Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Rūyuña ḫaṭṭ perde oldı Ka‘be-i ‘ulyā gibi
Lafẓ-ı ḫaṭṭda oldı ḥüsnüñ muḫtefī ma‘nā gibi
Olalı bir şūḫ-ı müsteṡnāya dil-bend-i viṣāl
Sīne-çāküz ḥasret-i āġūş ile illā gibi
‘İzzet ü rif‘atle sulṭānum olunca ser-firāz
Bende-i maḫlaṣda düşdi pāyuña imżā gibi
Evruvānuñ ḫançere olup dü-zülfüñ zülfeler
Naḳşuñı çekdüm berāt-ı ḳalbüme ṭuġrā gibi
İḫtiżār itmekdi ḳardum şāneden şekvāyı līk
Söz uzandı vaṣf-ı zülfüñle şeb-i yeldā gibi
Bed-nümādur pestden bālāya vaż‘-ı süflegān
Cünbiş-i ma‘kūs-ı nā-sāz-ı ḫaṭ-ı tersā gibi
Merci‘ enẓār-ı şevḳ olmaġla Ṣāḥib rūy-ı yār
Eyler ol veche naẓar çeşmümi żamīrhā gibi

In English

1. The down has become a curtain over your face, like the covering of the lofty Kaaba; your beauty has become hidden in the wording of the down like a concealed meaning.

2. Ever since our heart was bound in hope of union to a peerless (müstesnâ, excepted) coquette, our breast has been torn open with longing for an embrace, like "illâ" (the particle of exception).

3. When my sultan was raised high in honour and eminence, the servant (bende) fell at your feet in the pen name, like a signature.

4. Your brows becoming the hançere and your two curls the zülfe, I drew your image upon the patent of my heart like a tuğra (whose strokes bear those names).

5. My intention was to cut short my complaint against the comb, but in describing your curls the words grew as long as the longest night of the year. (The word "ihtizâr" in the first line has been read, for the sense, as "ihtisâr", cutting short.)

6. The placing of the base from low to high looks ugly, like the reversed, discordant motion of Christian writing (running left to right). The first line also calls up the low (pest) and high (bâlâ) notes of music; which sense comes to the fore is not certain.

7. O Sâhib, since the beloved's face is the point to which the glances of longing refer (mercî), my eye looks to that face as pronouns turn to their antecedents.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal is woven from the terms of Arabic grammar, and it shows this in most of its rhyme words. In the first couplet "lafız" (wording) and "ma‘nâ" (meaning) face each other: the down is a writing (hat), and beauty has hidden itself within this writing like a concealed meaning. In the second couplet "müstesnâ" (excepted, unique) and "illâ" (the particle of exception, "except") call to each other; in Arabic script the joined lâm-elif in the word "illâ" resembles a breast with arms thrown open. In the final couplet "mercî" is the grammatical name for the noun to which a pronoun refers back: as a pronoun returns to its antecedent, so the lover's eye returns to the beloved's face.

The fourth couplet uses the parts of the tuğra itself. In the Ottoman tuğra the curved lines that sweep downward are called "zülfe", and the long projections on the left "hançere". The poet likens the beloved's brows to the hançere and the curls to the zülfe, and says he has drawn her image on the patent of his heart like a tuğra. The language of documents continues in the third couplet: the pen name is like the signature set at the foot of a letter or petition, and the servant falls at his sultan's feet like a signature.

The sixth couplet plays on the word "tersâ". In Persian tersâ means Christian, and it recalls the Turkish word "ters", reversed. Arabic letters are written from right to left, while the scripts used by Christians run from left to right; to the Ottoman reader such writing goes "the wrong way round". The poet likens the raising of the low-born from below to above to this reversed motion. In the fifth couplet a familiar likeness between the longest night of the year (şeb-i yeldâ) and long hair is used: the poet, who meant to cut short his complaint about the comb, finds his words growing as long as that night as he describes the curls.

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. 218, ghazal 115 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 36a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 18a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 25b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources