Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Görmedüñ āh yüzi lālemizi
Dilber-i ‘anberīn külālemizi
İçmezüz şīşe-i felekden mey
Ger melāl eylese piyālemizi
Da‘va-yı ḳan ider göñül güzele
Bir güzel ḳul idüñ ḥavālemizi
O ṣanem zīr ü bemm terāne ṣanur
İşidürse fiġān u nālemizi
Ey Basīrī o ḳara yüzlü raḳīb
Alile ala gözi alamızı

In English

1. Alas, you have not seen our tulip-faced one, our heart-stealer with ambergris-scented curls.

2. We do not drink wine from the flask of the sky, even if it fills our goblet with sorrow. (The line can be read in two ways: "melāl eylese" may mean that the goblet is filled with sorrow or that the goblet grows weary and stays empty.)

3. The heart brings a suit for blood against that beauty; transfer our claim to a fair slave. (The couplet can be read in two ways: it may ask that a fair slave be assigned to the lover in place of blood money; or, taking "bir güzel" as "nicely", it may say "duly transfer our claim to a slave".)

4. That idol, if she hears our cries and moans, takes them for a melody of treble and bass. ("Zīr ü bem", the thin and thick strings of the lute, hence high and low notes.)

5. O Basîrî, that black-faced rival takes our ala-eyed one by trickery. (The couplet is a play on the words "āl", trickery, "ala", light-coloured or dappled, and "almak", to take; its sense is not entirely certain.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets in the hafif family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "fā‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün"; the edition does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The redif (refrain word) is the ending "-mizi", our; the rhyme is the sound "-āle": lāle, külāle, piyāle, ḥavāle, nāle. "Alamızı" in the closing couplet fits the rhyme only approximately, with its back vowels. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXVII in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal's refrain "-mizi" creates a diction in which the lover speaks of himself as "we"; the beloved too is claimed as "our tulip", "our heart-stealer". In the opening couplet the beloved's face is red as a tulip, her curls fragrant as ambergris; the word "külāle", curl, forms a fine harmony of sound with "lāle" in the rhyme. The couplet has the tone of someone trying to describe the beloved to a person who has never seen her.

In the second couplet the sky is thought of as a cupbearer. Wine is not drunk from the sky's flask, because it fills the cup only with sorrow. The congruence of images (tenasüp) among flask, wine and goblet turns the heavens into a drinking party. The third couplet uses the language of law and trade. The heart has brought a "da‘va-yı ḳan", a suit for blood, against the beloved, for the beloved has killed it. In return the lover asks that a fair slave be transferred to him. The words suit, blood money and transfer present the pain of love like a court case.

In the fourth couplet the lover's cry becomes music in the beloved's ear. "Zīr ü bem" are the thin and thick strings of the lute; the beloved takes the lover's moaning for a melody of high and low notes. That the lover's pain should be entertainment for the beloved gives the couplet a bitter irony. The words fiġān, nāle, zīr ü bem and terāne, cry, moan, treble and bass, and melody, form a congruence of images from the field of sound and music.

The closing couplet is woven of wordplay. The "ḳara yüzlü", black-faced, rival is one who does shameful deeds; "āl" means trickery; an "ala" eye is a large, bright, light-coloured eye; and "alamızı" means "our ala one", that is, our ala-eyed beloved. The colour contrast between black and ala and the pun among the words "al", "ala" and "almak" carry the couplet. According to the sources, Basîrî was called "Alaca Basîrî", dappled Basîrî, because of a skin disease; whether the word "ala" in the couplet alludes to this nickname is not known, and it may be considered only one possible reading.

Bibliography

Online sources