Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fa‘lün

Ten-i ża‘īf senüñ yārum armaġānumdur
Kim anda nāme-i sencīde üstüḫᵛānumdur
Tenūr-ı āteş-i ġam ola sīne-i sūzān
Anuñ içindeki od şu‘lesi zebānumdur
Kimesne bilmeyiser ża‘f u nā-tüvānlikden
Ki ben miyüm yire düşmiş yaḫūd nişānumdur
Fiġān enīs şeb ü rūz vü nāle hem-nefesem
Elem muṣāḥib u ġam-ı yār mihribānumdur
Bu eşk-i sīmile oldum Baṣīrīyā ḫarāb
Gözüm ḳarası mihek-ḫānesi dükkānumdur

In English

1. My beloved, my feeble body is my gift to you; within it my bones are a letter carefully weighed and written. (The thinned lines of the bones are likened to the lines of a letter.)

2. Let my burning breast be the oven of the fire of grief; the flame of the fire within it is my tongue. (The curling tip of a rising flame is called "zebāne", a tongue.)

3. From weakness and feebleness no one will know whether it is I who have fallen to the ground or only my trace.

4. Lament is my companion night and day, moaning the fellow of my breath; sorrow is my boon companion, and grief for the beloved my loving friend.

5. O Basîrî, I am ruined by these silver tears; the black of my eye is the touchstone room of my shop. (The fineness of silver is learned by rubbing it on a black touchstone; the silver tears are tested on the black of the eye.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets in the müctess family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fa‘lün"; the edition does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The redif (refrain word) is the ending "-umdur"; the rhyme is the sound "-ān": armaġān, üstüḫᵛān, zebān, nişān, mihribān, dükkān. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Baṣīrīyā", O Basîrî. The ghazal is number XXVI 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 lover's frailty. In divan poetry the lovesick is drawn as a body that has wasted away and grown thin; Basîrî ties this frailty to a different image in each couplet. In the opening couplet the lover offers his feeble body to the beloved as a gift. The bones within the body are a "nāme-i sencīde", a carefully weighed and composed letter. The lines of the thinned bones resemble the lines of a letter; the lover's body becomes a love letter sent to the beloved and waiting to be read.

In the second couplet the breast is turned into an oven. The fire of grief burns in this oven, and the curling tip of the flame is the lover's tongue. That in Persian the tip of a flame is called "zebāne", a little tongue, forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) with "zebān", tongue: the lover's speech is the flame of the fire within him breaking out. In the third couplet frailty reaches its extreme. The lover has grown so thin that no one can tell whether it is he who lies on the ground or only his trace. The word "nişān" means both trace and sign; the reduction of the body to a shadow or a line is a fine example of hyperbole.

In the fourth couplet the lover's loneliness is described like a gathering of friends. But the members of this gathering are lament, moaning, sorrow and grief. The words enîs, hemdem, musahib and mihriban, companion, fellow, boon companion and loving friend, form a series of images of companionship; tying these warm words to the names of pain gives the couplet a bitter irony.

The closing couplet is drawn from the language of the jeweller. The lover's tears are like silver, and they have ruined him. The fineness of silver is learned by rubbing it on a touchstone, which is a black stone; the black of the lover's eye is this touchstone. Thus the eye becomes a shop where tears are tested. The congruence of images between silver and touchstone, shop and assay, joins with the contrast of colour between the white tear and the black eye.

Bibliography

Online sources