Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Hem-nefes olalı cān nāle vü efġānlar ile
Mūmdur yanmaga dil şem‘-i şebistānlar ile
Serv-i sāmān nedurur künc-i ḫarābātda kim
Ḫōşdurur ṣoḥbetimiz bī-ser ü sāmānlar ile
Biz semen çihrelerüñ ḫadle ḫaṭın görelüm
Bāġbān egleni ṭursun gül ü reyḥānlar ile
Cümle-i ḫalḳ-ı cihān derdine dermān ister
Biz Ḫudādan dilerüz derd bī-dermānlar ile
Sen ṣalın nāzıle biz dīde vü dil dürcin açup
La‘lile dür ṣaçalum yoluña dermānlar ile
Ey Basīrī n’iderüz daḫı selāmet yaḳasın
Çün melāmet yürürüz çāk-i girībānlar ile

In English

1. Ever since the soul became the breath-companion of moans and laments, the heart is a candle, made to burn with the candles of the night gathering.

2. What business have order and possessions in the corner of the tavern, since our company is pleasant with those who have neither head nor possessions, that is, with those who have given up everything? (The words "Serv-i sāmān" in the first line are the edition's reading. Compared with "bī-ser ü sāmān" in the second line, it may be thought that the first line too should read "ser ü sāmān" (head and order, possessions); both readings fit the metre.)

3. Let us look at the down on the cheeks of the jasmine-faced; let the gardener amuse himself with roses and basil. (The down is imagined as greenery adorning the cheek; the poet chooses to gaze at it instead of at the greenery of the garden.)

4. All the people of the world seek a cure for their pain; we ask God for pains that have no cure.

5. You sway with coquetry; let us open the casket of eye and heart and scatter pearls together with rubies on your path with all our strength. (The pearls are tears, the rubies bloody tears or the heart's blood. The phrase "dermānlar ile" has been understood here as "with all our strength"; its meaning is not certain.)

6. O Basîrî, what more do we want with the collar of safety, since we walk in blame with torn collars?

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 fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün"; the edition does not state the metre, which emerges from scansion. The redif (refrain word) is "-lar ile"; the rhyme is the sound "-ān": efġān, şebistān, sāmān, reyḥān, bī-dermān, dermān, girībān. The word "dermān" enters the rhyme in the fourth and fifth couplets in succession; in the fourth within "bī-dermān" (incurable), in the fifth on its own. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number VI in Ahmet Kartal's edition. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built on the opposition between the measures of the world and the measures of the lover and the rind, the free spirit who scorns convention. In the first couplet the heart is a candle; it burns together with the candles of the night gathering (şebistān). In divan poetry the candle is the emblem of the lover who both burns and melts, and weeps (the drops of the melting candle); the phrase "hem-nefes", breath-companion, ties the candle's flame to the lover's moaning.

In the second couplet the scene moves to the "künc-i ḫarābāt", the corner of the tavern. In divan poetry the harabat is the place of the rinds who have withdrawn from worldly cares. Here "ser ü sāmān", head and possessions, is an idiom meaning order and property; "bī-ser ü sāmān" is one who has lost everything and is beside himself. The poet says that company with such people is pleasant and that in the tavern corner order and possessions have no value. In the third couplet the same opposition is set between the garden and the beauty: let the gardener busy himself with roses and basil, the poet chooses to gaze at the down on the cheeks of the jasmine-faced. The word "ḫaṭ" means both writing and the fine down on the cheek; the down on the cheek is likened to the greenery of a garden.

The fourth couplet carries the sharpest contrast in the ghazal: while all the world seeks a cure for its pain, the lover asks God for pains without cure. In divan poetry the pain of love is a pain one does not wish to be healed of; for the lover the pain is itself a blessing. In the fifth couplet the beloved sways with coquetry, while the lover opens the casket (dürc) of eye and heart and scatters pearls and rubies on her path. The eye is the casket of pearls, the heart that of rubies; tears and the heart's blood turn into jewels scattered on the path of a ruler.

The closing couplet rests on the likeness in sound between selamet and melamet. Selamet is living in safety and soundness; melamet is living in defiance of reproach, choosing the path the world condemns. The "collar of safety" (selāmet yaḳası) is an untorn, orderly collar; the lover walks "çāk-i girībān", with torn collar. The word melamet also recalls, in Sufism, the Melâmî way, which seeks to break the self by inviting reproach. This pun (cinas) between selamet and melamet gathers all the contrasts of the ghazal into a single phrase.

Bibliography

Online sources