Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dem-be-dem ḫūn-ı cigerdür içdigüm ṭolu saña
Gözlerüm cāmı ṭolubdur dōstum yāhū saña
Māhuñ ol yüzi mi var kim öyküne ruḫsāruña
Āfitābuñ cānı mı var kim gele ḳarşu saña
İtmişem Mecnūn gibi kūhile ṣaḥrāyı vaṭan
Tā giriftār olmışam ey gözleri āhū saña
Ol nigāruñ zülfine öykünmek imiş ‘ādetüñ
Var ögün ‘ālemde ey ‘anber ḳalursa bū saña
Āhū-yı çeşmine bir daḫı Baṣīrī uyma gel
Kim neler itmişdürür bilmezsüñ ol āhū saña

In English

1. What I drink every moment is the blood of my liver, "a full one to you" in your honour; my friend, the cup of my eyes is full, "yâ hû" to you. ("A full one to you" is said in gatherings when raising a cup in someone's honour. "Yâ hû" is a call and the dervishes' cry of remembrance; here it is like a word spoken while offering the cup.)

2. Has the moon such a face that it could imitate your cheek? Has the sun the nerve to come face to face with you?

3. O gazelle-eyed one, since I became your captive I have made the mountain and the desert my home, like Majnun.

4. O ambergris, it seems it is your habit to imitate that beloved's curl; go on, boast in the world, if any scent is left to you. (Ambergris is known for its fragrance; it is said that before the fragrance of the beloved's curl no scent will be left in it.)

5. O Basîrî, come, do not follow his gazelle eye again; you do not know what that gazelle has done to you. ("Uymak" means both to follow and to be deceived.)

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 "saña" (to you); the rhyme rests on the sound "-ū / -u": ṭolu, yāhū, ḳarşu, āhū, bū, āhū. The word "āhū" rhymes twice, in the third and fifth couplets; in the third it is part of the epithet "gazelle-eyed", in the fifth it names the gazelle itself. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number XLIII in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a scene from a drinking gathering. In such gatherings one said "a full one to you" when raising a cup in someone's honour; Basîrî applies these words to the lover's cup filled with blood. What the lover drinks is not wine but the blood of his liver, and his eyes are a cup filled with this blood. The "yāhū" in the second line is both a call and the cry "O He" used by dervishes in their rite of remembrance; the language of the tavern and of the lodge stand side by side in a single line. So the lover's pain becomes a cup raised in the beloved's honour.

In the second couplet the moon and sun are humbled before the beloved. The moon has no face to resemble the beloved's cheek, and the sun lacks the courage to appear before him. The word "yüz" is used here both for countenance and for the nerve to do something; the idiom "has it the life for it" also expresses the sun's fear of facing him. This form of question, which personifies the heavenly bodies, gives the couplet a liveliness close to spoken language.

The third couplet brings an allusion to Majnun. Majnun, smitten with Layla, took to the mountains and deserts and befriended the gazelles; Basîrî too has made the mountain and desert his home since he became captive to the gazelle-eyed beloved. Kartal notes that Basîrî often compares himself with Majnun in his poems. The fourth couplet speaks to ambergris: ambergris has made a habit of imitating the beloved's curl, but it may boast only if any scent remains to it before the fragrance of that curl. The word "bū" (scent) settles at the end of the couplet as a short rhyme.

In the last couplet the image of the gazelle returns and gathers up the ghazal. The poet advises himself not to "follow" the beloved's gazelle eye again. The word "uymak" means both to go after something and to be deceived; the gazelle is thought of as a quarry one runs after, the eye as a beauty that deceives the lover. Majnun's friendship with the gazelles becomes here a deception that wounds the lover.

Bibliography

Online sources