Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ta‘alluḳ-ı ḫāl-i rūy-ı yāre feyż kevkebümdendür
Temeyyül-i la‘l-i şeker-pāre ḥüsn-i meşrebümdendür
Dururken zaḫm-ı sīnem leb-güşā-yı ḥarf-i nāz olmam
Baña iẓhār u iḫfā-yı şikāyet hep lebümdendür
Disem de neşter-i müjgānuña ḳanum ḥarām olsun
Degüldür bilmedigümden jaj-ı ḫāliḳdür tebümdendür
Olan maẓhar nigāh-ı luṭf-ı yāre baḳmaz āfāḳa
Baña bī-maṭlab olmaḳ hep ḥuṣūl-i maṭlabumdandur
Bu deñlü ārzū-yı ṣubḥ-ı ümmīd dilde ey Ṣāḥib
Degüldür bī-ṣabırlıḳdan hep dırāzī-i şebümdendür

In English

1. My attachment to the mole on the beloved's face is from the bounty of my star; my inclination toward the sugar-piece ruby lip is from the beauty of my temperament.

2. While the wound of my breast stands open (like a mouth), I do not open my lips for a word of coquetry; showing and hiding complaint both come from my lips.

3. Even if I say "may my blood be forbidden to the lancet of your lashes", it is not that I do not know; it is the raving of my fever.

4. One who receives the kind glance of the beloved does not look at the world; for me, to want nothing is the very attainment of what I want.

5. O Sâhib, so much longing in the heart for the morning of hope is not from impatience; it all comes from the length of my night.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Couplet by couplet, the rhymes count something that belongs to the speaker: kevkeb (my star), meşreb (my temperament), leb (my lip), teb (my fever), matlab (my desire) and şeb (my night). These six words ending in "-eb", joined to the redif (refrain) "-ümdendür" (it is from my...), tie each state of the lover to his own fortune, character or body. In the opening couplet "kevkeb" has two senses: it is the star of fortune, and the mole on a face is likened in divan poetry to a star in the sky. The lover's attachment to the mole thus becomes a favour of his star.

The third couplet is built on the language of illness. Should the lover say to the lancet-like lashes of the beloved "may my blood be forbidden to you", he says this is not a knowingly spoken word but the raving of a fevered patient; so reproach, counted the gravest fault of a lover, is put down to the illness. The link between lancet and blood also recalls the bloodletting and cupping of old medicine. The word "jaj" in the line means idle talk, nonsense in Persian; the Istanbul University T. 1710/6 copy gives this line in a different form and writes the couplet in the margin.

The fourth couplet rests on a mystical paradox: to want nothing is to reach what is wanted. One who finds the kind glance of the beloved no longer needs the world. The pen-name couplet ties the lover's complaint to a measure of time, counting the longing for morning not as impatience but as the length of the night.

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. 133, ghazal 35 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 20a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 7b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 12a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources