Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey göñül ger Leylī görmek dileriseñ yāri gör
Ger dilerseñ görmege Mecnūnı gel ben zārı gör
Serv-i ra‘nā gerçi çoḳ gördüñ velī gel ey ṣabā
Nāz gül-zārında bitmiş ol ḳad u reftārı gör
Gözlerüñ bīmārıdur la‘lüñden umar dil şifā
Ey Mesīḥam bir nefes luṭfile gel bīmārı gör
Ḫār u gül görmek dilerseñ bir arada ey ṣabā
Hiç varma gülşene gel yārile aġyārı gör
İstemezseñ ey göñül kim çāk ola ten cübbesi
Yaḳañı hicrān elinden vaṣlile ḳurtarıgör
Sürme-i ‘ayne’l-yaḳīnden zāhidā çek gözüñe
Nūr-ı Ḥaḳḳı görmek isterseñ gel ol dīdārı gör
Dōst dīdārın Basīrī görmek isterseñ eger
Ḫᵛāb-ı ġafletden baṣīret çeşmini uyarıgör

In English

1. O heart, if you wish to see Leylâ, see my beloved; if you wish to see Majnun, come and see me, this moaning one.

2. O morning breeze, you have seen many a graceful cypress; but come and see that stature and that gait grown in the rose garden of coquetry.

3. The heart is the patient of your eyes and hopes for healing from your lips; O my Messiah, come for a breath in your kindness and see this sick one. (The breath of the Messiah, Jesus, is believed to heal the sick and raise the dead; the beloved's lips are likened to a life-giving breath.)

4. O breeze, if you wish to see thorn and rose together, do not go to the rose garden at all; come and see the beloved with her rivals. (The beloved is likened to the rose and the rivals to thorns.)

5. O heart, if you do not want the robe of the body to be torn, free your collar from the hand of separation through union. (To free one's collar means to escape.)

6. O ascetic, put the kohl of ayne'l-yakîn on your eyes; if you wish to see the light of God, come and see that face. ("Ayne'l-yakîn" means certain knowledge attained by seeing.)

7. Basîrî, if you wish to see the face of the Friend, wake the eye of insight from the sleep of heedlessness.

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; the pattern emerges from scansion. The redif (refrain word) is "gör", see; the rhyme is the sound "-ārı": yāri, zārı, reftārı, bīmārı, aġyārı, dīdārı. In the fifth and seventh couplets, however, rhyme and redif merge in the verbs "ḳurtarıgör" and "uyarıgör". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is number VII in Ahmet Kartal's edition. Kartal cites its first couplet as an example of Basîrî comparing himself with Majnun and Ferhad, and its last two couplets as examples of Sufi thought in his poems. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal ends with the imperative "gör" and calls the one addressed, the heart, the morning breeze, the ascetic, to see something. This refrain gives the ghazal an air of showing and bearing witness. In the first couplet the poet applies the story of Leylâ and Majnun to his own love: whoever wishes to see Leylâ should look at the beloved, whoever wishes to see Majnun at the poet himself. Thus the beloved takes the place of Leylâ and the lover that of Majnun. In the second and fourth couplets the words are addressed to the morning breeze (saba). In divan poetry the saba is the wind that roams the gardens and brings news of the beloved; the poet tells it to look at the beloved's stature instead of real cypresses, and at the beloved among her rivals instead of the thorny roses in a real garden. The comparison between thorn and rose, rival and beloved, is an established motif of divan poetry.

In the third couplet the beloved is likened to the "Mesîḥ", the Messiah. Jesus is believed to have healed the sick with his breath; the beloved's lips too are a breath that would give the lover life. Yet the same beloved's eyes are called in divan poetry "bîmâr", sick and languid; and the lover's heart is the patient of these eyes. That the one who causes the illness and the one who gives the cure should be the same adds a subtle irony to the couplet.

The last two couplets of the ghazal turn to Sufism. In the sixth couplet the ascetic is told to put on his eyes the kohl of "ayne'l-yakîn". Sufism speaks of three degrees of knowledge: knowing by hearing (ilme'l-yakîn), knowing by seeing (ayne'l-yakîn) and knowing by living it (hakka'l-yakîn). The place where the ascetic should look to see the light of God is the "dîdâr", the face. This is the idea, often treated in divan poetry, of seeing the manifestation of divine beauty in beauty. In the closing couplet the pen name and the word "baṣîret", insight, stand side by side. Since the name Basîrî carries the meaning "one endowed with insight", the poet draws a counsel from his own name: whoever wishes to see the face of the Friend must wake the eye of insight from the sleep of heedlessness. Playing on the meaning of the pen name is an example of double entendre (tevriye).

A notable linguistic feature of the ghazal is the forms "ḳurtarıgör" and "uyarıgör". In Old Anatolian Turkish this "-ıgör" construction attached to verbs reinforces the imperative; "kurtarıgör" simply means "free". By rhyming this construction with the refrain "gör", Basîrî finds a solution interesting both linguistically and in sound: in these two couplets the refrain word "gör" becomes part of the verbal ending.

Bibliography

Online sources