Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘ilün fe‘ūlün

Bizümile işüñ cefā efendi
Ādem mi döyer buña efendi
Sen baña ne deñlü kim sögersin
Ben saña ḳılam du‘ā efendi
Senden niçesi vefā uma dil
Çün ‘ömrde yoḳ vefā efendi
İḳbāl virürdi el ger itsem
Sen servle merḥabā efendi
Raḥm eyle Basīrī ḳuluña kim
Oldı saña mübtelā efendi

In English

1. Your whole business with us is cruelty, master; can a human being bear this, master?

2. However much you curse me, let me pray for you, master.

3. How should the heart hope for faithfulness from you, since even life has no faithfulness, master.

4. O cypress-tall master, if I could but exchange greetings with you, fortune would lend me its hand, that is, luck would smile on me. (With the edition's reading "Sen servle" the couplet is not fully clear; the translation rests on the sense "with you, O cypress".)

5. Have mercy on your servant Basîrî, for he has fallen for you, master.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets in the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "mef‘ūlü mefā‘ilün fe‘ūlün"; the edition does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. With this reading the word "Bizümile" in the first line adds a syllable to the line; the metre requires the word to be read as "bizümle", in three syllables. The redif (refrain word) is "efendi", master; the rhyme is the sound "-ā": cefā, buña, du‘ā, vefā, merḥabā, mübtelā. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXVIII in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most distinctive feature of the ghazal is its redif. Every couplet ends with the address "efendi", and the beloved speaks as a master, the lover as his servant. This address brings the established master and servant relationship of love poetry close to everyday speech; the couplets read like the direct words of a complaint and a plea. The plain, conversational manner of the ghazal agrees with the judgement, which Kartal also records, that there is little artful play on meaning in Basîrî's poetry and that his expression is easy.

The first couplet defines the beloved's cruelty as a "business": the beloved's whole dealing with the lover is torment. The question "Ādem mi döyer", can a human bear this, gives the complaint with the plainness of a common saying. The second couplet is built on a contrast: the more the beloved curses, the more the lover prays. This opposition between curse and prayer shows the lover's submission. Kartal too notes that Basîrî made the beloved's torments a habit and received them as favours.

The third couplet rests on a maxim: even life has no faithfulness, so how can faithfulness be expected from the beloved? In divan poetry both life and the beloved are associated with faithlessness; the poet joins these two familiar judgements by a piece of reasoning. In the fourth couplet the beloved is likened to a cypress. The cypress stature is in divan poetry the counterpart of the beloved's tall, straight figure; the lover counts even being able to say "merhaba", hello, to such a one as a favour of fortune. The phrase "iḳbāl el virmek" calls to mind both fortune lending its help and the stretching out of a hand in greeting; a congruence of images (tenasüp) is formed between greeting and giving one's hand. In the last couplet the master and servant relationship is stated outright: "Basīrī ḳuluñ", your servant Basîrî, has fallen for his master and hopes for his mercy.

Bibliography

Online sources