is the dervish's poor garment.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets in the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün"; the edition does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The short pattern gives the couplets a tight and concise diction. The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-ed": ‘aded, meded, med, ḳad, sed, red, ebed, nemed. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XIV in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a supplication. The heart is weak, the army of grief countless; the lover asks for help from God. The words army and help are parts of a familiar comparison that presents love as a war. The second couplet carries the finest conceit of the ghazal. Beauty is likened to a Mushaf, a copy of the Qur'an; in this copy the beloved's perfectly straight stature is an alif, and the curved eyebrow above the alif is the madda sign. This congruence of images (tenasüp) between writing and beauty is common in divan poetry; in Basîrî the shape of the letter and the line of the face coincide exactly. Calling the eyebrow "mu‘anber", scented with ambergris, also links black ink with the black brow.

In the third couplet it is said that, for all the many cypress-statured beauties, none can be "boydaş" to the beloved. The word expresses both being of the same height and being an equal and a match; so praise built on stature turns into a judgement of comparison. In the fourth couplet hyperbole comes to the fore. The lover's tears have become such a flood that they could destroy the world, and his eyelashes have built a dam on every side to prevent it. That the eyelashes ring the eye like a fence makes the image of the dam seem natural.

In the fifth couplet the lover is a beggar who has come to the door and asks not to be turned away; the words "sāyil", beggar, and "red", rejection, together form a congruence of images. In the sixth couplet a single word heard from the beloved's mouth is held equal to the eternal life Khidr found. "Nefes" means both a word and a breath, and recalls a life-giving breath. In the closing couplet the poet says he will not bow his head to the robe of honour granted by the sultan, that a felt cloak will suffice him. Felt is the coarse covering worn by dervishes; the closeness in sound between "neme" and "nemed" forms a pun. According to the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire), Basîrî was a poet who received yearly grants from the sultans and attended the gatherings of the great men of state; this couplet praising contentment may therefore also be read as standing in contrast with his life. The sources do not draw this connection; it is only one possible reading.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 180, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Books

Online sources