Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Şol kagül-i siyāhuña gerden fütādedür
Raḫş-i Güzīn ḥüsn ü bahāya ḳıladedür
Dil mübtelā-yı bāde-i nāb oldıġı bu sāl
Beñzer şu hefte ḥarfine kim ḥarf-i bādadur
Zāhid libās-ı zühd ile kim ṣāl-pūşdur
Sīḫ-i firencdür ki derūn-ı ‘aṣādadur
Ṭuġrā imām-ı cāmi‘ emr ü berāt olup
Ṣaff-ı suṭur-ı cümle aña iḳtidārdadur
Biñ zaḫm açarsa da dile Ṣāḥib ḫadeng-i yār
Cism-i nizār-ı ḥükm-i ḳażāya rıżādadur

In English

1. The neck is devoted to that black lovelock of yours; it is a halter for the steed of beauty and worth. (The reading of the second line is not certain.)

2. This year, in which the heart is addicted to pure wine, resembles that letter of "hefte" (week), which is the letter of "bâde" (wine). (We could not solve this couplet built on a play of letters.)

3. The ascetic who is wrapped in a shawl with the garment of asceticism is a Frankish rapier hidden inside a staff.

4. The tughra is the imam of the mosque of decrees and patents; the rows of lines all follow him.

5. Sâhib, even if the beloved's arrow opens a thousand wounds in the heart, the wasted body is content with the decree of fate.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The liveliest image of this short ghazal of five couplets concerns the ascetic. The ascetic wrapped in the garment of asceticism and a shawl is a "sīḫ-i firenc", a Frankish rapier hidden inside a staff (‘aṣā). That a sharp blade should come out of a stick that looks from outside like a dervish's staff expresses the aggression and hypocrisy beneath the ascetic's piety. The mocking attitude of divan poetry toward the ascetic (zahid) takes, in Sâhib, the guise of such an everyday object.

The fourth couplet applies to the world of writing a comparison also found in Sâhib's chronograms. The tughra at the head of a sultan's order or patent is the imam leading prayer in a mosque, and the lines beneath it are the rows of the congregation following him. In the chronogram written for the deputy judge of Ruha the signatures were likened to the rows of worshippers; here the same scene is set upon a decree. The rhyme word printed "iḳtidārdadur" in the edition would be expected to be connected with "iḳtidā", following an imam in prayer; the reading is not certain.

The second couplet carries a play on letters and numbers; we could not solve the relation it sets up between the letter of "hefte" (week) and "bāde" (wine), and Topal offers no explanation. The pen-name couplet speaks of a thought frequently repeated in the divan, contentment with fate, together with the thousand wounds opened by the beloved's arrow; Topal notes that Sâhib thinks of destiny within the principles of Islam and that the only thing a person can do in the face of fate is to show contentment.

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. 106, ghazal 12 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 15b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 4b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 9a); also p. 14 (fate and contentment). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources