Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çün kim irdi nevbet-i ‘ahd-i gül ü peymān-şiken
Bir dem ey dil bī-mey ü ma‘şūḳ u yār olmaḳ neden
Sen gül-endām ile ġāyet ḫoşdur ey cān bülbüli
Muṭrib-i naġme-serāy u sāḳī-i sīmīn-ẕeḳan
Gül yüzüñe lāle öykündügi ‘öẕri dileyüp
Geldi dāġ-ı ḫaclet ile boynına ṭaḳup kefen
Acıram sīnemde tīr-i ġamzeñ eglenmez diyü
Bes ṭurur mı bir müşebbek nesnede ṭaşdan geçen
Ḫūb-rūlardan beni men‘ itdügi zāhid budur
Bilmemişdür kim nedür māhiyyet-i vech-i ḥasen
Devletinde ‘ışḳ-ı dil-sūzuñ Münīr üftāde-veş
Dāstān-ı şevḳum oldı ḳıṣṣa-i her encümen

In English

1. Since the turn has come of the rose and of the season that breaks its promise (faithless and short-lived), why, O heart, should you be for a single moment without wine, without a beloved and without a friend?

2. O nightingale of the soul, it is delightful indeed to be with one whose body is like a rose, with a minstrel singing melodies and a cupbearer with a silver chin.

3. The tulip, to beg pardon for having tried to imitate your rose-like face, has come with the brand of shame (the black spot at its heart), a shroud hung about its neck.

4. I grieve that the arrow of your glance does not stay in my breast; yet would an arrow that passes through stone stay in a thing pierced like a net?

5. This is why the ascetic forbids me the fair: he has not known the essence of a beautiful face (and of a fair way).

6. Münîr, thanks to your heart-burning love I have become like the fallen; the tale of my longing has become the story of every gathering.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal, the two hundred and thirty-third of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 233). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The ghazal has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on "-en": peymān-şiken, neden, ẕeḳan, kefen, geçen, ḥasen and encümen. The ghazal is found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT 153a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with an invitation to spring and to wine. In the opening couplet the rose season is called "peymān-şiken", a time that does not keep its promise; because the rose fades quickly, this season must not be wasted. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "nevbet" as a turn of watch; the rose season is like a watch that begins when its turn comes. The phrase "gül ü peymān-şiken" in the line can also be understood as naming side by side the rose and the beloved who breaks his promise. The second couplet turns this invitation into the picture of a gathering: the rose-bodied beloved, the minstrel and the cupbearer with a silver chin. With the address "cān bülbüli" (nightingale of the soul) the heart is likened to the nightingale singing over the rose.

The third couplet is an example of hüsn-i talil (fanciful aetiology). The black spot at the heart of the tulip is here a wound of shame. The Kubbealtı Lugatı records that "dâğ" means figuratively the wound opened by love and grief, and also the blackness at the centre of flowers such as the tulip. The tulip is guilty of having imitated the beloved's face and comes to beg pardon with its shroud about its neck. The same dictionary explains the idiom "kefeni boynunda" (his shroud about his neck) as "ready to die at any moment"; the tulip has come, as in this idiom, prepared to face death.

In the fourth couplet the heart has become pierced like a net. The Kubbealtı explains "müşebbek" as woven or pierced like a net or lattice and quotes a couplet of Zâtî describing a breast so pierced. An arrow that pierces stone cannot be expected to stay in a porous heart; in this way the poet excuses the glance's arrow for not staying in his heart.

In the fifth couplet the ascetic is the one who forbids looking at the fair. The phrase "vech-i ḥasen" carries a double entendre (tevriye). Beside the sense of face, the Kubbealtı also gives "vech" the senses of way, manner and reason. Accordingly the ascetic knows neither the essence of a beautiful face nor what a fair way, a proper reason, is (our observation). In the couplet bearing the pen name (mahlas) the lover's pain becomes an epic told in every gathering.

Bibliography

Online sources