Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Geçüp eyyām-ı firḳat irmege encāma az ḳaldı
Açıldı maṭla‘-ı ṣubḥ intihā-yı şāma az ḳaldı
Göründi ol perīnüñ ruḫlarında ḫaṭṭ-ı nev yer yer
Zevāl-i mihr-i ‘ālem-tāb olup aḫşāma az ḳaldı
Ser-ā-ser rūze-dārān-ı firāḳa müjdeler olsun
İrişdi ‘ıyd-ı devr-i bāde-i gül-fāma az ḳaldı
Biḥamdi’llah ki şimdi raġmına aġyār-ı bed-ḫāhın
Ṣarılmaḳ būse-çīn olmaḳ o serv-endāma az ḳaldı
Yapıldı seng-i ṭa‘n-ı kīne-cūyān ile ey Ṣāḥib
Binā-yı çār-ṭāḳ-ı ṣabrımuz itmāma az ḳaldı

In English

1. The days of separation have passed, and little is left before they reach their end; the rising-place of dawn has opened, and little is left before the night is over.

2. New down has appeared here and there on that fairy's cheeks; the world-illuminating sun has begun its decline, and little is left before evening.

3. Good tidings to all who keep the fast of separation: the feast has come, and little is left before the rose-coloured wine goes round.

4. Praise be to God, now, in spite of the ill-wishing strangers, little is left before we embrace that cypress-bodied one and gather kisses.

5. O Sâhib, with the stones of reproach of the vengeful, the four-arched building of our patience has been raised; little is left before it is complete.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The refrain "az kaldı" (little is left) places the ghazal at the end of a long wait, and each couplet announces that something is about to end: separation, night, the brightness of the sun, the fast, patience. The real subject of the ghazal comes out in the second couplet. Down has appeared here and there on the beloved's cheeks, and in divan poetry this is the start of beauty's "zevâl", the sun's descent from its zenith. The rest of the ghazal tells what this news means for the lover: as beauty wanes the beloved's pride will wane too, and the lover's turn will come.

In couplets three and four this outcome takes on the language of joy. Separation has been kept like a fast, and the coming of the down is the good news of a feast; rose-coloured wine will go round again, and in spite of the rivals the cypress-tall beloved will be embraced. The poet does not hide his joy, but what the joy rests on is the end of the beloved's beauty; the ghazal's quiet bitterness comes from this. In Sâhib's ghazal 73, too, the down is called the hour of breaking the fast.

The final couplet carries the same waiting on with another image. A çârtâk is a pavilion built on four arches, with a dome or a ceiling. The stones of reproach thrown at the lover by the vengeful have piled up, and with these stones the four-arched building of patience has been raised; little is left before it is finished. The find of the couplet is that the stone thrown at the lover, instead of bringing him down, becomes the material of his patience.

The ghazal's only source is a manuscript of the Ali Emîrî collection in the Millet Library, Manzum 243.

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. 207, ghazal 105 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 34a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources