Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḳande varam sāye-i serv-bülendüm variken
Kime ḳul olam senüñ gibi efendüm variken
Şerḥ-i derd-i ‘ışḳ āḫir kime taḳrīr eyleyem
Bir göñül adlu muṣāḥıb-i derd-mendüm variken
Ey perī mekr-i raḳīb-i dīv-sīretden ne ġam
Ḫāl-i ruḫsāruñ gibi odda sipendüm variken
Pend-i nāṣıḥla ne imkān kim ḳılam terk-i cünūn
‘Işḳ pīrinden benüm gūşumda pendüm variken
Baña ḳurtulmaḳ perīşānlikden olmışdur muḥāl
Ṭurra-i cānān gibi boynumda bendüm variken
Gülşen-i ‘ālemde hergiz egmeyem bir serve baş
Ey Baṣīrī ḳāmet-i serv-bülendüm variken

In English

1. Where should I go while the shade of my tall cypress is over me; whose servant should I become while I have a master like you?

2. To whom, after all, should I relate the account of love's pain while I have a grieving companion named heart?

3. O fairy, why fear the guile of the demon-natured rival while I have my rue seed burning in the fire like the mole on your cheek? (Wild rue seeds are thrown into fire and burned against the evil eye and harm. The black mole on the beloved's cheek is likened to a rue seed blackened in the fire.)

4. How could I give up madness at the counsellor's advice while I have in my ear the counsel of the master of love?

5. Escape from dishevelment has become impossible for me while I have a bond on my neck like the beloved's lock of hair. ("Perişan" means both dishevelled hair and a distressed, scattered state.)

6. O Basîrî, while I have the stature of my tall cypress, I shall never bow my head to any cypress in the rose garden of the world.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of six 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 the variant forms "fe‘ilātün" and "fe‘ilün" are used here and there. The redif (refrain word) is "-üm variken", while I have; the rhyme is the sound "-end": bülend, efend, derd-mend, sipend, pend, bend. The phrase "serv-bülendüm" of the opening couplet also rhymes in the closing couplet, so the ghazal opens and closes with the same image. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number V in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal ends with the refrain "variken", while I have, and repeats the same pattern of thought: the lover has something in hand that leaves him needing nothing else or fearing nothing else. In the first couplet this is the beloved's shade and mastery. The tall cypress (serv-bülend) is the familiar counterpart of the beloved's stature; the lover who stands in its shade goes nowhere else. The line "Kime ḳul olam senüñ gibi efendüm variken" states outright the servant and master relationship of love poetry.

In the second couplet the heart is personified as a grieving companion. The lover need not tell his pain of love to anyone else, for his grieving heart keeps him company. The third couplet rests on a subtle comparison. The beloved is called "peri", a fairy, and the rival "dîv-sîret", demon-natured; the contrast between fairy and demon conveys the opposition of beauty and evil. The rue seed (sipend) thrown into fire against evil is like the black mole on the beloved's cheek; the lover himself is the seed burning in that fire. So the lover's burning in the fire of love becomes a charm that protects him against the rival's guile.

The fourth couplet is the one Kartal cites as an example of Basîrî's view of love. The counsellor (nâsıh) asks the lover to give up the madness of love, but in the lover's ear is the counsel of the "master of love". The contrast between the counsellor's counsel (pend-i nāṣıḥ) and that of the master of love is the basis of the couplet; the use of the word "pend" in the two lines for two different counsels sharpens the opposition. In the fifth couplet the word "perīşān" is used as a double entendre (tevriye): the lover is bound by a bond like the beloved's dishevelled lock, and because of that bond he is himself perişan, in a scattered, distressed state. The last couplet returns to the opening: while the lover has his own cypress, it is unthinkable that he should bow his head to any cypress in the garden of the world. The phrase "bowing the head to a cypress" brings together the tree bent by the wind and the person who bows before another.

Bibliography

Online sources