Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Dil çevirdiyse yüzin yoluñda benden ġam degül
Līkin ol cān virmez ise yoluña nesnem degül
Dāne-i ḫālüñe zāhid niçesi meyl eylesün
Hergiz insāniyyeti yoḳdur anuñ ādem degül
Yār bilsem ki nesidür dir imiş baña raḳīb
Ḥāṣıl-ı ömr-i ‘azīz ü devletümdür n’em degül
Percem-i ṭāvūsı añdum göñlüme didi revān
Āfet-i dildür belā-yı cāndur ol percem degül
Baḳmayup pīr olduġıma bir cüvān sevmiş Münīr
Yine bu bāzīçe āḫir bize ey dil kem degül

In English

1. If the heart has turned its face from me on your path, that is no grief to me; but if it does not give its life on your path, it is nothing of mine.

2. How could the ascetic incline towards the grain of your mole? He has no humanity at all; he is no man (nor is he Adam, who approached the forbidden tree, that he should incline towards the grain).

3. They say the rival asks the beloved, "What is he to you?"; let him know that he is the harvest of my precious life and my fortune (my happiness); how should he be nothing to me?

4. I spoke to my heart of the peacock's crest; at once the heart said: "That is no crest; it is the bane of the heart and the calamity of the soul." (The couplet can be read in two ways: the heart refuses to equate the beloved's forelock with the peacock's crest and says that the true crest is the beloved's forelock, the bane of the heart; or it says that the crest I mentioned is no crest but a calamity.)

5. Münîr, paying no heed to my being old, has fallen in love with a youth; O heart, even so, this game is in the end no small thing (nothing worthless) for us.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the hundred and eighty-fifth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 185). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "degül" (is not); Ersoy records this ghazal with this redif in his list of redifs. The rhyme is the sound "-em" before the redif: ġam, nesnem, ādem, n'em, percem and kem. The ghazal that immediately follows, tg 186, is written with the same redif and the same metre. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 141a); the edition records no variant readings. It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal consists of brief exchanges between the heart, the ascetic, the rival and the beloved. In the opening couplet the poet speaks of his heart as a person separate from himself: he is content for the heart to turn its face from him, so long as it gives its life on the beloved's path. If it does not, he has no tie with it.

The second couplet is built on the words "dāne-i ḫāl" (the grain of the mole) and "ādem". The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "dâne" as seed, grain, and small round things like seeds. The Qur'an tells that Adam and his wife were commanded in Paradise not to approach a certain tree (al-Baqara 2:35). The word "ādem" can be read both as man and as the prophet Adam: the ascetic who does not incline towards the grain of the mole has no share of humanity; nor does he resemble Adam, the first man, who approached the forbidden tree. The link drawn between the grain and the forbidden tree, and the double reading, are our own observation.

In the third couplet the rival's question "What is he to you?" is answered. The rhyme "n'em" (what of mine) at the end of the line answers the rival by repeating his question. The beloved is the harvest and the fortune of the poet's life; the Kubbealtı Lugatı also gives the word "devlet" the sense of greatness and high station. The fourth couplet contains the word "perçem", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as a short lock of hair falling on the forehead, a forelock. The Kubbealtı Lugatı describes the peacock as a bird with a long, ornate, bright and beautifully coloured tail; the crest on its head remains ordinary beside the beloved's forelock. The heart, however, sees the forelock not as an ornament but as an "âfet", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as a great calamity and a state from which one cannot escape.

The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) sets old age against love. Though old, the poet has given his heart to a youth. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the Persian word "bâzîçe" as toy, game, and the word "kem" as lacking, little, worthless. The poet sees this love as a game, yet despite his age he does not belittle it. In the couplet the first person ("pīr olduġıma", my being old) and the third person ("sevmiş Münīr", Münîr has fallen in love) are used together.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Official sources

Books

  • Kubbealtı Lugatı (Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük), entries "dâne", "devlet", "tavus", "perçem", "âfet", "bâzîçe" and "kem". https://lugatim.com/s/perçem

Online sources