Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Fenn-i ‘ışkunda şehâ hüsnün me’ânîsin beyân
İdemez her sû mesamm-ı tende olursa beyân
‘Işkunun Ferhâdı oldum tutdum âhumdan külüng
Dil-ber isterin lebünçün kesmişem kûh-ı girân
Zülfüni gördüm nigârâ yedi başlu ejdehâ
Ger dir isem gün yüzüne tan mıdur genc-i nihân
Şöyle hayrân itdi ‘ışkun beni ey Leylâ-hırâm
Kim başumda yapdı Mecnûn gibi kuşlar âşiyân
Dest-gîr olsan yiridür Şâhî-i bî-çâreye
Kim olupdur râh-ı ‘ışkunda o miskîn nâ-tüvân

In English

1. O shah, even if every pore of the body became a tongue, it could not explain the meanings of your beauty in the science of your love.

2. I became the Ferhad of your love and took up a pickaxe made of my sighs; O charmer, for the sake of your lip I have cut through a heavy mountain.

3. O beauty, I saw your locks as a seven-headed dragon; is it any wonder if I call your sun face a hidden treasure?

4. O you who walk with the grace of Leylâ, your love has so bewildered me that, as with Mecnun, birds have built their nest on my head.

5. It would be fitting if you took helpless Şâhî by the hand; for that poor one has become strengthless on the road of your love.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five-couplet ghazal is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. It has no redif; the rhyme is the "-ân" sound in "beyân, beyân, girân, nihân, âşiyân, nâ-tüvân". Both lines of the opening couplet end with the same word, "beyân". In the edition the folio mark [81a] stands after the last couplet.

This repetition in the opening couplet draws attention. The phrase "her sû mesamm-ı tende olursa beyân" in the second line recalls a hyperbole of the "if every hair of mine were a tongue" type often found in divan poetry. Reading "zebân" (tongue) instead of "beyân" in this line would make the sense clearer; the two words are written very similarly in Arabic script. The reading "beyân" also yields a meaning, in the sense of "if every pore were an utterance". The text has not been altered; this suggestion is ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

"Mesâm" are the pores on the skin. The poet says that even if every pore of the body spoke, it could not explain the meaning of the beloved's beauty. The words "fenn" (science, branch of knowledge), "me'ânî" (meanings) and "beyân" also evoke the terms of the science of rhetoric: me'ânî and beyân are the names of two branches of Arabic rhetoric. The difficulty of describing beauty is thus expressed in the terms of a learned discipline.

The second couplet alludes to the story of Ferhad and Şirin. The pickaxe ("külüng") of Ferhad, who bored through the mountain to reach Şirin, here becomes the lover's sigh. The word "isterin" in the line is obscure; for the coherence of the sense, the address "O charmer" has been taken as the basis. In the third couplet the locks are likened to a seven-headed dragon. In tales, treasures are guarded by dragons; if the locks are a dragon, the face must be the "genc-i nihân" (hidden treasure) it guards. This is a known chain of comparisons in divan poetry. The fourth couplet uses the allusion to Mecnun: Mecnun, who fell into the deserts for love of Leylâ, was so lost to himself that birds built their nest in his hair. Calling the beloved "Leylâ-hırâm" (walking with the grace of Leylâ) completes the lover's becoming Mecnun.

The closing couplet is a simple plea. The link between "dest-gîr" (one who takes by the hand, helper) and "nâ-tüvân" (strengthless) gives the image of a traveller fallen on the road being taken by the hand. In the ghazal the addressee is called "şehâ" (O shah); since this address is common for the beloved in divan poetry, it is not enough to be taken as pointing to a particular person.

Bibliography

Online sources