Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yüz yire ḳor öñüñe ta‘ẓīm içün mihr-i felek
Mülk-i ḥüsne ḫusrev olduñ begliguñ var ey melek
Kūyuñuñ her sengine yüz sürdigüm ‘ayb itme kim
Yüzüm altundur nigārā seng-i kūyuñdur mihek
Yüz çevirse benden ol ḫūrşīd-ruḫ senden degül
Gerdiş-i devr-i ḳamerdendür şikāyet ey felek
Defter-i ‘uşşāḳda ḥālüm görüp ḫaṭṭāṭ-ı ṣun‘
Adumı s̱ebt eyledi Mecnūnuñ ismin itdi hek
Ey Basīrī ḫusrevüñ şīrīn lebi ‘uşşāḳdan
Aldı cānlar naḳdini bir būse ḥalvālıḳ gerek

In English

1. The sun of the sky lays its face on the ground before you in reverence; you have become the king of the realm of beauty, O angel, the lordship is yours.

2. Do not blame me for rubbing my face on every stone of your street; O beauty, my face is gold and the stone of your street is the touchstone. (The lover's yellowed face resembles gold; the fineness of gold is learned by rubbing it on a touchstone.)

3. If that sun-faced one turns his face from me, the fault is not yours; O sky, my complaint is of the turning cycle of the moon. (The couplet can be read in two ways: "ḳamer", the moon, may stand here for the moon in the sky and the turning of time, but it also recalls the moon-faced beloved.)

4. The calligrapher of creation, seeing my state in the register of lovers, recorded my name and erased the name of Majnun.

5. O Basîrî, the sweet lip of the king has taken the cash of souls from the lovers; a kiss is owed as well, as the price of the halva. ("Ḫusrev" is both a king and the name of Khusrev, Shirin's lover; the word "şīrīn", sweet, recalls Shirin. Helvalık, halva money, is the sweet or tip given after a purchase.)

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 ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-ek": felek, melek, mihek, felek, hek, gerek. The word "felek" is used twice as a rhyme, in the opening couplet and in the third. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXXIV in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built on the language of sovereignty and of trade. In the opening couplet the sun of the sky lays its face on the ground before the beloved in reverence; the beloved is the "ḫusrev", the king, of the realm of beauty and holds a lordship. The sun's bowing to the ground works like a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil) saying that the beloved's face is brighter than the sun. The address "melek", angel, also raises the beloved to a superhuman beauty.

The second couplet uses the language of the goldsmith. The lover rubs his face on every stone of the beloved's street and says he should not be blamed for it, since his face has turned yellow, has become gold. The fineness of gold is learned by rubbing it on a touchstone; the stones of the street are these touchstones. The congruence of images (tenasüp) between gold and touchstone, rubbing the face and assay, presents the lover's devotion as a test. In the third couplet the lover does not hold the sky responsible for the beloved's turning away; his complaint is of the moon's cycle. That the beloved is sun-faced and the complaint is of the moon's cycle sets the two lights of the sky against each other in the couplet.

The fourth couplet is one of those Kartal cites in which Basîrî compares himself with Majnun and claims to surpass him in love. "Ḫaṭṭāṭ-ı ṣun‘", the calligrapher of creation, that is, God, seeing Basîrî's state in the register of lovers, made his name permanent and erased Majnun's name from the register. The words register, calligrapher, recording and erasing form a series of images from the field of writing and scribal work. Thus Majnun, known as the chief of lovers, falls behind Basîrî.

The closing couplet alludes to the story of Khusrev and Shirin. "Ḫusrev" is both a king and the name of Khusrev, Shirin's lover; "şīrīn leb", sweet lip, also recalls Shirin. This sweet lip has taken the cash of souls from the lovers; like the halva money given after a purchase, a kiss must be given too. The associations of sweetness, halva and sugar join the language of trade and the language of love with wit.

Bibliography

Online sources