Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

‘Aşḳ aḥvâlin beyân etmek muḥâl taḳrîr-ilen
Bir mekâtib yazmamıştır kâġıda taḥrîr-ilen
Añlamaz ‘allâme-i dehr olsa ‘aşḳ keyfiyyetin
Kim ezel olmuş bu esrâr-ı Ḫudâ taḳdîr-ilen
İnḥirâk-ı ‘aşḳı âsân ṣanma ey ġāfil ṣaḳın
Bir ‘aceb otdur düşer dil milkine tenvîr-ilen
Dört meẕâhib yâ muḥaddis̱ ‘aşḳdan baḥs̱ etmedi
Bir müfessir kim anı naḳl etmedi tefsîr-ilen
Daḫli var ẕikriñ ḥaḳīḳatde ve lâkin ẕâhidâ
Vâṣıl-ı feyż-i Ḫudâ olmaz kişi eẕkâr-ilen
Ṣûret-i ebrû-yı dildârıñ ḫayâlin dilde ṭut
Maḳṣad-ı a‘lâya vâṣıl olmaḳ efnâ pîr-ilen
Leẕẕet-i ‘aşḳ ḫoş veli âsân degil var çilesi
Bir belâdır beñzemez cân vermege şemşîr-ilen
Zevḳ-i ‘aşḳa ṣarf eder Mir’ât-nümâ’nın ‘ömrünü
Bî-nihâyet ẕevk bulmuş dâ’imâ ol bir-ilen

In English

1. It is impossible to explain the states of love by telling; no scribe has written it on paper in writing.

2. Even the most learned man of the age does not understand the nature of love, for these secrets of God came about by decree from eternity.

3. O heedless one, beware of thinking the burning of love easy; it is a strange fire that falls on the realm of the heart, lighting it.

4. Neither the four schools nor the hadith scholar spoke of love; no commentator conveyed it by commentary.

5. O ascetic, remembrance has its share in reality, but a man does not reach God's grace by remembrances alone.

6. Hold in your heart the image of the form of the beloved's eyebrow; reaching the highest goal comes through annihilation with the master.

7. The pleasure of love is sweet, but not easy, it has its ordeal; it is an affliction unlike giving one's life to the sword.

8. Mir'ât-nümâ spends his life on the delight of love; with that One he has found endless delight always.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Love That Writing Cannot Hold

Love fits into no theory: that is what this eight-couplet ghazal says right after the theoretical language of the section on the contemplations. It is written in the metre “Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün”, and its refrain is “-ilen”, with: taḳrîr-ilen, taḥrîr-ilen, taḳdîr-ilen, tenvîr-ilen, tefsîr-ilen, eẕkâr-ilen, pîr-ilen, şemşîr-ilen, bir-ilen.

The first four couplets proclaim the inexpressibility of love against all the instruments of knowledge in turn: speech, writing, the reason of the learned, the jurisprudence of the four schools, the hadith of the traditionist, the commentary of the exegete. The first couplet, built with a scribe's sensibility, says that love has been written on no paper; in the fourth couplet all the sciences of the madrasa fall silent before love.

The fifth couplet sets a limit that is surprising given the book's general line: remembrance has its share in reality, but a man does not reach grace by remembrances alone. The sixth couplet says what is needed: to hold the image of the beloved's eyebrow in the heart and to be annihilated with the master. Here the beloved's eyebrow can be read as the divan poetry expression of the master's image held in the heart in rabıta; the ghazal thus unites the love motif with rabıta.

Bibliography

Online sources