Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Işḳ içinde bulmışam rüsvā-yı ḫalḳ efsāne hem
‘Āḳil aġlar ḥālüme derdüñden ü dīvāne hem
Gāh nāle gāh sūz oldı işüm ‘uşşāḳ ara
Şükr kim derdüñ bilen bülbül men ü pervāne hem
Ḳalmadı bir yer kim anda rāḥat olam bir nefes
Ṭar olupdur başuma kāşāne vü vīrāne hem
Āşıyān-ı ḫānḳāhuma murġ-ı dil meyl eylemez
Zāhidüñ tesbīḥi çünkim dām buldı dāne hem
Ey Basīrī ger basīret ehliyiseñ gözüñ aç
Kim toludur nūr-ı Ḥaḳdan mescid ü meyḫāne hem

In English

1. In love I have become both a disgrace before the people and a byword; for my state, from the pain of you, both the wise man weeps and the madman.

2. Among lovers my work has been now to moan, now to burn; thank God, those who know the pain of you are I, and the nightingale and the moth as well. (The nightingale is the emblem of moaning, the moth of burning.)

3. No place is left where I could rest for a breath; both mansion and ruin have grown narrow for me.

4. The bird of the heart does not incline to the nest of my lodge, for the ascetic's rosary has found both snare and bait. (The string of the rosary is likened to a snare and its beads to bait; the ascetic's piety is shown as a hunter's trap.)

5. O Basîrî, if you are one of the people of insight, open your eyes, for both mosque and tavern are full of the light of God.

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 redif (refrain word) is "hem", both, too; the rhyme is the sound "-āne": efsāne, dīvāne, pervāne, vīrāne, dāne, meyḫāne. The refrain "hem" brings two things together in each couplet: the disgrace of the people and the byword, the wise and the mad, the nightingale and the moth, mansion and ruin, snare and bait, mosque and tavern. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXXI in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Kartal cites the opening couplet as the one in which Basîrî says he has been disgraced among the people because of his love. The lover has become both a disgrace and a byword; among those who see his state and weep are both the wise and the mad. The contrast between wise and mad shows that the lover's condition unites everyone at the same point. In the second couplet two familiar emblems of love stand side by side. The nightingale moans with love for the rose, the moth burns in the candle's flame; the lover's work too is now to moan, now to burn. "Nāle" and "sūz", moan and burning, in the first line pair in order with "bülbül" and "pervāne" in the second; this is a fine example of the figure called leff ü neşr (parallel listing).

In the third couplet the lover's restlessness is told in the language of place. "Kāşāne", mansion, and "vīrāne", ruin, are opposites; both have grown narrow for the lover. Neither wealth nor poverty, neither city nor wilderness gives him rest. The fourth couplet carries a criticism of the ascetic. The zahid is the type of the pious man who cares for outward show. The bird of the heart does not wish to alight on the nest of the lodge, for the ascetic's rosary, with its string and its beads, is nothing but a snare and bait. The congruence of images (tenasüp) among bird, nest, snare and bait presents ostentatious piety as a hunter's trap.

The closing couplet is the Sufi summit of the ghazal. Kartal cites this couplet among the examples showing that Sufism holds an important place in Basîrî's poems. Mosque and tavern are two opposed places in divan poetry; one is the place of worship, the other of the libertine's freedom. Basîrî says both are full of the light of God; for one who truly sees, God's presence appears everywhere. The pen name "Basīrī" and the word "basīret", the eye of the heart, insight, come from the same root; turning his own name into a warning, the poet creates a subtle pun in the couplet.

Bibliography

Online sources