Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fa‘lün

Lebüñi tāb-ı mey-i nābıla gülgūn itdüñ
Yine ey ġonce-dehen yüzüñi ḫūn itdüñ
Uyarup nergisüñi ḫᵛābumı gözden alduñ
Getürüp rā ḳaşuñı ḳāmetümi nūn itdüñ
Leb-i Şīrīnile ‘āşıḳları itdüñ Ferhād
Leylī-yi zülfile ‘āḳilleri Mecnūn itdüñ
Çeşm-i ser-mestüñi biñ nāz u kirişmeyle yine
Fitne ḫᵛābından uyarduñ beni meftūn itdüñ
Ṣalduñ od ḫirmen-i ṣabrına Basīrīnüñ āh
Ey yüzi lāle libāsuñı çü gülgūn itdüñ

In English

1. You made your lip rose-coloured with the warmth of pure wine; O rosebud-mouthed one, again you turned your face the colour of blood. (The beloved who has drunk wine is flushed; the phrase "ḫūn itmek" also recalls the shedding of blood.)

2. Waking your narcissus eye, you took the sleep from my eyes; bringing your eyebrow like the letter "rā", you bent my stature into the letter "nūn". (The curved shape of the eyebrow is likened to "ر", the lover's bent stature to the letter "ن".)

3. With your Shirin lip you turned lovers into Ferhad; with the Leyla of your locks you made the wise into Majnun. ("Şīrīn" means sweet and is also the name of Ferhad's beloved; "Leylī" is both Majnun's beloved and night, and so suits the black locks.)

4. With a thousand airs and coquetries you woke your drunken eye once more from the sleep of mischief and made me enamoured. (The saying "mischief sleeps" is well known; when the beloved's eye wakes, mischief wakes too.)

5. O tulip-faced one, since you dyed your garment rose-red, alas, you set fire to the harvest of Basîrî's patience.

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 "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fa‘lün"; the edition does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The redif (refrain word) is "itdüñ", you made; the rhyme is the sound "-ūn": gülgūn, ḫūn, nūn, Mecnūn, meftūn, gülgūn. The word "gülgūn" of the opening couplet is used again as a rhyme in the closing couplet. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXII in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The refrain "itdüñ", you made, turns the ghazal into an inventory of the beloved's deeds. In each couplet the beloved turns one thing into another: her lip rose-red, her face blood-red, the lover's stature into the letter "nūn", lovers into Ferhad, the wise into Majnun and the lover into one enamoured. In the opening couplet the lip and face of the beloved who has drunk wine are flushed. The word "ḫūn", blood, while describing the colour of the face, also hints that the beloved is a tyrant who sheds blood.

The second couplet rests on a comparison with letters. The shapes of letters are often used in divan poetry to depict beauty and love. The beloved's curved eyebrow is likened to the letter "rā" of the Arabic alphabet, and the lover's stature, bent by grief, to the round letter "nūn". When the beloved's "nergis", narcissus, that is, her eye, wakes, the lover's sleep flees; a contrast is drawn between waking and taking away sleep.

The third couplet names two famous love stories together. Shirin and Ferhad, Leyla and Majnun are the best known pairs of lovers in divan poetry. Because the beloved's lip is sweet, "şīrīn", it turns lovers into Ferhad; because her locks are black as night, "leylī", they make the wise into Majnun. The second meanings of the names Shirin and Leyla form a double entendre (tevriye); the gathering of four lovers' names in one couplet is also a strong congruence of images (tenasüp).

In the fourth couplet the beloved's drunken eye is woken from "the sleep of mischief". The popular saying "mischief sleeps, cursed be he who wakes it" is well known; when the beloved wakes her eye with airs and coquetry, mischief wakes too and makes the lover enamoured. In the closing couplet the rose-coloured garment of the tulip-faced beloved is likened to a fire. This fire has kindled the harvest of Basîrî's patience. The congruence of images between harvest and fire, tulip and rose, completes the course of the colour red through the ghazal, from lip to face and from face to garment.

Bibliography

Online sources