Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fa‘lün

Var mı bir nāle ki ġamdan dili bīmār itmez
N’ideyüm n’eyleyeyüm āh saña kār itmez
Naḳd-i cān aldı dehānuñ ider inkār baña
Ne ḳadar yalvaruram zerrece iḳrār itmez
Gāh cevrin çekerem ol ṣanemüñ geh sıtemin
Yār itdügini ben bī-dile aġyār itmez
Gösterürdüm nic’olur şīve-i erbāb-ı vefā
N’eyleyem ṭāli‘-i dūn yārı baña yār itmez
Var mı bir dem ki Baṣīrī gözini girye ilen
La‘l-i nābuñ hevesiyile güher-bār itmez

In English

1. Is there a moan that does not make the heart sick with grief? What shall I do, what shall I do; my sighs have no effect on you.

2. Your mouth took the ready coin of my soul and denies it to me; however much I plead, it does not admit it in the least. (In divan poetry the beloved's mouth is shown as so small that it hardly exists; here this tiny mouth is likened to a debtor denying a debt.)

3. Sometimes I suffer that idol's cruelty, sometimes her oppression; what the beloved has done to me, heartless as I am, not even the rivals would do.

4. I would show what the manner of the faithful is like; but what can I do, my base fortune does not make the beloved my friend.

5. Is there a moment when Basîrî, out of longing for your pure ruby lips, does not make his eyes scatter pearls with weeping? (Tears are likened to pearls and the lips to rubies.)

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 fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fa‘lün"; the edition does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The redif (refrain word) is "itmez", does not do; the rhyme is the sound "-ār": bīmār, kār, inkār, iḳrār, aġyār, yār, güher-bār. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number III in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

With the redif "itmez" the ghazal lists the things the beloved and fortune do not do for the lover: the sigh has no effect on the beloved, the mouth does not confess, not even a rival torments like this, fortune does not make the beloved a friend, the eye does not cease scattering pearls. This negative refrain gives the whole ghazal an air of helplessness. In the first couplet the moans that make the heart sick with grief are counted, yet none of them "kâr etmez", has any effect, on the beloved; the repetition "N’ideyüm n’eyleyeyüm" conveys this helplessness with the sound of spoken language.

In the second couplet a language of trade and of the law court is built. "Naḳd-i cān" is the soul given like ready cash. The beloved's mouth has taken this soul but denies having taken it; however much the lover pleads, the mouth "zerrece iḳrār itmez", does not admit it in the least. Denial and admission are the two attitudes of a debtor in court, and the contrast between them carries the point of the couplet. Since in divan poetry the beloved's mouth is shown as so small that it hardly exists, a "non-existent" mouth denying its debt adds a further subtlety to the couplet.

The third couplet is the one Kartal mentions among those in which Basîrî gives voice to the beloved's torment and cruelty. The beloved is here called "ṣanem", an idol; this is a familiar comparison expressing the adoration of beauty. The lover suffers both her cruelty and her oppression and says that not even the rivals would do what the beloved has done to him. The opposition between yâr and ağyâr, beloved and rivals, is worked again in the fourth couplet with a pun (cinas): "yārı baña yār itmez", fortune does not make the beloved my friend. The first "yār" means the beloved, the second friend and helper. The lover is ready to show what faithfulness is, but base fortune gives him no chance.

In the closing couplet Basîrî says that his eye sheds tears at every moment. "La‘l-i nāb", pure ruby, is the beloved's lip; "güher-bār", pearl-scattering, is the weeping eye. The congruence of images (tenasüp) between ruby and pearl closes the ghazal with images of jewels.

Bibliography

Online sources