Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilün

Dem-be-dem bāde ile demlenegör āb gibi
Ḫāliṣ eyler zer-i ḳalbiñi o tīz-āb gibi
‘Īd-i vaṣlında aña rūḥumı teslīm itdim
Vech-i mesnūn-ı şerīf üzere ḫᵛāb gibi
O siyeh-mest dem-i ġamzeyle baḳar ḫancerine
Ḥālden añlaşılan ḳatlimiz işrāb gibi
Cilvesi yārına ol servī-i sīm-endāmıñ
Gözlerim oldı revān menba‘-ı sīm-āb gibi
Fikr-i gülgūnesin eyler iken eşkim Vāżıḥ
Ḳapladı dīde-i ḫūnīnimi ḫūn-āb gibi

In English

1. Keep steeping yourself moment by moment in wine as in water; like aqua fortis it refines the gold of your heart (makes false gold pure).

2. On the feast day of union I surrendered my soul to him, as one lies down to sleep in the manner of the noble Sunna.

3. That dark-drunk one glances at his dagger in the moment of a wink; from his state it is clear that our killing will be like the tempering of that dagger.

4. At the swaying of that silver-bodied cypress my eyes began to flow like a spring of quicksilver.

5. O Vâzıh, while my tears were thinking of his rouge, bloody water covered my bleeding eye.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal has five couplets and is written in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "gibi" (like), and the rhyme is the "-āb" of "āb, tīz-āb, ḫᵛāb, işrāb, sīm-āb, ḫūn-āb". Most rhyme words are compounds formed with "āb" (water), which gives the poem a congruence of images (tenasüp) made of liquids: water, wine and tears. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet contains a sound play between "dem-be-dem" (moment by moment) and "demlenmek" (to steep, to drink). The real invention lies in the second line: "tīz-āb" is the sharp water known today as aqua fortis, used to assay gold and separate the pure metal. The phrase "zer-i ḳalb" can be read both as "the gold of the heart" and as "false gold", since "ḳalb" means both heart and counterfeit; wine purifies the heart as aqua fortis sorts out false gold. This is the double entendre (tevriye) of the couplet.

In the second couplet union is compared to a feast day, and the poet surrenders his soul on that feast. "Sleep in the manner of the Sunna" recalls lying on the right side facing the qibla; since the dead are laid in the grave in a similar way, the couplet likens giving up the soul to a peaceful sleep. This explanation is our own. The word "işrāb" in the third couplet means "to give to drink"; the tempering of steel is also called by this name. The couplet can be read in two ways: the beloved's dagger will drink the lover's blood, or the killing of the lover will be like tempering and hardening the dagger. The word "yārına" in the fourth couplet has been left as the edition reads it; since it can be understood as "to his beloved" or "to his tomorrow", it has been left untranslated. The link between the silver body and quicksilver (sīm-āb, "silver water") is the real subtlety of the couplet. In the last couplet the thought of rouge (gülgūne) dyes the tears with blood.

Bibliography

Online sources