Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Şikāda rūylūḳ ‘ālemde verd-i terde ḳalmışdur
Cihānda ṣāf-meşreblik hemān sāġarda ḳalmışdur
Maḳāmın cünbüşin bilmek tecāvüz itmemek ḥaddin
Bu bāzīgāhda şaṭranc ile şişderde ḳalmışdur
Görür her dem felekden dürlü dürlü ṣūret-i ḥayret
Göñül āyīnedür dükkānçe-i berberde ḳalmışdur
Ne mümkin puḫtegān ide teşebbüh gerden ü ḫāle
Hemān bu ḫāmlıḳ bir sīm ü bir ‘anberde ḳalmışdur
Çıḳar ol māh elbet fetḥ-i bāb eyler ümmīd ile
Mis̱āl-i ḥalḳa-i çeşm intiẓārum derde ḳalmışdur
Zamān ile biri sehvā leb-i dil-dāre beñzetmiş
Henüz ol lezzetüñ ās̱ārıdur şekkerde ḳalmışdur
Dil oldı zülfden āzādelik ḳaydından āzāde
O sevdādan es̱er ḳalmışsa Ṣāḥib serde ḳalmışdur

In English

1. In the world, open-facedness has remained only in the fresh, dewy rose; in the world, a pure temperament has remained only in the wine cup.

2. To know the movement of one's place and not to overstep one's limit has remained, in this playground, only in chess and backgammon.

3. The heart sees from fate, every moment, all kinds of bewildering faces; it is a mirror left in a barber's shop.

4. How could the mature (poets) liken neck and mole (to silver and amber)? This rawness has remained only in a silver and an amber.

5. That moon will surely rise and, with hope, open the door; my waiting has remained at the door like the ring of an eye.

6. Once upon a time someone mistakenly likened (sugar) to the lip of the beloved; the trace of that sweetness still remains in sugar.

7. The heart has been freed even from the bond of seeking freedom from the curl; Sâhib, if any trace of that passion remains, it has remained in the head.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The redif (refrain) "kalmışdur" (has remained) gives this ghazal the air of a list of losses: virtues no longer found in the world are shown by the poet as remnants that live on only in an object or a game. Open-facedness remains in the dewy rose, a pure temperament in the wine cup, and knowing one's limit in chess and backgammon. "Saf meşrep" describes both a clean-hearted person and clear wine; chess pieces, each knowing its own move and never overstepping it, are held up as an example to people. "Şeşder", the board of six points, is backgammon.

The third couplet is another example in the divan of the barber's mirror image to which Topal draws attention in her thesis through ghazal 95. The mirror in a barber's shop shows countless faces every day but keeps none; the heart too sees ceaselessly from fate all kinds of bewildering forms. The fourth couplet makes a point about the art of poetry. Likening the neck to silver and the mole to amber is, in the poet's eye, a worn and raw comparison; the contrast between "puhte" (cooked, mature) and "ham" (raw) says that mature poets will not fall into this cliché. Here Sâhib voices in one couplet the search of his age for fresh expression.

The sixth couplet contains a hüsn-i ta'lil (poetic aetiology): if sugar is sweet today, it is because it was once mistakenly likened to the beloved's lip. The closing couplet uses the word "sevda" both for love and for the black bile of old medicine; if anything of that passion remains, it has remained in the head, counted the seat of melancholy.

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. 27 (the barber's mirror), p. 134, ghazal 36 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 20b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 8a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 13a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources