Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Felek tā kim kemānın ḳaṣd-ı āzār ile ḳurmuşdur
Dutup dil sīnesin tīr-i ḳażāya ḳarşu durmuşdur
O şūḫuñ ārzū-yı būs-ı la‘li āteş-i ‘aşḳı
Süveydā-yı dili ḳahve gibi yaḳmış ḳavurmuşdur
Şikār itmek ümmīdiyle ol āhū-yı dil-ārāyı
Raḳīb-i seg kemīn-i hīlede çoḳdan oturmuşdur
Bu nahlistānda nice ser-keşüñ āḫir çınārārsā
Dutuşmuş ṣarṣar-ı ġam pençersin zūr ile burmuşdur
O Yūsuf-ṭal‘at-ı sīmin-teni āġūş içün Ṣāḥib
Vücūdın keffe-i mīzān ṭaşdan ṭaşa urmuşdur

In English

1. Ever since the sky drew its bow with the intent to torment, the heart has held up its breast (like a shield) and stood against the arrow of fate.

2. The longing to kiss that coquette's ruby lip, and the fire of love, have burned and roasted the black core of the heart like coffee.

3. In the hope of hunting that heart-adorning gazelle, the dog of a rival has long been sitting in an ambush of trickery.

4. In this palm grove, with many a proud one, in the end, as with the plane tree, the whirlwind of grief has wrestled and forcibly twisted its hand.

5. Sâhib, to embrace that Joseph-faced, silver-bodied one, he has struck his being from stone to stone like the pan of a balance.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal joins idioms of everyday speech with the images of divan poetry. Topal counts the idioms "yakıp kavurmak" (to burn and roast, to devastate) and "taşdan taşa urmak" (to strike from stone to stone, to try every means) among those Sâhib often uses in his ghazals; both appear in this ghazal. In the second couplet "yakıp kavurmak" is used literally: the fire of love roasts the black spot at the centre of the heart (süveydā) like a coffee bean. The entry of coffee into the poem is a detail from the everyday life of Sâhib's century; in the poem on the waters of Bursa too, one water is praised for giving pleasure "in place of heavy coffee".

The pen-name couplet joins the idiom "taşdan taşa urmak" with the image of a balance. The pan of a balance is struck against one weighing stone and then another; so too the lover has struck his own being from stone to stone to embrace the beloved. The hand-shaped leaves of the plane tree, in the fourth couplet, turn into a wrestling scene: the whirlwind of grief wrestles with the plane tree that holds its head high and forcibly twists its hand.

The first couplet sets up an archery conflict between the sky and the lover: the sky has drawn its bow, and the lover's heart holds up its breast like a shield against the arrow of fate. In the third couplet the rival is a dog lying in ambush to hunt the gazelle.

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. 117, ghazal 21 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 17b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 5b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 8b); also p. 8 (idioms). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources