Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Didiyise boyuña zībā niḥāl
Ṭoġrıya ey serv-ḳad yoḳdur zevāl
Zülf yüzüñde cemālüñ cīmidür
Ḫāl-i müşgīn noḳṭa-i cīm-i cemāl
Çīne ḳaşuñ server oldı Hinde zülf
Rūma yüzüñ ḫusrev oldı Şāma ḫāl
Geçdi ‘ömrüm zülf ü yüzüñden ıraḳ
Āh eger böyle giçerse māh u sāl
Ey Baṣīrī daḫı nesne fikr it
Kim ġazel dimeyle ṣayd olmaz ġazāl

In English

1. If they called your stature a lovely sapling, O cypress-statured one, no harm comes to what is straight. ("No harm comes to the straight" is a proverb; "straight" here means both the truthful word and the upright stature.)

2. The curl on your face is the "cīm" of your beauty (of the word cemāl); the musky mole is the dot of the cīm of cemāl. (The word "cemāl", beauty, begins with the letter "ج"; the curled lock is likened to this letter and the mole to the dot beneath it.)

3. Your eyebrow became chief of China and your lock of India; your face became king of Rum and your mole of Damascus. (The names of the lands express colour and shape: "çīn" means a curl or fold, India stands for blackness, Rum for whiteness, and "şām" means evening and darkness.)

4. My life has passed far from your locks and your face; alas, if months and years pass like this. (Since the locks are likened to night and the face to day, a congruence of images is formed with the words month and year.)

5. O Basîrî, think of something else, for a gazelle is not caught by reciting ghazals. (There is a play of sound between "gazel", ghazal, and "ġazāl", gazelle; the gazelle is the beloved.)

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 fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün"; the edition does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-āl": niḥāl, zevāl, cemāl, ḫāl, sāl, ġazāl. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXIV in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on a proverb. The beloved's stature has been called "a lovely sapling", and the words are true; "no harm comes to what is straight". Since the word "ṭoġrı" means both a true word and an upright stature, the proverb fits the beloved's stature as well: the straight cypress never bends or falls. Placing a proverb in the poem in this way is an example of Basîrî's tendency to use the sayings of everyday speech.

The second couplet rests on a comparison with letters. The word "cemāl", beauty, begins in the Arabic alphabet with the letter "cīm"; this letter consists of a curved stroke and a dot beneath it. The curled lock falling on the beloved's face is this cīm, and the black mole on her cheek is the dot of the cīm. Thus the beloved's face turns into the very word "cemāl". This congruence of images (tenasüp) between writing and beauty is frequent in divan poetry, but here the shape of the letter and the line of the face coincide exactly.

The third couplet draws a map of the world. The eyebrow has become ruler of China, the lock of India, the face of Rum and the mole of Damascus. Each of the names of lands expresses a colour or a shape: the word "çīn" means a fold or curl in Persian and suits the arched eyebrow; India is the emblem of black, Rum of white; and "şām", meaning also evening and darkness, meets the black mole. The pairing of four features with four lands in turn creates an order close to the figure known as leff ü neşr (parallel listing). The words "server" and "ḫusrev", chief and king, also tell that beauty is a sovereignty.

In the fourth couplet the lock and the face recall night and day; together with the words month and year, the passing of time enters the picture. The lover's life has passed far from this night and day. In the closing couplet the poet addresses himself: a gazelle is not caught by reciting ghazals, another way must be found. The closeness in sound between "ġazel" and "ġazāl" forms a pun and gives the couplet a witty close. While saying that poetry is not enough to win the beloved, the poet gently mocks his own art.

Bibliography

Online sources