Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫaddüñ üzre ṭolaşur ṭurmaz bu zülf-i tāb-dār
Bes bu rūşendür ḳıl oda düşicek ḳılmaz ḳarār
Çün ḥisāb-ı ḥüsn idersin evvel ey dil ḳaddin añ
Çün bilürsin kim elifdür evvel-i aṣl-ı şumār
Sünbül-i zülfüñe el ṣunduġıçün bād-ı ṣabā
Lāle-i dil-ḫastenüñ ṭutmış durur göñlin ġubār
Va‘de-i vaṣl-ı nigāra hergiz inanmazdı dil
‘Ömr sür‘at ḳılmasa eglense bir dem rūzgār
Ey dil-i bī-çāre sen bārī beni terk eyleme
Ḫod bilürsin kim cihānda bulmadum ben baña yār
Ḫāne-i dilden ḫayālüñ gözüme geldügiçün
Merdüm-i çeşm-i Münīr olmışdur aña perde-dār

In English

1. This curling (shining) lock wanders without pause over your cheek; this is clear enough: a hair (ḳıl) that falls into fire does not keep (ḳılmaz) still.

2. O heart, when you reckon up beauty, name his stature first; for you know that elif is the first of the root of number (stands for one in the abjad reckoning).

3. Because the morning breeze has stretched its hand to your hyacinth lock, the heart of the heart-sick tulip is clouded with dust (resentment).

4. If life did not hasten away and time lingered for a moment, the heart would never have believed the beloved's promise of union. The couplet can be read in two ways: according to the form "incinmezdi" read by VT and MN, the sense becomes "if life did not pass so quickly, the heart would not be hurt by the delay of the promised union".

5. O helpless heart, at least do not you abandon me; you know, after all, that I have found no friend for myself in this world.

6. Because your image came from the house of the heart to my eye, the pupil of Münîr's eye has become its curtain-keeper (the servant who holds the curtain at the door).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a six-couplet Turkish ghazal (gazel) and is the ninety-sixth of the Turkish ghazals in the edition (tg 96). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The number of this ghazal does not appear in Ersoy's list of refrains. The ghazal has no refrain (redif); the rhyme is the "-ār" sound: tāb-dār, ḳarār, şumār, ġubār, rūzgār, yār and perde-dār. The ghazal is found in two manuscripts of the divan and in two anthologies of response poems (VT 120a, Ü 25b, PB 162a, MN 74b). According to the apparatus Ü reads "ḫod" for "çün" in the second couplet; in the fourth couplet Ü reads "intiẓār-ı vaṣl-ı yāra" (to the awaiting of the beloved's union) for "va‘de-i vaṣl-ı nigāra", and VT and MN read "incinmezdi" (would not be hurt) for "inanmazdı" (would not believe). To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet (matla) is built on a pun and an observation. There is a play of sound between "ḳıl" (hair) and "ḳılmaz" (does not keep). A hair that falls into fire curls and shrivels and cannot stay in place; the beloved's lock likewise wanders ceaselessly over the cheek, which is like fire. Making a known event of nature the proof of the claim is close to the figure irsal-i mesel (the proverbial proof). The word "tāb-dār" means both curling and shining.

The second couplet rests on the abjad reckoning. Elif, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, stands for the number one in the abjad and has the form of a straight line. In divan poetry the beloved's stature is likened to elif because of this straightness. One who begins to reckon up beauty must begin with elif, the head of the numbers, that is, with the stature. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words "ḥisāb" (reckoning), "evvel" (first), "aṣl" (root) and "şumār" (number).

The third couplet is a scene of jealousy among flowers. The morning breeze has touched the beloved's hyacinth-like lock; seeing this, the tulip's heart has gathered dust. The dark patch at the centre of the tulip is interpreted as the "ġubār" (dust and resentment) that has settled on its heart. This reading as fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil) is our own inference.

The fourth couplet is obscure, and the manuscript variants change its sense. In the base text the heart believes the promise of union only because life passes quickly and time gives no chance to wait. The reading "incinmezdi" in VT and MN describes instead the heart being hurt by the delay of the promise because of the shortness of life. The word "intiẓār" (waiting) in Ü likewise brings the pain of waiting to the fore.

In the fifth couplet the lover addresses his own heart; he has no friend left in the world and asks his heart not to abandon him. In the pen-name couplet the pupil of the eye becomes a palace servant. A "perde-dār" is the official who holds the curtain at the door of the great and regulates entry. The beloved's image has come from the house of the heart to the eye; the pupil acts as curtain-keeper to this guest. The likening of the eyelid to a curtain may be the basis of this image; this is an inference.

Bibliography

Online sources