Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

La‘l-i nābuñ-çün ki döker dīde her dem seyl-i ḫūn
Şīşe-i meydür gözüm gūyā k’olupdur ser-nigūn
Ḥālet-i Ferhādı görüp ḥasret-i Şīrīn ile
Sīne çāk olsa ‘aceb mi şöyle kūh-ı bī-sütūn
Nā-bedīd olup ḫam-ı zülfüñde gitdiyse göñül
Uymaz olmışdı sözüme gitdiyise tün bütün
Ḳaddini çengüñ büküp baġrını nāyuñ deldiler
Baña geldi diyü nevbet ṭurmaz aġlar erġanūn
Seg raḳībi ḫᵛān-ı vaṣl içre görüp didi Münīr
Sifle-perverdür be-ġāyet veh ki bu gerdūn-ı dūn

In English

1. For your pure ruby lip my eye pours a flood of blood every moment; it is as if my eye were a wine bottle turned upside down.

2. Is it strange if Mount Bîsütûn, seeing the plight of Ferhad longing for Shirin, should have its breast torn open like this?

3. If my heart has vanished into the curl of your tress and gone, if it went wholly by night, it had already ceased to heed my word.

4. They bent the stature of the harp (çeng) and pierced the breast of the reed flute (ney); saying "my turn (nevbet) has come", the organ (erganun) weeps without pause.

5. Seeing the rival, that dog, at the table of union, Münîr said: "Alas, this base sky is in the utmost degree a nourisher of the base."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and eighteenth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 218). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on "-ūn / -ün": ḫūn, nigūn, sütūn, bütün, erġanūn and dūn. The Turkish word "bütün" (whole) in the third couplet takes its place among the "-ūn" rhymes of Persian and Arabic origin. The ghazal is found in two divan manuscripts (VT 149a, VY 124a) and in the Pervâne Bey Mecmuası (PB 450a); it is absent from the Ü manuscript. The variant readings are in VT: "gitdiyse" (if it went) in the third couplet appears in VT as "çün gitdi" (since it went), and "veh" (alas) in the fifth couplet appears in VT as "de". It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with an image from a drinking gathering. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "nâb" as pure, unadulterated, and "la'l" as a precious stone of a bright red colour; "la‘l-i nāb" is the beloved's red lip. Blood flows ceaselessly from the lover's eye; with the word "sernigûn", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as overturned, upside down, the eye is likened to an upturned bottle emptying out the red wine within it. The second couplet is an allusion to the story of Ferhad and Shirin. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "Bîsütun" as the name of the mountain that Ferhad bored through in order to win his beloved Shirin. The poet finds a poetic cause for the splitting of the mountain: Bîsütûn could not bear Ferhad's plight and, like him, tore open its breast.

The third couplet tells of the heart's disappearance. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "nâbedîd" as invisible and the idiom "nâbedid olmak" as to become invisible, to vanish. The phrase "tün bütün" at the end of the line can be read in two ways. The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that "tün" meant night in Old Turkish; on this reading the heart has gone "wholly by night" into the tress, which is black as night. The phrase can also be understood in the sense of "tüm bütün", altogether (our own reading). VT's reading "çün gitdi" turns the line into a clause of cause.

The fourth couplet is built with musical instruments. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "çeng" as a stringed instrument resembling the harp, "ney" as the wind instrument made of a reed with nine joints, and "erganun" as the instrument called the organ. The curved shape of the harp is a bent stature, the holes of the ney a pierced breast; and the organ weeps, thinking that its turn has come. The Kubbealtı Lugatı gives "nevbet" both the sense of a turn, a watch, and the sense of the military band music played at set times in palaces and mansions and on campaigns; with these two senses the word forms a double entendre (tevriye) suited to the instruments in the couplet (our own observation). In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the rival is a dog sitting at the table of union. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the phrase "sifle-perver" as one who supports and protects the rabble, the base, and "dûn" as base, ignoble, and gives the example "gerdûn-i dûn" (the base sky). The fact that the word "dūn" is also contained within the word "gerdūn" creates a play of sound at the end of the line.

Bibliography

Online sources