Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ger bilem kim ‘azm benden yañadur tīrüñ senüñ
Çeşmümi idem o dem ey dōst zih gīrüñ senüñ
Cāvidānī cān bilür tīgünle ölen gūyıyā
Çeşme-i ḥayvāndan içmiş ṣuyı şemşīrüñ senüñ
Ger şikārüñde bulınsa āhu-yı Çīn ey perī
Göz ḳarardup cān atar olmaga naḫcīrüñ senüñ
Lāle ruḫsārında olan ḫāl gibi ey göñül
Ol Ḫalīl-i cān u dil od eyledi yirüñ senüñ
Sübḥası şeyḫüñ egerçi dāneyile dāmdur
Ey dil-i dīvāne tesbīḥ oldı zencīrüñ senüñ
Her ṭarafdan çeşm-i ‘āşıḳ ider saña naẓar
Yüzüñ üzre ḥalḳa-i zülfüñ girihgīrüñ senüñ
Hiç elden ḳomaz olmışsın ṭarīḳ-i meykede
Ey Baṣīrī böyle mi gösterdi yol pīrüñ senüñ

In English

1. O friend, if I knew your arrow was aimed my way, I would at that moment make my eye your archer's ring. (The zihgir is the ring an archer wears on his thumb when drawing the string; the round eye is likened to this ring.)

2. Whoever dies by your sword knows his soul to be eternal; it is as if your sword had drunk its water from the fountain of life. (The "water" of a sword is the sheen and keenness of its steel; this water is likened to the water of life that grants immortality.)

3. O fairy, were the gazelle of China found in your hunt, it would darken its eye and throw itself forward to become your prey. (The gazelle of China is the musk deer; to darken one's eye is to dare everything and rush in.)

4. O heart, that beloved, the Khalil of soul and heart, has made fire your dwelling, like the mole on a tulip cheek. (The mole on a red cheek seems to stand in fire; Khalil is Abraham, who was thrown into the fire.)

5. Though the sheikh's rosary is a trap with its grains, O mad heart, your chain has become your rosary. ("Dâne" is both a rosary bead and the grain scattered as bait in a trap. The madman's chain, like that of Majnun, counts as his rosary.)

6. The lover's eye looks at you from every side; the ring of your curl upon your face is your "girihgîr". (The meaning of "girihgîr" here is not certain; it may mean knot-holding, curled. The thought of the couplet must be that the ringlets on the face are likened to the lovers' eyes gazing from every side.)

7. You never let go of the road to the tavern; O Basîrî, is this how your master showed you the way?

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 "senüñ" (your), heard together with the possessive suffix as "-üñ senüñ"; the rhyme rests on the sound "-īr": tīr, zih-gīr, şemşīr, naḫcīr, zencīr, girihgīr, pīr. The Turkish word "yir" in the fourth couplet joins the rhyme with a short vowel. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XXXIX in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first three couplets of the ghazal are built on images of the hunt and of war. The beloved is an archer and a swordsman; the lover eagerly offers himself to his arrow, his sword and his hunt. In the first couplet the eye becomes the zihgir ring on the archer's thumb: the lover is willing to draw the beloved's arrow with his own eye. In the second couplet a double entendre (tevriye) links the "water" of the sword with the water of life. The water of steel is an idiom for its sheen and keenness; by saying this water was drunk from the fountain of life, Basîrî presents dying by the beloved's sword as attaining eternal life. In the third couplet even the musk-bearing gazelle of China throws itself forward to become the beloved's prey; the idiom "to darken one's eye" also recalls the gazelle's dark eye.

The fourth couplet rests on an allusion. Khalil, that is Abraham, was thrown into Nimrod's fire and the fire did not burn him. The beloved is called "the Khalil of soul and heart" and makes fire the home of the lover's heart. This fire is likened to the black mole on a cheek as red as a tulip; the mole, in the middle of the red cheek, looks like something standing in fire. In the fifth couplet the sheikh's rosary is compared with the madman's chain. The word "dâne" is both a rosary bead and the grain of bait scattered to lure birds into a trap; through this double entendre the sheikh's rosary is seen as a trap. The chain of the mad heart, on the other hand, is its rosary. This thought, which sets the sincerity of love against showy piety, is an example of the familiar contrast in divan poetry between the zealot and the free-spirited rind.

The meaning of the word "girihgîr" in the sixth couplet has not been fully resolved; this is indicated in the translation. In the last couplet the poet addresses himself and says that he never leaves the road to the tavern. "Pīr" is both the guide of a Sufi path and the old keeper of the tavern. Kartal notes that Sufism holds an important place in Basîrî's poems; in this couplet too, tavern, master and path are familiar metaphors of Sufi language. The question the poet puts to himself carries a playfulness that both reproaches and approves the rind's way.

Bibliography

Online sources