Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṣaḳın ṣaḳın dü-zebān kec-dil olma ḫāme gibi
Ki āḫir olmayasın rū-siyāh-ı nāme gibi
Derūnuñ eyleme küfr-āşinā Ḳamāme gibi
Çerāġ-ı vaḥdete ol cilvegeh Tihāme gibi
Ne uy hevāsına nefsüñ ne bār u zerin çek
Ferāġ-ı bāl ile āsūde ol ne‘āme gibi
Ḫayāl-i kākül-i ḫam-der-ḫamıyla dil-dāruñ
Dolandı başuma sevdā siyeh ‘imāme gibi
Seri pür-āteş ü çūb-ı nizār cismi pür-āh
Olan o mehle olur leb-be-leb imāme gibi
Ne mümkin eylemek āġūş ol āfeti Ṣāḥib
Cihānda olmayıcaḳ sīne-çāk-ı cāme gibi

In English

1. Beware, beware, do not be two-tongued and crooked-hearted like the pen, lest in the end you be black-faced like a letter.

2. Do not make your inner self a familiar of unbelief like the Church of the Sepulchre (Kumâme); be a place where the lamp of unity shines, like Tihâme.

3. Neither follow the whims of the self nor carry its load of gold; be at ease with a carefree mind, like the ostrich.

4. With the image of the beloved's curl-upon-curl forelock, passion has wound itself round my head like a black turban.

5. One whose head is full of fire and whose body, thin as a stick, is full of sighs, comes lip to lip with that moon like the mouthpiece (imame) of a pipe.

6. O Sâhib, how can one take that calamity into one's arms, unless one becomes in this world like a shirt with its breast torn open?

Literary and Historical Commentary

The fifth couplet turns an everyday object of eighteenth-century Istanbul, the tobacco pipe, into a portrait of the lover. Fire burns in the bowl at the head of the pipe, smoke passes through its long stem, its mouthpiece is called the "imame", and the smoker raises it to his lips. The lover is the same: his head is full of fire, his body has grown thin as a pipe stem, and the smoke of sighs passes through him. That is why he can come lip to lip with the beloved only like a mouthpiece. The "‘imâme" (turban) of the previous couplet and the "imâme" (mouthpiece) of this one look very much alike in writing, and the poet uses the two words one after another as rhymes.

The first two couplets are in the language of counsel, and each sets up a contrast. The reed pen is "two-tongued" because its nib is split, and "crooked" because it is cut on a slant; and the face of a letter written in ink is black. In the second couplet the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Kumâme, is named as a place of unbelief; Tihâme is the coastal plain in which Mecca lies, counted as the place where the lamp of divine unity shines.

The ostrich (ne‘âme) of the third couplet rests on a popular tale: to those who would load it, the ostrich says "I am a bird", and to those who would make it fly, "I am a camel", and so it never bears any load. The poet uses this evasive creature as an example of ease: one should neither follow the self's desires nor carry a load of gold, but live with a free heart.

In the closing couplet the collar of the shirt opens towards the breast and wraps the body; whoever would embrace the beloved must likewise become a shirt with its breast torn open.

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. 205, ghazal 103 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 33b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 16b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 23b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources