Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü mefā‘ilün fe‘ūlün

‘Āşıḳlar içinde olmışam fāş
Mecnūnıla ḳan yalaşma ḳardaş
Yollar basıcı ḥarāmīlerdür
Her yañadan ol gözile ol ḳaş
Her kim baña gönderürse mektūb
‘Unvānına yaza rind ü ḳallāş
Pinhān idi ḫalḳa ‘ışḳum ammā
Bir āhile göñlüm eyledi fāş
Ṭaşlarla dögündügin Baṣīrī
Ferhād görürse diye adaş

In English

1. Among lovers my name has become known to all; I am a brother who has licked blood with Majnun, that is, his blood brother.

2. That eye and that brow are brigands who waylay the roads from every side.

3. Whoever sends me a letter, let him write "rind and kallâş" in place of the title on it. (A rind is one who cares nothing for the world or for those who reproach him; a kallâş is a penniless vagabond.)

4. My love was hidden from people, but my heart revealed it with a single sigh.

5. Should Ferhad see Basîrî beating himself with stones, he would call him "namesake". (Ferhad is the lover who cut through a mountain to win Shirin; a lover busy with stones counts as his namesake.)

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. The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the sound "-aş / -āş": fāş, ḳardaş, ḳaş, ḳallāş, fāş, adaş. The word "fāş" of the opening couplet rhymes again in the fourth couplet with the same meaning; in classical rhetoric the repetition of the same rhyme word in the same sense was counted a flaw. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXXVI in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the ghazal is the lover's disgrace. In the first couplet the poet says he has become "fâş", known to all, among lovers, and introduces himself as Majnun's blood brother. "Ḳan yalaşmak" is two people becoming brothers by licking each other's blood. In divan poetry Majnun is the master of lovers; Basîrî is not content to be his disciple but establishes an equal brotherhood with him. Kartal notes that in his poems Basîrî compares himself with Majnun and Ferhad, the emblems of the lover in Eastern literature, and considers himself superior to them in love; this ghazal brings the two names together in its first and last couplets.

In the second couplet the beloved's eye and brow are called "ḥarāmī", brigands who waylay travellers. Seeing the brow as a bow, the lashes as arrows and the eye as a hunter or raider who shoots them is among the familiar images of divan poetry; here the lover's heart resembles a traveller whose roads are held on every side. The third couplet rests on the tradition of letter writing. At the head of a letter a "title" (unvan), a form of address and epithet suited to the recipient's rank, was written. The poet asks that letters written to him bear "rind ü ḳallāş" in place of a title. So in place of the titles society esteems, he chooses two reproached epithets as if they were marks of honour. That the word means both the address on a letter and a person's rank adds a double entendre (tevriye) to the couplet.

The fourth couplet is among those Kartal cites as examples of Basîrî's view of love: while love was hidden from people, a sigh revealed it. The contrast between hidden and open (pinhān, fāş) repeats the "fāş" of the opening couplet, this time together with its cause. The last couplet turns to Ferhad. Ferhad is the lover charged with cutting through Mount Bîsütun to win Shirin, and in divan poetry he is remembered with his pickaxe and stone. Basîrî's "beating himself with stones", striking his breast with stone in grief, is likened to Ferhad's toil with stone. Should Ferhad see this he would count him "adaş", a namesake, one who bears the same name and shares the same fate. That the ghazal which begins with "ḳardaş", brother, ends with "adaş", namesake, builds a neat frame declaring the poet kin to both great lovers.

Bibliography

Online sources