Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ey viṣāli ṭal‘at-ı mihr-i cemāl-i cān-ı ‘īd
‘Āşıḳ-ı dil-ḫaste yetmez mi saña ḳurbān-ı ‘īd
Ḫaste düşmişdi viṣālüñsüz geçen ‘īd-i ṣıyām
Şükr Ḥaḳḳa k’irdi yine ṭal‘atuñ dermān-ı ‘īd
Devlet ile ḫāk-i pāyüñde geçen ‘īdüñ demi
Oldı mülk-i ‘ālem içre levḥa-i dīvān-ı ‘īd
Sāḳīyā cām-ı muravvaḳ ṣun getür peymāneñi
Bilürem peymān-şikenlikdür bize fermān-ı ‘īd
Ḫūn-ı ‘āşıḳ şol yed-i beyzāda yiter ey Münīr
‘Ādetā yaḳdurmaġ ise ḫalḳa ḫınnā şān-ı ‘īd

In English

1. O you whose union is the rising of the sun of beauty, the very soul of the feast; is the heartsick lover not enough for you as a sacrifice of the feast?

2. The feast of the fast (the Ramazan feast), passed without union with you, had fallen ill; thanks be to God, your face has risen again as the cure of the feast.

3. The hour of the feast spent happily in the dust of your feet has become the tablet of the feast-day council in the realm of the world.

4. O cupbearer, hand me the cup of clear, strained wine, bring your goblet; I know that the decree of the feast for us is the breaking of the pledge (the repentance made during the fast).

5. O Münîr, if it is the custom of the feast to have people dye their hands with henna, the lover's blood is enough as henna for that white hand.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a five-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the thirty-eighth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 38). The metre is "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün". The refrain (redif) is "-ı ‘īd" (of the feast); Ersoy's list of refrains also gives this ghazal with the refrain "-ı ‘īd". The rhyme is the sound "-ân": cān, ḳurbān, dermān, dīvān, fermān, şān. The poem is found in the Vatican (VT 106a) and Vienna (VY 88a) manuscripts; no variant readings are recorded in the apparatus. Although it is built on the feast, for which feast, to whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal turns on the idea of the feast, and two feasts are named together. "Ḳurbān-ı ‘īd" in the opening couplet recalls the Feast of Sacrifice, and "‘īd-i ṣıyām" (the feast of the fast) in the second couplet recalls the feast at the end of Ramazan; that the two feasts meet in the same ghazal is our own observation. In the opening couplet (matla) the lover offers himself as a sacrifice for the beloved's feast. The beloved's union is the "soul", that is, the essence of the feast.

In the second couplet there is a personification: the feast has fallen ill because it passed without union, and the beloved's face becomes the remedy of the feast. "Ṭal‘at" in its dictionary sense means both face and rising; the face rising like the sun joins these two senses. In the third couplet the phrase "levḥa-i dīvān-ı ‘īd" occurs. "Dīvān" in its dictionary sense means both an assembly, a council of audience, and a book in which poems are collected; "levḥa" is a page or board on which something is written. The feast spent at the beloved's feet has become like the first page of the book of the feast in this world. This twofold reading is our own inference.

In the fourth couplet there is a play of sound between "peymāne" (goblet) and "peymān" (pledge). The repentance made throughout Ramazan will be broken with the feast; and it is the feast itself that decrees this. This couplet, carrying a libertine irony, addresses the cupbearer and asks for the cup. The word "fermān" (decree) presents the feast as a sovereign whose command is carried out, and it agrees with the image of the council in the third couplet; this connection is our own observation. "Muravvaḳ" in its dictionary sense means strained, clear.

The pen-name couplet touches on the custom of applying henna at the feast. The beloved's hands are called "yed-i beyżā"; in its dictionary sense the phrase means "white hand" and carries an allusion to the miracle of Moses' shining hand. If it is the custom at the feast to put henna on everyone, the lover's blood is enough as henna for that white hand. The likeness of colour between henna and blood is the central image of the couplet.

Bibliography

Online sources