Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Dîde-i bâṭınla ol şâhı nigâh etmiş misiñ
Gerçi taḥṣîl-i kemâlât ala etmiş misiñ
Ka‘be-i sırr-ı ḥaḳīḳī mülküne mihmân olup
Ḳa‘be ḳavseyn maḳāmın ḫân-ḳāh etmiş misiñ
Her maḳāmât-ı merâtip fevḳine iḳdâm edip
Kendiñi maḳbûl-i bâb-ı pâdişâh etmiş misiñ
Zaḥm-ı şemşîr-ile sîneñ çâk olup müdde‘î
Ḫançer-i zülfünde yâriñ âh-ı vâh etmiş misiñ
Şem‘i ruḫ-sârında cânânıñ yanıp pervâne-veş
Özge cânıñ terkiñi bi-iştibâh etmiş misiñ
‘Âşıḳānlıḳ iddi‘âsın eyleyen her-dem müdâm
Âteş-i dil-dâr ile bir kerre âh etmiş misiñ
Ser verip Ferhâd gibi Şîrîn için ḳanlar döküp
Ol seri kuy-ı nigâra ‘azm-i râh etmiş misiñ
İbtilâyı ‘âleme ṣabr eyleyüp ḳılmaḳ du‘â
Bir du‘âcısın özüñ bir ḫayr-ḫâh etmiş misiñ
İstemem lâf-ı güẕâf Mir’at-nümâ’yı bilmiş ol
Sen seni maḥsûb-ı bâb evvel penâh etmiş misiñ

In English

1. Have you beheld that king with the inner eye; have you indeed acquired the lofty perfections?

2. Have you been a guest in the realm of the Kaaba of the true secret and made the station of “two bows' length” your lodge?

3. Stepping above every station and rank, have you made yourself accepted at the sovereign's door?

4. O claimant, has your breast been split by the sword's wound, have you cried out in the dagger of your beloved's locks?

5. Burning like a moth in the candle of your beloved's cheek, have you abandoned your own life without hesitation?

6. O you who claim at every moment to be a lover, have you sighed even once with the fire of the beloved?

7. Giving your head like Ferhad and shedding blood for Şîrîn, have you set out with that head towards the beloved's street?

8. Bearing the world's affliction with patience and praying, have you made yourself one who prays, one who wishes good?

9. I want no idle talk; know Mir'ât-nümâ. Have you first counted yourself as one who has taken refuge at that door?

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Question “Have You?”

Repeated at the end of every couplet, the question “etmiş misiñ”, have you, builds these nine couplets like an examination. The addressee is the “müdde‘î” often criticised in earlier sections, the claimant who professes love and perfection without having attained the state. The poet questions him on the steps of perfection one by one: have you seen the beloved with the inner eye, have you reached the station of “Ḳâbe ḳavseyn”, have you burned like a moth before the candle, have you given your head like Ferhad? The remel metre and the rhymes “nigâh, ala, ḫân-ḳāh, pâdişâh, âh-ı vâh, bi-iştibâh, âh, râh, ḫayr-ḫâh, penâh” turn these questions into a rhythmic interrogation.

The “Ḳa‘be ḳavseyn” of the second couplet is the expression “two bows' length” from the chapter of the Star, describing the Prophet's nearness to God on the night of the ascension, and the edition gives the couplet as one of its examples of Qur'anic quotation. The poet rhymes this lofty station with “ḫânḳāh”, a dervish lodge: the nearness of the ascension is imagined as a place where a dervish might dwell. In the fourth and seventh couplets the love scenes of divan poetry, the sword wound, the dagger of the locks and Ferhad's labour for Şîrîn, become questions that test the claimant.

The eighth couplet adds a moral dimension to the questions: bearing the world's affliction with patience and being a man of prayer are also conditions of love. The final couplet says the poet wants no “lâf-ı güẕâf”, idle talk, and asks the claimant first to see himself as one who has taken refuge at the door.

Bibliography

Online sources