Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Aç sîneni âyîne-i billûr görünsün
Nahl-i Cebel-i Tûr'daki nûr görünsün
Bir âyine-i hüsne mukâbil ola gördüm
Matem-kede-i dehr-i denî sûr görünsün
Bir dilber-i bî-misle yer et kâh-ı dilinde
Ne sûret-i vildân ve ne hod hûr görünsün
Sâki bizi kim sagâr ile mest edemezsin
Hurşîd-sıfât kâse-i fağfûr görünsün
Ol mertebe nûş et mey-i nâbı ki Edîbâ
Şîrân-ı kavî kalb-i cihân mûr görünsün.

In English

1. Open your breast so that a crystal mirror may appear; let the light in the tree on Mount Sinai appear.

2. Let me stand face to face with a mirror of beauty, so that this base world's house of mourning may appear a wedding feast. (The line is obscure; "ola gördüm" has been understood as "let me come face to face".)

3. Make room in the palace of your heart for a peerless beauty; let neither the image of the youths of Paradise nor the houris appear.

4. O cupbearer, since you cannot make us drunk with a small cup, let a bowl of Chinese porcelain appear, like the sun.

5. Drink pure wine to such a degree, O Edîb, that the stout-hearted lions of the world appear as ants.

Literary and Historical Commentary

What Appears and What Does Not

Throughout this ghazal the poet wishes for something to be seen; the redif "görünsün", "let it appear", repeats that wish in all five couplets. The rhyme rests on the "-ûr" shared by "billûr, nûr, sûr, hûr, fağfûr, mûr". The first couplet climbs highest: the beloved's opened breast is a crystal mirror, and in it appears the light of the tree on Mount Sinai. The Qur'an tells how Moses saw a fire coming from a tree on Sinai and spoke with God there; the word "nahl" properly means a date palm, but here it stands for that sacred tree. The beauty's body thus becomes a surface in which the divine light is reflected. This mystical reading does not extend over the whole poem; the following couplets come down to the gathering and to wine.

The first line of the second couplet is obscure. The phrase "mukâbil ola gördüm" has been understood as a wish, "let me stand face to face with it", and rendered accordingly; another reading is possible. The contrast in the second line, however, is clear: the world is a "matem-kede", a house of mourning, and beauty can turn it at once into a "sûr", a wedding feast. The third couplet says that even Paradise would pale beside this beauty: to one who makes room in the palace of his heart for a peerless beloved, neither the vildân, the serving youths of Paradise, nor the houris appear.

From Cup to Bowl

In the fourth couplet the poet turns to the cupbearer. "Sagâr" is a small wine cup; the poet says it will not make him drunk and asks for a "kâse-i fağfûr" shining like the sun. Fağfûr was the title of the emperor of China, and Chinese porcelain was known by this name; the likeness between sun and bowl rests on the round, light-giving face of a full bowl. The pen-name couplet carries the wish to its end: one should drink so deeply that the boldest lions in the world look as small as ants. The courage that wine gives is a familiar image of libertine poetry. When the ghazal was written is not known; it might be linked with the years Edîb spent as a companion in Damad İbrâhim Pasha's gatherings, but nothing in the poem points to this. His judgeships and his years as a companion are described in Edîb Mehmed Efendi of Lâdik.

Bibliography

Online sources