Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çihre-i zerd üzre eşk-i ḫūn nis̱ār itsem gerek
Za‘ferānzārını her dem lāle-zār itsem gerek
Ṭoldurup ḫūn-ı cigerle gözlerüm peymānesin
Bir iki sāġar içüp def‘-i ḫumār itsem gerek
Āh idüp ṣabr u ḳarārı cān u dilden her nefes
Ol ḥabībüñ zülfi gibi tār u mār itsem gerek
Ol hümānuñ ṣaydına dil murġını göndermişem
Peşşeyile ya‘ni ‘anḳāyı şikār itsem gerek
Görmesün aġyār gözi diyü mihrüñ yüzini
Cismümi ḫāk eyleyüp andan ġubār itsem gerek
Ġonca öykinmek dilersin gül-‘iẕāruñ aġzına
Gülsitānı ġonçenüñ başına ṭar itsem gerek
Ey Baṣīrī ṭaġıdup ṣabr u ḳarārı derdile
Nāle idüp cümle ḫalḳı bī-ḳarār itsem gerek

In English

1. On my yellowed face I must scatter tears of blood; I must turn its saffron field into a tulip bed at every moment. (The yellowed face is likened to a saffron field, the bloody tears to red tulips.)

2. Filling the cup of my eyes with the blood of my liver, I must drink a cup or two and drive away the hangover.

3. Sighing with every breath, I must scatter patience and rest from soul and heart, like that beloved's hair.

4. I have sent the bird of my heart to hunt that huma; that is, I must set out to catch the Anka with a gnat. (The huma and the Anka are legendary birds that cannot be caught; the bird of the heart is as small as a gnat. The lover says he has undertaken the impossible.)

5. So that the eye of the rivals may not see the face of your love, I must turn my body to dust and raise a cloud of dust from it. ("Mihr" means both sun and love; the lover wishes to veil this sun from the rivals with dust rising from his own earth.)

6. You say the bud wishes to imitate the mouth of the rose-cheeked one; I must make the rose garden narrow about the bud's head. (To make a place narrow about someone's head is to make their life hard; the bud that envies the beloved's mouth must be punished.)

7. O Basîrî, scattering patience and rest with my pain, I must, wailing, make all the people restless.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven 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 the phrase "itsem gerek" (I must make); the rhyme rests on the sound "-ār": nis̱ār, lāle-zār, ḫumār, tār u mār, şikār, ġubār, bī-ḳarār. The Turkish word "ṭar" in the sixth couplet joins the rhyme with a short vowel. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet, in the poet's address to himself. The ghazal is number XXXVIII in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The redif "itsem gerek" gives the ghazal an air of resolve and necessity: in every couplet the lover lists something he must do. The first two couplets are built on images of colour and the cup. The yellowed face is a saffron field and the bloody tears are the tulips that bloom in it; the contrast between yellow and red gives the couplet a visual liveliness. In the second couplet the eye becomes a cup, filled not with wine but with the blood of the liver. The tavern idiom "to drive away the hangover" is applied to the lover quelling his drunkenness with his own blood.

In the third couplet the idiom "tār u mār", to scatter in disorder, is thought of together with the beloved's dishevelled hair; the lover's patience and rest will be as distraught as those locks. The fourth couplet is the most striking of the ghazal. The huma is a bird believed to bring sovereignty to whomever its shadow falls upon; the Anka is the legendary bird that has a name but no existence. The lover likens the beloved to these birds and his own heart to a gnat. This contrast between great and small shows plainly that the lover aspires to the impossible.

In the fifth couplet the word "mihr" is used in both its senses, sun and love, and forms a double entendre (tevriye). To hide the beloved's sun-like face from the rivals' eyes, the lover wishes to turn his own body to earth and raise dust from it; a cloud of dust veiling the sun is an observation taken from nature. In the sixth couplet the bud's envy of the beloved's mouth counts as insolence; in divan poetry the narrow, small mouth is likened to a bud, and here the bud is to be punished for daring to imitate that mouth. The idiom "to make narrow about the head" recalls that the bud itself is a narrow, closed shape. The last couplet carries the personal grief of the first couplets to the community: the lover's wailing will make all the people restless.

Bibliography

Online sources