Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Eyledi sīnemi bir serv-ḳad-i müstes̱nā
Şevḳ-i āġūşı ile çaḳ mis̱āl-i illā
Ġarḳ ider ‘ālemi seyl-āb-ı sirişküm ey meh
Olmaz ise ṣıla-i vaṣlına mevṣūl bu mā
Ṭura-i ḫam-be-ḫamı gerden-i sīminide
Ṣadr-ı fermān-ı melāḥatde çekilmiş ṭuġrā
‘Āşıḳ-ı zāra aşaġdan yuḳaru vaż‘ı raḳīb
Bed-nümādur ḳatı mānende-i ḫaṭṭ-ı tersā
Süllem-i seng-i muṣallāya raḳībi çıḳarup
‘İzz ü ikrām iderek ḳoltuġuna girdi vebā
Sīneñi görmek olur mı disem ol sīmin-ber
Gösterüp çāk-ı giribānın ider ṣūret-i lā
Eyler ebrūña cebīn üzre taṣaddur ṭurrañ
Gelür āḫirde geçer ṣadra mis̱āl-i ṭuġrā
Rā-yı ebrūsı ile Ṣāḥib o ḥüsn-ārānuñ
Merdüm-i çeşmine dirlerse sezā nīkū-rā

In English

1. A matchless cypress-statured one, through the longing for an embrace, has torn my breast open like the word "illâ".

2. O moon (faced one), if this water is not joined to the "sıla" of union with you, the flood of my tears will drown the world.

3. The curling lock on his silvery neck is a tughra drawn at the head of the decree of beauty.

4. The rival's stance toward the wailing lover, from below upward, looks very ugly, like Christian script.

5. The plague, taking the rival by the arm with honour and respect, led him up the steps of the funeral stone.

6. If I say to that silver-breasted one, "May I see your breast?", he shows the tear in his collar and makes the shape of "lâ" (no).

7. Your forelock takes the seat of honour above your eyebrow on your forehead; in the end it comes and passes to the top, like a tughra.

8. Sâhib, it would be fitting if they called the pupil of the eye of that adorner of beauty, together with the "râ" of his eyebrow, "nîkû-râ". (The meaning of this couplet, built on a play of letters, is not certain.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Several couplets of the ghazal are built on the shapes of letters. In the first couplet the beloved's longing for an embrace tears the lover's breast open like the word "illâ"; in the sixth couplet, to the lover who wishes to see his breast, the beloved shows the tear in his collar and makes the shape of "lâ" (no). Topal discusses the two couplets together and ties them to the two parts of the profession of faith: "lâ" is the word of negation and "illâ" the word of affirmation, that is, "there is none, but He". The torn breast and the torn collar thus carry a mystical meaning within worldly love. In Arabic script "lâ" (لا) is written with two strokes meeting; likening the torn collar to this letter is a visual comparison. The pen-name couplet continues the same game: the curved eyebrow is likened to the letter "râ" (ر) and forms a word together with the pupil of the eye; since the Ali Emîrî manuscript reads "re’y-i" (opinion of) instead of "rā-yı", the solution of the couplet remains uncertain.

The second couplet repeats a grammatical game also known from the chronograms: the "mâ" that is "mevṣūl" (joined), both the Arabic relative pronoun and the Persian word for "water", needs a "sıla", both a completing clause and a union. If there is no union, the water of tears will drown the world. The third and seventh couplets liken the forelock to the tughra at the head of a sultan's decree; the third couplet is found only in the Istanbul University T. 738 copy, while the seventh completes the same comparison with the idiom "sadra geçmek", to take the seat of honour.

The fourth and fifth couplets are aimed at the rival and carry the sharpest mockery of the ghazal. The rival's stance, looking at the lover from below upward, is as backward and ugly as "tersâ", Christian script, written from left to right. In the fifth couplet the rival is dead: the plague, taking him by the arm with honour and respect, leads him up the steps of the funeral stone (musalla taşı). The double sense of the idiom "koltuğuna girmek", both to lead someone by the arm and to flatter someone, allows death to be told as an act of hospitality. In the T. 738 copy the first line of the second couplet takes a different form that names the Nile and the Euphrates.

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, pp. 95-96, ghazal 4 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 12b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 3a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 5a); also p. 17 (couplets 1 and 6). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources