Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sāḳī-i bezm olıcaḳ sen ṣanem-i ġonca-dehen
Ne ḥacerdür mey-i gül-fāmı baña içme diyen
Derd-i ‘ışḳuñ dirisidür bilürem ḫaste göñül
Ẕikri ḫayr olsun anuñ kim bizi unutmaz iñen
Dil ḫadüñde Ḥabeşī ḫālüñi görüp didi kim
Milket-i Rūma neden düşdi ‘aceb şāh-ı ‘Aden
Şehrden gider iseñ ger bize incini raḳīb
Var gid’imdi gidenüñ yolına kim yıġdı diken
Rind-i mey-ḫāne-nişīn oldıyısa yine Münīr
Çāre ne k’irdi dem-i devr-i gül-i tevbe-şiken

In English

1. O rosebud-mouthed idol (sanem), when you are the cupbearer of the gathering, what a stone (what a hard heart) is he who tells me not to drink the rose-coloured wine.

2. I know that the sick heart is what still lives on of the pain of love; let us speak well of that pain, which never forgets us.

3. Seeing the Abyssinian mole on your cheek, the heart said: "I wonder why the king of Aden has come down into the land of Rum?"

4. Rival, if you are leaving the city offended with us, go on, go now; who has heaped thorns on the road of one who is leaving?

5. If Münîr has once more become a rind (free spirit) who sits in the tavern, what can be done; for the time of the rose season, breaker of repentance, has come.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and sixteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 216). The metre is "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on "-en": dehen, diyen, iñen, ‘Aden, diken and şiken. The ghazal is found in all three divan manuscripts (VT 148b, VY 127a, Ü 49a) and in the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası (PB 445b). The only variant reading is in the third couplet: Ersoy adopts the anthology's reading "‘Aden" into the text and gives the reading of the three divan manuscripts in the apparatus as "…uten". The first letter of this word could not be printed in the edition's apparatus; the word can be read as "Ḫuten" (Khotan) (our own reading). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is a scene from a drinking gathering. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "sanem" as idol and, figuratively, a very beautiful person, a charmer. When the beloved is the cupbearer of the gathering, the person who forbids drinking wine is a "ḥacer", a stone. The same dictionary gives "hacer" as stone and explains the idiom "hacer şecer" (stone and wood) as worthless things and, figuratively, a useless, worthless man. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between idol and stone; the poet, who calls the beloved an idol, sets the ascetic who forbids wine in the place of a stone (our own observation). In the second couplet the pain of love is personified: the heart is the part of this pain that still lives, and the pain is a friend who never forgets the lover. The phrase "ẕikri ḫayr olsun" (may he be remembered with good) is said in speaking well of someone. We understand the word "iñen" at the end of the line as "ever, at all" (our own reading).

The third couplet rests on a contrast of colours. Besides the sense of a person of the Abyssinian people, the Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "Habeş", by extension, the sense of a person with very dark skin; it explains "Rum" as Anatolia and in the same entry cites İsmâil Hakkı Bursevî's remark "Rum ve Acem ebyaz ve Arap esmerdir" (the Rum and the Persians are white, and the Arabs dark). The beloved's white cheek is the land of Rum, and the black mole on it is an Abyssinian king who has come down there. The heart asks why the king of Aden has come down into the land of Rum. If the reading "Ḫuten" of the three divan manuscripts were accepted, the comparison would take another direction, but the text of the edition is "‘Aden".

In the fourth couplet the poet defies the rival: if the rival is going to leave the city offended, let him go; no one has heaped thorns on the road of one who is leaving. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "diken" as the sharp, pricking projection found on some plants; road and thorn express that nothing stands in the way of departure. The couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) is tied to the season of roses. The Kubbealtı Lugatı defines "rint" (rind) as one who sets no value on worldly affairs, a dervish-like free spirit who seems given to drink but is a man of the heart, and gives the phrase "tövbe-şiken" as one who causes others to break their repentance, a breaker of repentance. The rose season makes men break their vows; the poet lays the blame for his return to the tavern on the season. The gathering and wine of the opening couplet and the tavern and repentance of the closing couplet bind the two ends of the ghazal together.

Bibliography

Online sources