Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her ġazel kim dinilür ol yüz ü göz ü ḳaşıçun
Naḳş-ı la‘lüñ dōstlar ol dilber-i naḳḳāşıçun
Dil yaradur yoldaşdur yanuñdan eksük itme kim
Cān virür cānā senüñ tīgün yarar yoldaşıçun
Kāşkī bir ṭaş olaydı başumuz yoluñda kim
Ḥasret iltür başumuz yoluñdaki her ṭaşıçun
Ben kimem kim ḫāk-i pāyüñ idem efser başuma
Tāc-ı devletdür ḳaçan zībā gelür her başıçun
Ger Baṣīrī itlerüñ öñünde olsa ṭañ degül
Bu muḳarrer cān virür ḳardaş olan ḳardaşıçun

In English

1. Every ghazal that is recited is for that face, that eye and that brow; friends, the picture of your ruby lip is for that painter beloved. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the lip drawn in the ghazals is drawn for the sake of that painter beauty; or it is that beloved himself who has painted the lip so beautifully.)

2. The heart is a wound, it is a travelling companion; do not take it from your side. For, O beloved, the heart gives its life for the trusty companion of your sword. (There is a play of sound between "yara", wound, and "yarar", useful. The sword's companion is the wound it opens; the heart is so attached to that wound that it would give its life for it.)

3. Would that our head were a stone on your path; for our head carries longing for every stone on your path.

4. Who am I to make the dust of your feet a crown on my head? It is the crown of fortune; when does it ever suit every head?

5. No wonder if Basîrî stands before your dogs; this much is certain: a brother gives his life for his brother. (In divan poetry the dogs at the beloved's door are the companions of the lovers who never leave that door; the poet counts them as his brothers.)

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 and requires lengthening of a few Turkish syllables. The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-çun" (for); the rhyme rests on the sound "-aşı": ḳaşı, naḳḳāşı, yoldaşı, ṭaşı, başı, ḳardaşı. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXXVII in Ahmet Kartal's edition and belongs to the Turkish poems at the end of the Persian divan Basîrî wrote in his own hand. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal describes the beloved's beauty and the lover's devotion through a different object or person in each couplet. The first couplet takes poetry itself as its subject: all the ghazals that are recited are for the beloved's face, eye and brow. The words "naḳş" (picture) and "naḳḳāş" (painter) come from the same root and form a figure of derivation (iştikak); calling the beloved a "painter beloved" makes him both the one whose picture is drawn and the one who draws it. In the second line the address shifts between "your" and "that", which makes it difficult to fix the meaning entirely; both readings are shown together in the translation.

The second couplet is built on the likeness of sound between "yara" (wound) and "yarar" (useful). The heart is both a wound and a companion; the "yarar yoldaş", the useful, trusty companion of the beloved's sword, is the very wound that sword opens. So the heart becomes a companion who gives its life for the sword that wounds it. In the third and fourth couplets the word "baş" (head) recurs and makes a punning rhyme with "taş" (stone). The lover wishes his head were a stone on the beloved's path, because every stone on that path fills him with longing. In the fourth couplet even a gesture of reverence such as putting the dust of the feet on one's head as a crown is too much for the lover: that dust is a "crown of fortune" and does not suit every head. The contrast between foot and head, dust and crown carries the meaning of the couplet.

The last couplet ties all the images of the ghazal to the idea of brotherhood. In divan poetry the dogs of the beloved's quarter count as the friends of the lover who keeps watch at that door. Basîrî sees standing before them not as a disgrace but as a brother's duty, and says so with the certainty of a proverb: a brother gives his life for his brother. The word "yoldaş" (companion) in the second couplet and "ḳardaş" (brother) in the last answer each other at the two ends of the ghazal. Kartal notes that love holds an important place in Basîrî's poems; in this ghazal too, love is expressed by the lover placing himself in the lowest place.

Bibliography

Online sources