Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ben seni mülk-i dile şeh bilürem şāh bilür
Yüzüñe māh direm yigiregin Allāh bilür
Gün yüzüñ māhiyyetin ben ne bilem āy kim
Gün yüzüñ māhiyyetin mihr bilür māh bilür
Gelsün iki gözümüñ birini mesken ḳılsun
Her kişi k’ol ṣanemüñ işigine rāh bilür
Dūr senden yine ey rūḥu revān ḫaste göñül
Gāh bilmez özini derdüñile gāh bilür
Ey Baṣīrī ne bilür sözüñi her ġāfil kim
Ehl-i taḥḳīḳ sözin merdüm-i āgāh bilür

In English

1. I know you as the king of the realm of the heart, the King knows it; I call your face the moon, but God knows it is better than the moon. (The couplet can be read in two ways: "şāh bilür", the King knows, may refer to God and be used as an oath, like "Allāh bilür", God knows, in the second line, or it may indeed name the sultan.)

2. O moon, what should I know of the essence of your sun-face; the essence of your sun-face is known to the sun and known to the moon. (In the second line it is said that only the sun and the moon, the two great lights of the sky, can know the essence of the beloved's face.)

3. Let everyone who knows the road to that idol's threshold come and make one of my two eyes his dwelling.

4. O moving soul, the sick heart, far from you once again, now does not know itself with the pain of you, now knows.

5. O Basîrî, what does every heedless man know of your words? The speech of the people of verification is known to the man who is awake. ("Ehl-i taḥḳīḳ", the people of verification, is used in Sufism for those who have attained the truth.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets in the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "fā‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün"; the edition does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The redif (refrain word) is "bilür", knows; the rhyme is the sound "-āh": şāh, Allāh, māh, rāh, gāh, āgāh. In the opening couplet the refrain is used twice and is echoed in the word "bilürem" as well. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XX in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain "bilür" turns the ghazal into a poem of knowledge and witness. In each couplet it is asked who knows a thing: God knows that the beloved is king of the realm of the heart and that her face is fairer than the moon; the sun and moon know the essence of her face; whoever knows the road to her threshold comes and dwells in the lover's eye; the sick heart now knows itself, now does not; and the man who is awake knows the speech of the people of verification. In this sequence knowing becomes a measure of love and of truth.

In the opening couplet "şeh" and "şāh", both meaning king, stand side by side. The lover knows the beloved as the shah of the realm of the heart and confirms its truth with the words "şāh bilür", the King knows. These words may mean God, since in the same place in the second line stands "Allāh bilür", God knows; or they may call a real sultan as witness. In the second line the lover calls the beloved's face the moon but adds that God knows the face is better than the moon; the inadequacy of the comparison is thus confessed.

In the second couplet there is a play of sound between "māh", moon, and "māhiyyet", essence. The lover says he cannot know the essence of the sun-faced beloved; only the sun and the moon know it. That the two lights of the sky should count the beloved's face as one of their own kind raises the face to the heavens. In the third couplet the lover is ready to host in his eye anyone who knows the road to the beloved's door; this phrasing, which recalls the Turkish idiom "he has a place upon my eye", meaning he is most welcome, shows that everything close to the beloved is precious to the lover.

In the fourth couplet "rūḥ-ı revān", moving soul, expresses at once the beloved's liveliness and her going away. Far from the beloved, the sick heart now faints, now comes to itself. The repetition "gāh bilmez ... gāh bilür", now does not know ... now knows, renders in sound this swaying between consciousness and swoon. In the closing couplet the poem turns in a Sufi direction. Not every heedless man can understand Basîrî's words; the speech of the "ehl-i taḥḳīḳ", those who have searched out and found the truth, is known only to the man who is awake, "āgāh". The contrast between the heedless and the aware closes the ghazal with a choice of reader. Kartal notes that Sufism holds an important place in Basîrî's poems.

Bibliography

Online sources