Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Miyān-ı rind ü zāhidde nedür tā bu ḳadar da‘vā
Bilinmez ḥaḳḳ u bāṭıl tā-be-key böyle gider da‘vā
Giderler kār-ı gūn-a-gūna Zeyd ü ‘Amr redd olmaz
Vekāletle ‘acebdür anlara maḥṣūṣ her da‘vā
Nişān-ı tīr-i müjgānı olaldan sīnem ol şūḫuñ
Nişānlum deyū ebkār-ı dil ü cānı ider da‘vā
Senüñdür şimdi istiḥḳāḳda da‘vā-yı ḥüsn ey meh
Gelür elbette ḫaṭṭuñ baña da bir gün düşer da‘vā
Nis̱ār-ı ḫāk-pāy-ı yār içün müjgānlarum Ṣāḥib
İderler birbirinden eşk yerine güher da‘vā

In English

1. What is all this lawsuit between the libertine and the ascetic? Right and wrong cannot be told apart; how long will the suit go on like this?

2. Zayd and Amr take up all sorts of affairs, and (their suits) are not rejected; strange to say, every suit belongs to them by proxy.

3. Ever since my breast became the target (nişan) of that coquette's eyelash arrow, the maidens of heart and soul have been bringing suit, saying "he is my betrothed (nişanlı)".

4. O moon (faced one), in the suit of beauty the title is yours for now; but surely your down will come, and one day a claim will fall to me too.

5. Sâhib, my eyelashes contend with one another for pearls instead of tears, to scatter on the dust of the beloved's feet.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The ghazal of a poet whose life was spent as kadı and military judge (kazasker) takes its redif (refrain word) from the language of the court: "da‘vā" (lawsuit, claim). Each couplet sets up a courtroom scene. In the first couplet the endless quarrel of the libertine (rind) and the ascetic (zahid) is a hearing in which right and wrong can never be told apart. In the second couplet Zayd and Amr, the two stock names given to the parties of sample cases in books of Islamic law, come on stage as two types who meddle in every affair but always pursue their suits by proxy. Sâhib's use of these terms with a jurist's ease is the most distinctive feature of the ghazal; Topal says nothing further about this ghazal.

The third couplet plays on the two meanings of the word "nişān": the lover's breast has become the target, the mark (nişan), of the beloved's eyelash arrow; and so the maidens of heart and soul claim him as their "betrothed" (nişanlı). By the fourth couplet the suit has turned into a matter of time. For now the title in the suit of beauty belongs to the beloved, but when the down appears on the face, beauty will wane and the lover too will have a claim on the beloved. "Da‘vā düşmek", a claim falling to someone, shares its verb with the down "falling" onto the face.

Even the eyelashes go to law with one another in the closing couplet: each wants to scatter pearls instead of tears on the dust of the beloved's feet.

Bibliography

Online sources