Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilâtün Fâilün

Âteş-i ‘aşḳıñ hemîşe dilde sûzân eyledi
Cevr-i oduñ yaḳdı beni yandırdı külḫân eyledi
Öyle mest etdi mi ‘aşḳıñ ezelden kim beni
Senden özge ḳoymadı göñlümde ḥayrân eyledi
Şerm-sâr olmuş idim ḫalḳ içre Mecnûndan füzûn
Lüṭf edip ḳıldı ‘inâyet soñra ḫandân eyledi
Ger ne mümkün ḫâlimi ‘âlim ki idrâk eylemek
Dost olup ḫalḳdan beni kendinde pinhân eyledi
Bir ġarîb bî-çare ṣanman siz beni ‘âlemde kim
Şükr-i li’llâh dost beni kûyunda mihmân eyledi
Mihnet u ġamdan ḫalâs etdi beni yâr âferîn
Tâzelendi gülşen-i ‘ömrüm gülistân eyledi
Zühd ile bulmaḳ ṭarîḳ-ı ḥaḳḳı kim düş-vâr idi
Oldu bir mürşid baña bu yolda meydân eyledi
Zâhidiñ zühdünden ikrâhım ki cinnetdir ġaraż
Terk-i dost etdi varıp da‘vâyı ġılmân eyledi
Bi-teḳayyüddür aḫî Mir’ât-nümâ dünyâda kim
Ḳalmadı bir müşkilâtı Ḥaḳda seyrân eyledi

In English

1. The fire of your love keeps the heart always burning; the cruelty of your flame burned me, set me alight and turned me into a furnace.

2. Did your love make me so drunk from eternity that it left none but you in my heart and filled me with wonder?

3. I had become more ashamed among the people than Mecnun; the beloved graciously showed favour and then made me laugh.

4. How could anyone who knows me grasp my state? Becoming my friend, he hid me from the people within himself.

5. Do not think me a wretched stranger in the world; thanks be to God, the friend has made me a guest in his own street.

6. Bravo, the beloved has freed me from trouble and sorrow; the rose garden of my life has been renewed and become a rose bower.

7. Finding the road of God through asceticism was hard; a master opened the field for me on this road.

8. I loathe the ascetic's asceticism, for his aim is paradise; he left the friend and went and made his claim on the youths of paradise.

9. Brother, Mir'ât-nümâ is free of care in the world; no difficulty remains for him, he has gone strolling in God.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Ghazal of Deliverance

The refrain “eyledi”, he made, did, counts one by one the things the beloved or the master “did” for the poet; the metre of the nine couplets is the remel, with four feet to the line. What is counted moves from pain to joy: in the first couplets the fire of love burns the poet and turns him into a furnace and makes him more ashamed than Mecnun; after the fourth couplet the beloved shows favour, hides the poet from the people, makes him a guest in his own street, and turns the garden of his life into a rose bower.

The fifth couplet carries the same feeling as the ghazals addressed to Amasya: “Bir ġarîb bî-çâre ṣanman siz beni ‘âlemde”, do not think me a wretched stranger in the world. To those who see him as a helpless stranger the poet says that the friend has made him his guest. The seventh couplet states plainly the cause of this transformation: finding the road of God through asceticism was hard, and a master opened the field for the poet on this road.

The eighth couplet is one of the sharpest examples of the book's criticism of the ascetic. Loathing the ascetic's asceticism, the poet says that his aim is paradise, that he has left the friend and wants the “ġılmân”, the youths of paradise. Loving God for Himself rather than for paradise has been one of the basic ideas of Sufism since Râbia el-Adeviyye. The closing couplet presents the poet as “bî-teḳayyüd”, free of care, one who has gone strolling in God.

Bibliography

Online sources