Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫāl-i ruḫuñ ki āteş-i ḥüsne şerāredür
Şems ile iḥtirāḳ-resīde sitāredür
Bīhūde añlama maraż-ı irti‘āşumı
Bir ṭıfl-ı bī-ḳarāre göñül gāhvāredür
Olmaz ḫalāṣ velvele-i iżṭırābdan
Sīnem bu zaḫma dūş olalı ṣan naḳāredür
Dest-i sitemle çarḫ o ḳadar ṣıḳdı kim beni
Ḫum-ḫāne-i fenāda vücūdum ‘uṣāredür
Açmam felekde kimseye rāz-ı derūnumı
İẓhār-ı zaḫm-ı sīne idersem de yāredür
Pā-māl ider felek ne ḳadar müstaḳīm iseñ
Bu rāst sözde şāhid-i ‘ālem minaredür
Ṣāḥib nühüfte oldıġı dilde ḫayāl-i yār
Fānūs içinde şem‘ gibi āşikāredür

In English

1. The beauty mark on your cheek, which is a spark of the fire of beauty, is a star burnt up in conjunction with the sun.

2. Do not think my trembling sickness is for nothing; the heart is the cradle of a restless child.

3. There is no escape from the clamour of anguish; ever since my breast shouldered this wound, it has been like a kettledrum.

4. The sky has squeezed me so hard with the hand of cruelty that my being has become grape juice in the wine-house of annihilation.

5. In this world I do not open the secret of my heart to anyone; even if I reveal the wound of my breast, it is to the beloved (yâre).

6. However upright you are, the sky tramples you underfoot; the minaret is the world's witness to this true saying.

7. Sâhib, though the image of the beloved is hidden in the heart, it is plainly visible, like a candle in a lantern.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Topal cites the fourth couplet first among the places where Sâhib expresses the mystical idea of annihilation (fena). The sky has squeezed the lover so hard with the hand of cruelty that his being has turned into grape juice in the "ḫum-ḫāne-i fenā", the wine-house of annihilation. According to Topal, this essence pressed from the grape shows that the lover has reached the station of annihilation, a station attained at the end of a long and arduous road, through the self's vanishing in the being of God.

The other couplets of the ghazal gather their comparisons from very different fields. In the first couplet the beauty mark on the cheek is a star burnt up in conjunction with the sun; in the old science of the heavens a planet that comes too close to the sun is called "muhterik", burnt, and becomes invisible. The black beauty mark is like a star burnt and darkened beside the sun of the face. In the second couplet the lover's trembling resembles the rocking cradle of a fretful baby; in the third the wounded breast becomes a kettledrum (nakkare) beaten without pause.

The word "yāredür" in the fifth couplet can be read in two ways: "yâre", to the beloved, and "yara", wound. The poet reveals his secret to no one; if he is to show his wound, he shows it only to the beloved. The sixth couplet rests on an observation: whoever is upright is trampled under the feet of the sky, and the witness to this is the straight-standing minaret; the daily treading of the minaret's steps may be meant, but this side of the couplet is not stated openly. The pen-name couplet builds the lantern and candle this time on hiding and showing: the image of the beloved hidden in the heart is visible from outside, like candlelight shining through the glass of a lantern.

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. 127, ghazal 30 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 19a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 7a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 12b); also p. 16 (couplet 4). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources