Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü / mefā‘īlü / mefā‘īlü / fe‘ūlün

Zerrīn kemerde yaraşur ḫancer-i elmās
Ser-ḫalḳa-i zerde ḫoş olur zīver-i elmās
Al cāme ile raḳṣ-künān olsa o dil-cū
Meclisde ne ḥācet ki döne ṣāġar-ı elmās
Ḳanlarla gören dir ten-i pür-süfte-i zaḫmım
Bu bezm-i şehīdāna olur micmer-i elmās
Ẓann eylediler mu‘cize-i şaḳḳ-ı ḳamerdir
Bīrūn-ı niyāmī olıcaḳ ḫancer-i elmās
Engüşt-i muḥannādan olur maġz nümāyān
Mānende-i āb-ı ter-i tāb-āver-i elmās
La‘li elemi ile ṣu ṭurmuş göbeginde
Diḳḳatden ışıḳ ẓāhir ider peyker-i elmās
Boz ṣanma o tebḫāle getirmiş teb-i ġamla
Āteşlere düşmüş ditirer cevher-i elmās
Elmās o la‘l-i lebe teşbīh olınur mı
Vāżıḥ o şebeh ḳanda olur hem-ser-i elmās

In English

1. A diamond dagger suits a golden belt; a diamond ornament looks fine at the top of a golden ring.

2. If that heart-winning beloved whirled in dance in a red robe, what need would there be for the diamond cup to go round in the gathering.

3. Whoever sees my blood-soaked body, riddled with wounds, says: "This is the diamond censer of the gathering of martyrs."

4. When the diamond dagger came out of its sheath, people took it for the miracle of the splitting of the moon.

5. From the hennaed finger the inner core shows through, like the fresh water of a sparkling diamond.

6. Through grief for her ruby lip water has settled in the diamond's heart; when one looks closely, light appears on the diamond's face.

7. Do not take it for a dull grey spot; it has broken out in a fever blister from the fever of grief; the diamond's substance has fallen into the fire and trembles.

8. Can the diamond be likened to that ruby lip; O Vâzıh, where could şebeh ever be the equal of the diamond.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

With eight couplets, this poem is the longest ghazal in the Dîvânçe according to Babaarslan's figures: fifty-seven of the sixty-one ghazals have five couplets, and only two have six and eight couplets. The metre is the hezec pattern "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". The redif (refrain word) is "elmās" (diamond), repeated at the end of every couplet and joined to the preceding nouns by the Persian genitive: "ḫancer-i elmās, zīver-i elmās, ṣāġar-ı elmās". The rhyme is the "-er" of "ḫancer, zīver, ṣāġar, micmer, tāb-āver, peyker, cevher, hem-ser". The phrase "ḫancer-i elmās" occurs both in the opening couplet and in the fourth. The pen name (mahlas) is in the last couplet. To whom it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a redif poem that turns the diamond of the refrain into something different in every couplet. The diamond is first the ornament of the dagger and ring at the beloved's waist, then the cup in the gathering, a censer for the lover's wounded body, the gleam of the dagger drawn from its sheath, the translucency of the hennaed finger, and finally a stone set against the beloved's lip. In the third couplet the riddled body is compared to a pierced censer; blood and wounds take the place of the aloe wood burning in the gathering of martyrs. In the fourth couplet the light of the drawn dagger is compared to the "şakk-ı kamer", the splitting of the moon counted among the miracles of the Prophet. This allusion links the parting of the dagger from its sheath to the moon breaking into two halves.

The fifth, sixth and seventh couplets are built on the jeweller's vocabulary. The brilliance of a precious stone is called its "water"; the poet describes the finger as so delicate that its inside shows through by comparing it to the water of a diamond. The sixth couplet can be read in two ways: the water inside the diamond may be thought of as a tear shed in grief for the beloved's lip, or only the clarity of the stone may be meant. In the seventh couplet the cloudy flaws in the diamond are compared to the blister that a malarial fever raises on the lip, and the sparkle of the stone is read as the trembling of someone fallen into fever. In the last couplet the poet sets out the order of rank: the diamond cannot compete with the beloved's ruby lip. The word "şebeh" means "likeness" and is also the name of a black, shiny stone (jet); thanks to this double entendre (tevriye) the line says at once that neither a "likeness" nor the jet stone can equal the diamond.

Bibliography

Online sources