Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Olur mı ḫaṭṭda keder zīver-i leb olmaḳ ile
Ḳalur mı ehl-i ṣafā zevḳden şeb olmaġ ile
Marīż-i ‘aşḳa şifā-şerbet-i leb olmaġ ile
O nehy itmez edā sīb-i ġabġab olmaġ ile
Zebāndur azılıḳ eylerse ehl-i ‘aşḳa sezā
Yanında ḫançer o şūḫuñ muḳarreb olmaġ ile
Ṭarīḳ-i ‘aşḳda ‘uşşāḳa imtizāc gerek
Varaḳ nigār odur eczā mürekkeb olmaġ ile
Alursa ḳoynuna ol māh sā‘ati yiridür
Ḳarīn-i mihr gehī burc-ı ‘aḳreb olmaġ ile
Yanında bāde-i nāb iledür dem-i pürdür
Nihād-ı cām budur ṣāf-meşreb olmaġ ile
Duḫān iderse n’ola nūş-ı kevṡer-i leb-i yār
Derūn-ı lu’lede Ṣāḥib mu‘aẕẕeb olmaġ ile

In English

1. Can there be grief in the down when it is the ornament of the lip? Do the people of pleasure hold back from delight because night has come?

2. Since the lip is the healing sherbet for the one sick with love, that apple of the double chin does not forbid it. The second line is not clear; it may have been built with the foods a physician forbids the sick (a diet) in mind.

3. If the dagger is insolent towards the people of love, it is fitting, since it is a close favourite at that coquette's side; it is a tongue (a keen edge). The couplet cannot be understood for certain; a play on "zebân" as both tongue and blade can be sensed.

4. On the road of love the lovers must blend together; the beloved is like a page, and the ingredients mix to become ink. This reading is not certain.

5. If that moon takes (me) into her bosom, the hour is right; for the sun's companion is at times the sign of Scorpio.

6. Beside pure wine its breath is full; this is the nature of the cup, for it is pure of temper.

7. O Sâhib, what wonder if the Kevser drink of the beloved's lip gives off smoke (or tobacco smoke), since it suffers torment within the pearl (the teeth)? The sense of the couplet does not fully settle.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The refrain "olmağ ile" (by being, because it is) sets up a reason in each couplet: a thing is so because something else is so. This structure gives the ghazal an air of reasoning, but in some couplets the link between reason and result cannot be drawn from the text with certainty. Nor is there a second text to shed light on the dark places; the ghazal's sole witness is manuscript T. 738 of Istanbul University.

The fifth couplet speaks with a term from astronomy. In Ottoman Turkish "kamer der akrep", the moon standing in Scorpio, was counted an ill-omened hour, and the expression was in common use. Sâhib seems to turn the belief round: the sun's companion is at times the sign of Scorpio, so if the moon-faced beloved takes the lover into her bosom, the hour is exactly right. The "scorpion" here may also suggest the lover himself; the text, however, does not clearly support this reading.

The first couplet opens by likening the down to night. The down is the ornament of the lip and with its dark colour recalls the night; when night falls the people of pleasure do not hold back from merriment, on the contrary, that is when the gathering begins. So the down, usually counted in divan poetry as the end of beauty, becomes here the hour of delight.

"Duhân" in the closing couplet means both smoke and tobacco smoke; smoking tobacco was common in the eighteenth century and was mentioned in poetry. Smoke rising from a lip as sweet as Kevser is linked with the torment suffered among the pearl-like teeth; but whether the couplet is a jest about tobacco or the smoke of a burning heart remains uncertain.

Bibliography

  • Meral Topal, Pîrî-zâde Mehmed Sâhib Hayatı, Edebî Kişiliği, Eserleri ve Divanı'nın Tenkitli Metni, MA thesis, Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Elazığ 2004, p. 202, ghazal 100 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 21a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources