Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Bāġ-ı dehrüñ ḫaṭṭ-ı sebzüñ gibi reyḥānı mı var
Yoḳsa hem-reng-i ruḫuñ bir gül-i ḫandānı mı var
Yār āġūşını luṭf itse de ben mecrūḥa
Cism-i zāruñ aña sarılmaġa dermānı mı var
Seyl-i eşküm yine cūş itdi tenūr-ı dilden
Köhne dehrüñ ‘acabā bir daḫı ṭūfānı mı var
İki ṣaff gibi dizilmiş ḫaṭṭ-ı rūy-ı cānān
Ḫüsrev ü ḥüsnünüñ ayā yine dīvānı mı var
Çekemez mihr-i ruḫuñ naḳşını mehtāb-ı felek
Ṣan‘at-ı ‘aşḳda bilmem hani noḳṣānı mı var
Eyledüñ gevher-i eşküñle cihānı memlū
Sende ey dīde anuñ baḥri mi var kānı mı var
Nice ‘arż eylesün aḥvālini Ṣāḥib yāre
Aña cānım dimege gör hele bir cānımı var

In English

1. Has the garden of the world any basil like your green down? Or has it a laughing rose of the same colour as your cheek?

2. Even if the beloved graciously took me, the wounded one, into his embrace, has your weak body the strength to cling to him?

3. The flood of my tears has once again boiled over from the oven of the heart; can it be that the old world has yet another deluge?

4. The down on the beloved's face is lined up like two rows; can it be that the monarch of your beauty is holding his council again?

5. The moonlight of the sky cannot draw the picture of the sun of your cheek; I do not know, has it some deficiency in the art of love?

6. O eye, you have filled the world with the pearls of your tears; have you its sea, or have you its mine?

7. How should Sâhib present his state to the beloved; just look, to call him "my soul (canım)", has he a soul left?

Literary and Historical Commentary

With the redif (refrain word) "mı var" (is there?), every couplet turns into a question, and most of the questions are ones whose answer is clear: there is no basil in the garden of the world like the beloved's down, and the wounded lover has no strength left to cling to the beloved. Topal cites the first couplet among those praising the beloved's matchless beauty. The pen-name couplet carries the ghazal's most charming witticism: to address someone as "canım" (my soul, my dear), one must have a soul; but Sâhib's soul has long since gone to the beloved. An everyday term of address thus returns to the literal meaning of the word.

The third couplet refers to the flood of Noah. In the Qur'anic account the flood begins with the oven boiling over; Sâhib too says that the flood of his tears has boiled over from the "oven of the heart" and asks whether the old world is preparing for a new deluge. The fourth couplet sets up a palace scene: the two rows of down on the face are like officials lined up on either side at a council meeting, and the poet asks whether the monarch of beauty is holding council again.

In the sixth couplet the eye is thought of as a source of jewels: does the eye that has filled the world with the pearls of its tears have a sea, or a mine? Since pearls come from the sea and gems from the mine, the question names both sources together. The fifth couplet is missing from the Ali Emîrî and Istanbul University T. 1710/6 manuscripts and is found only in the T. 738 copy.

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. 123, ghazal 26 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 18a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 6a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 12a); also p. 26 (couplet 1). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources