Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ma‘dūm yoḳ cihānda aransa saḫā ḳadar
Nā-yāb var mı dünyāda ayā ‘aṭā ḳadar
Ol deñlü mümteni‘ görinür kim vücūdda
Sīmürg ü kīmyāda degüldür ṣafā ḳadar
Yoḳdur baḳılsa dergeh-i ‘afv-ı kerīmde
Mir‘āt-ı rū-nümā-yı ‘ināyet-i ḫaṭṭ ḳadar
Felek velī telāṭum-ı emvāc-ı ḫavfden
Teslīmlik ṣıyānet ider nā-ḫudā ḳadar
Ṣāḥib pür itme fikr-i ḫayālāt ile dili
Olmaz mizāca yār beden-i imtilā ḳadar

In English

1. If one searched, nothing in the world is as nonexistent as generosity; is there anything in the world as unobtainable as giving?

2. (Delight of heart) appears so impossible in the world of being that not even the Simurgh and alchemy are (as unobtainable) as delight.

3. If one looked in the court of pardon of the Generous One, there is nothing like the mirror of the down that shows the face of grace. (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear.)

4. But if (the ship) were in the tossing of the waves of fear, submission would protect it as well as a captain. (The reading and meaning of the first line are not certain.)

5. Sâhib, do not fill the heart with the thought of fancies; nothing is as hostile to the temperament (to health) as a surfeited body.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Sharing the redif (refrain word) "ḳadar" and the metre of the previous ghazal, these five couplets list the things that divan poetry treats as symbols of the "nonexistent". In the first couplet generosity and giving are the most unobtainable things in the world. The second couplet raises this unobtainability by one degree: delight of heart is more impossible even than the Simurgh, the legendary bird of Mount Qaf, and alchemy, which turns copper into gold. The Simurgh and alchemy are two known examples, in poetry, of things that have a name but do not themselves exist; by counting delight rarer than both, the poet complains of his age. In the Istanbul University T. 738 copy the second line names the "Simurgh of Qaf" more openly.

The advice of the pen-name couplet comes from medicine. "İmtilā" in old medicine is the overfilling of the stomach and body, eating to excess, and was counted among the chief causes of a disordered temperament. Sâhib says that just as overfilling the body harms health, so filling the heart with empty fancies is harmful. Couplets in which Sâhib draws on medical terms are frequent in the divan.

The first word of the fourth couplet is printed "Felek" (sky) in the edition; the words wave, the tossing of fear and "nā-ḫudā" (captain) in the couplet suggest that this word should be read "fülk", that is, ship. Read in this way, the couplet says that among the waves of fear it is submission that protects the ship as well as a captain. This reading is a suggestion; the edition offers no explanation.

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. 131, ghazal 33 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 19b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 7b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 7b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources