Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫālī olmaz derd ü miḥnetden bu göñlüm meskeni
Tañrı gūyā kim belāyiçün yaratmışdur meni
Ḫāne-i derd u belādur ‘ışḳ şehrinde tenüm
Gözlerüm her yañadan olmışdur anuñ revzeni
Sīne-i sūzānum içinde vaṭan dutan göñül
Beñzer ol dīvāneye kim mesken itmiş gülḫanı
Zaḫmını şemşīrüñüñ dimek diler dil dōstum
K’āteş-i āhıyile peykāndan itmiş sūzeni
Ey Baṣīrī rūz-i ‘ömrüm āh u zārile giçer
Rūzgārum ger bunuñ gibi giçerse vā beni

In English

1. This dwelling of my heart is never empty of pain and trouble; it is as if God created me for affliction.

2. In the city of love my body is a house of pain and affliction; my eyes have become its windows on every side.

3. The heart that has made its home within my burning breast is like that madman who has taken the bath-furnace for his dwelling. (The külhan is the furnace where the fire of the bath-house was lit; it is known that the homeless and vagabonds slept at night in the warm ashes of these furnaces.)

4. My friend, the heart wishes to sew up the wound of your sword, for with the fire of its sigh it has made itself a needle from the arrowhead. (The word printed "dimek" in the edition has been read as "dikmek", to sew, for the sense; the reading is not certain.)

5. O Basîrî, the day of my life passes in sighs and laments; if my time passes like this, woe is me.

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‘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 "-eni": meskeni, meni, revzeni, gülḫanı, sūzeni, beni. The word "gülḫanı" in the third couplet fits the rhyme only approximately. In the first line of the fourth couplet the word "dimek" is printed in this form in the edition, where the sense requires "dikmek". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXV in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The main theme of the ghazal is the feeling of having been created for affliction. In the opening couplet the lover's heart is a dwelling that pain and trouble never leave; the poet says that God seems to have created him for "belā", affliction. In divan poetry the word "belā" often forms a double entendre (tevriye) by being tied to the Feast of Elest, the moment at creation when souls said "belā", yes, to God; such an association may be sensed in this couplet too, but the couplet does not openly develop it.

The second and third couplets build a picture of a city and a house. In the city of love the lover's body is a house of pain and affliction; his eyes are the windows of this house opening on every side. The congruence of images (tenasüp) among house, city and window creates a picture in which the body becomes a building. In the third couplet this house turns into the furnace of a bath. The lover's heart lives within his burning breast and resembles a madman who has made the furnace his home. The külhan is the furnace where the bath's fire was lit, and the homeless sheltering in its warm ash are a familiar image in divan poetry. This likeness drawn between the burning of the breast and the fire of the furnace, between the heart and the madman, makes the couplet both painful and witty.

In the fourth couplet the lover wishes to sew up the wound opened by the beloved's sword; for this he has forged the needle he needs from the arrowhead in the fire of his sigh. The words fire, arrowhead and needle recall a smithy. Even the arrow the beloved shot becomes, in the lover's hand, a tool to stitch his own wound. In the closing couplet there is a link of sound between "rūz", day, and "rūzgār", time and age. The days of life pass in sighs and laments, and the poet pities himself should his life go on like this. The colloquial exclamation "vā beni", woe is me, closes the ghazal with a plain complaint.

Bibliography

Online sources