Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yalancı cennet itdi ḫūblar gül-geşt ile bāġı
Melekler indi ṣan yeryüzine terk idüp uçmaġı
Hevā-yı ḳāmetüñ şevḳ-ı ruḫuñ sevdā-yı ḫālüñle
Şehā serv oldı bāġ-ı şem‘-i yaġı lāleler dāġı
Piyāde leşkerine olmasaydı ḳuvvet-i ḳalbi
Şeh-i ṣaṭrancuñ olmazdı bu meydān atı oynaġı
Düşüp ölmezdi dām-ı ‘ankebūta böyle bī-çāre
Eger miskīn zebānuñ olmasaydı çeşminüñ aġı
Raḳīb-i kec-derūnı rāst-gū ẓann itme ey Ṣāḥib
Yemīn eylerse de yine ṣolaḳ söyler sözüñ ṣaġı

In English

1. With their outing to see the roses the beauties made the garden a counterfeit paradise; it was as if the angels had left uçmak (paradise) and come down to earth.

2. O king, through the longing for your stature, the yearning for your cheek and the passion for your mole, there came to be the cypress of the garden, the oil of the candle and the brand of the tulips.

3. Had there been no strength in the heart (the centre) of the army of foot soldiers (the pawns), the chess king's field would not have become a ground where horses play.

4. That poor fly (?) would not have fallen so helplessly into the spider's web and died, had it not been for the net (or poison) of your eye. The word printed "zebân" (tongue) in the edition must, for the sense, be "zübâb" (fly); this reading is ours.

5. O Sâhib, do not think the crooked-hearted rival speaks the truth; even if he swears an oath (raising his right hand), he still speaks the right of the matter left-handedly.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The second couplet is a regular example of the figure that divan poetry calls "leff ü neşr" (folding and unfolding): first three things are named, then the three things that answer to them are given in the same order. In the first line, the longing for your stature, the yearning for your cheek, the passion for your mole; in the second, the cypress, the oil of the candle and the brand mark of the tulip. The stature becomes the cypress, the fire of the cheek the oil that feeds the candle, and the black mole the black spot at the heart of the tulip. Garden and gathering are thus shown as if born of the beloved's face.

Right and left supply the wordplay of the last couplet. "Yemîn" in Arabic means both an oath and the right hand; the right hand is raised in swearing an oath. "Sağ" in Turkish means both the right side and what is true and sound. Even if the crooked-hearted rival swears with his right hand, he speaks the "right" of the matter, its truth, left-handedly, that is, crookedly. That a poet who had served as a judge should make so fine a jest about a witness whose oath cannot be trusted is fitting.

The third couplet is built on chess terms. "Kalb" is both the heart and the centre of an army; had there been no strength in the heart of the foot soldiers, the pawns, the king's field would not have become a ground where horses play. In couplet four the spider's web is set against the "ağ" (net) of the eye; in Turkish "ağı" also means poison. Reading the word printed "zebân" in the edition as "zübâb" (fly) completes the sense together with the spider's web. "Uçmak" in the first couplet is the old Turkish word for paradise, and it plays on the angels "flying" down from it.

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. 211, ghazal 109 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 34b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 17a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 24b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources