Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ziyādedür ġam-ı sevdā-yı ḫaṭṭ ḫāle göre
Ne deñlü ṣa‘b ise de ‘ilm-i ḥāl fāle göre
Egerçi yanına düşmekde kem degül ammā
Zelīldür yine dāmān dest-māle göre
Füzūn-ter olsa n’ola bīm-i ḫaṭṭı ḫālinden
Nihāl-i nev-res olur tünd köhne sāle göre
Dehān-ı yāre sezādur dinilse cevher-i ferd
‘Adem dimekden ise nisbet-i muḥāle göre
Egerçi bendesidür bir derüñ ikisi
Velī sivāk biraz ṭaşradur ḫilāle göre
Yine kemāle naẓarla hilāldür Ṣāḥib
Füzunsa da ne ḳadar ḥüsn-i meh hilāle göre

In English

1. The grief of passion for the down is greater than that for the mole; however hard the catechism (ilm-i hâl) may be, it goes by the omen (fâl). The sense of the second line is not certain; a play of sound between "hâl" (mole), "hâl" (state, the catechism) and "fâl" is plain.

2. Though the skirt is not slow to fall at the beloved's side, still it stands lowly beside the handkerchief (which touches her hand and face).

3. What wonder if the fear of the down is greater than that of the mole? The fresh-grown sapling is harsher than the old year. The arrangement of the couplet is obscure; the sense is given approximately.

4. It is fitting if the beloved's mouth is called "cevher-i ferd" (the indivisible particle, the atom); but to call it "non-existent" is to speak in terms of the impossible.

5. Though both are servants of one door (perhaps "of one pearl", the teeth), the tooth-stick stays somewhat outside compared with the toothpick (hilâl).

6. O Sâhib, however much the moon's beauty grows, measured against the full moon it is still a crescent; measured against the crescent it is more. The couplet can be read from two sides and does not come to a firm conclusion.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The clearest game of the ghazal is played in the fifth and sixth couplets with two meanings of one word. Arabic "hilâl" is both the slender new moon and the toothpick used to clean between the teeth. In couplet five the tooth-stick (misvak) and the toothpick serve the mouth like two servants of one master; but while the toothpick goes in between the teeth, the misvak stays a little outside. In couplet six the same word is the thin moon in the sky and is set against the full moon (kemâl). Using this pun in two couplets in a row, Sâhib shows both faces of the rhyme word.

The fourth couplet uses a term of theology. "Cevher-i ferd" is what the theologians called the smallest particle of matter, which cannot be divided. The beloved's mouth is so small that the name suits it; but to call it "non-existent" (adem) would be wrong, since to call an existing thing non-existent is to say the impossible. In divan poetry counting a small mouth as "non-existent" is a familiar exaggeration; the poet limits that exaggeration with the language of theology.

The comparison of skirt and handkerchief in the second couplet rests on an everyday observation: the skirt falls at the beloved's side, but the handkerchief touches her hand and face. In the first and third couplets "hat" and "hâl", the down and the mole, are compared; the grief and the fear of the down are counted greater than those of the mole, since the down announces the end of beauty.

The thesis reports in a footnote that one word of the fifth couplet could not be read. There is no other copy to turn to for this gap in the couplet of the toothpick and the tooth-stick; the ghazal exists only in T. 738.

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. 203, ghazal 101 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 23a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources