Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef ‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Ol serv-i ġonca-leb ki gül-i nev-resīdedür
Peyveste ḳaşı ṣanki kemān-ı keşīdedür
Ḫayl-i rusülde ḥażret-i Aḥmed niceyise
Güzeller arasında ḥüsünde güzīdedür
Gelsün ḫayāli çeşmüñe di ḫāne-i dile
Gözüm yaşı şarābı anuñçün çekīdedür
Ney gibi yüregüm delinüp nālem artalı
Ḳaddüm büküldi şöyle ki çeng-i ḫamīdedür
Leylī ṣaçıyla nolduġıñuñ ḳıṣṣasın di sen
Ey dil ḥikāyet-i ġam-ı Mecnūn şenīdedür
Bir gün bu ev başuña yıḳılur göñül senüñ
Cismüm gözüm yaşından iñen nem keşīdedür
Şükr-i Ḫudā ki ol ṣanem-i māh-rū Münīr
Gösterdi yüzi ayını kim nūr-ı dīdedür

In English

1. That rosebud-lipped cypress, who is a newly opened rose; the joined brow is as if it were a drawn bow.

2. As the noble Ahmed (Muhammad) is chosen among the host of prophets, so is he chosen in beauty among the beauties.

3. Tell your eye to let its image come to the house of the heart; the wine of my eye's tears has been distilled for it.

4. Since my heart was pierced like the reed flute and my moaning grew, my stature has bent so that it is a bowed harp (çeng).

5. O heart, tell the story of what has become of you with that Leylâ-like black hair; the tale of Mecnun's sorrow has been heard already.

6. O heart, one day this house will fall upon your head; my body has drawn much damp from the tears of my eyes.

7. Thanks be to God, O Münîr, that moon-faced beauty (that idol) has shown the moon of his face, which is the light of the eye.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a seven-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the fifty-third of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 53). The metre is "mef ‘ûlü fâ‘ilâtü mefâ‘îlü fâ‘ilün". Ersoy's list of refrains places this ghazal among those with the refrain (redif) "-dür" (it is); the rhyme is the "-îde" sound before it: nev-resīde, keşīde, güzīde, çekīde, ḫamīde, şenīde, keşīde, dīde. The word "keşīde" stands twice in rhyme position, in the opening and sixth couplets, but with two different senses: in the first "drawn (taut)", in the second "having drawn (absorbed)". The poem is found in all three manuscripts of the divan (VT 109b, VY 94b, Ü 26a); no variant readings are recorded in the apparatus. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) opens with the classic comparisons of beauty: the stature a cypress, the lip a rosebud, the face a newly opened rose, the joined brow a drawn bow. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between bud and rose; the rosebud-lipped beloved is at the same time an opened rose. In the second couplet a simile likens the beloved's place among the beauties to the Prophet's place among the prophets. "Güzīde" in its dictionary sense means chosen and recalls the epithet "the chosen one" of the Prophet Muhammad; identifying this connection is our own work.

In the third couplet the beloved's eye must have been thought of as a drunken eye: what will come to the house of the heart is its image, and the lover has prepared for it a wine distilled from his tears. "Çekīde" in its dictionary sense means strained, distilled. The likening of tears to wine may rest on the red of bloody tears; this is our own inference.

The fourth couplet has images of music. The heart has been pierced like the reed flute (ney); a likeness is drawn between the holes of the ney and the wounds in the heart. The lover's bent stature is likened to the çeng, a curved instrument. There is a congruence of images between ney and çeng. The fifth couplet alludes to the story of Leylâ and Mecnun. In the opening couplet of the ghazal immediately preceding in the edition (tg 52) the phrase "Leylī ṣaçuñ" also occurs; here too the hair is likened to Leylâ. The story of Mecnun has grown old; what must now be told is the heart's own story.

In the sixth couplet the body is likened to a house that has drawn damp. The body wet with tears will one day fall on the heart's head like a wall rotting from damp. In the pen-name couplet the beloved's face is likened to the moon. "Ṣanem" in its dictionary sense means idol and is used in divan poetry for the beautiful beloved. The connection made between the appearance of the moon and thanksgiving suggests the joy felt when the moon is watched for and sighted; this interpretation is our own inference.

Bibliography

Online sources