Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Şol zamān kim üfleyüp ney-zen neye aġzın boza
Mest ü şevḳ u zevḳ olup boynın ege çeşmin süze
Pādişāh-ı ḥüsn sen çoḳ da niḳāb-ı rūyına
Virmeyüz ey şu‘le-ruḫ alışmasun yüze göze
Noḳṭa-i ḫālüñ görüp şevḳum bir iken oldı on
Şerḥalarla dāġlar āḥād iken çıḳdı yüze
Geldi ḫaṭṭ ruḫsārına serd oldı dilde kār-ı ‘aşḳ
Ol bahāra dutdı yüz ammā irişdük biz göze
Ḫaṭṭı bulduḳca teraḳḳī ‘āşıḳın tebrīd ider
Zemherīr olur gice olduḳca ġālib gündüze
Yaḳasından giçirüb evlād idüp baḳsa n’ola
Cāmede öksüz şehāsā ehl-i devlet öksüze
Ṣāḥibā çāvuş-ı şīrīnkār-ı ḫāme olmasa
Ḫüsrev-i endīşenüñ kimdür ki dīvānın düze

In English

1. At the moment when the ney player blows into the reed and purses his mouth, drunk with rapture and delight, he bends his neck and half closes his eyes.

2. O king of beauty, we do not give much leave to the veil of your face; O flame-cheeked one, let it not grow too familiar with your face and eyes.

3. Seeing the dot of your mole, my longing, which was one, became ten; the scars gashed in my breast rose from units to the hundreds (and came up to the face).

4. Down has come to your cheeks, and the business of love has grown cold in the heart; that face has turned to spring, but we have come to the "göz" (the spring source, or the bud). Which sense of "göz" is meant in the second line is not certain.

5. As his down advances it chills the lover; when night overcomes the day, the deep frost of winter sets in.

6. O king, what wonder if the people of fortune pass an orphan through their collar, adopt him and care for him? There is an "orphan" in the robe too. The couplet is obscure; the phrase "câmede öksüz" in the second line cannot be understood for certain.

7. O Sâhib, were the pen not the sweet-working çavuş, who would put in order the council (divan) of the king of thought?

Literary and Historical Commentary

In the ghazal's last couplet the pen is a çavuş of the imperial council. The çavuşes were officials who kept order in the Imperial Council, put those who came in line and carried orders. Sâhib likens thought to a sultan and the pen to his çavuş: without the pen the "divan" of thought would never be put in order. "Divan" is also the name of a book of poems, and the couplet may be read as a word of thanks to the pen that arranges the poet's own divan.

The first couplet describes the manner of a ney player. As the reed flute is blown the lips are pursed, the head tilts a little to one side, the eyes half close; the poet sees this posture as a state of drunkenness and rapture. In divan poetry the ney is usually remembered for its lament; here the face of the player has been observed, and the scene seems taken from a gathering.

The third couplet repeats the find of the pen-name couplet of ghazal 99: the mole is a dot, the zero of Arabic numerals, and it raises longing from one to ten. Here the poet goes a step further: the scars on the breast rise from the place of "âhâd" (units) to "yüz". "Yüz" is both the hundreds and the human face; the wounds have grown in number and have also come up to the face.

In the fifth couplet the down resembles winter. As the down covers the cheek the lover's love grows cold, just as in the zemherir days of deep winter, when the nights grow long and overcome the days. The one surviving copy of the ghazal is in Istanbul University's 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. 204, ghazal 102 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 23a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources