Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Şeh-süvārum her ḳaçan kim tīġ-i cevher bāġlanur
İrmek olmaz kişver-i vaṣlına beller baġlanur
Ḫaṭṭ-ı ruḫsārı degüldür ḥaclegāh-ı nāzda
Nev-‘arūs-ı ḥüsn-i cānān miski çenber baġlanur
Būse-çīn-i ruḫları olsam ṣarılsam boynına
Ṣanki bir rişteyle bir deste gül-i ter baġlanur
Pür idüp aġyāre ḳuyında bizi rū eyledi
Ey dirīġā şimdi cāy-ı esbde ḫar bāġlanur
Var ise Ṣāḥib saña göstermek ister sīnesin
Kim açar gāhi ḳuşaġın kāh o dil-ber baġlanur

In English

1. Whenever my royal rider girds on his jewelled sword, it is impossible to reach the realm of his union; (still) waists are girded for this road.

2. The down on his cheek is not (mere down); in the bridal chamber of coquetry a musky headband is tied on the new bride, the beloved's beauty.

3. If I gathered kisses from his cheeks and embraced his neck, it would be as if a bunch of fresh roses were tied with a thread.

4. Filling his street with rivals, he has turned us away; alas, now donkeys are tied in the place of horses. (The reading of the first line is not certain.)

5. Sâhib, if he wishes to show you his breast, (there is a chance); for that beloved sometimes opens his sash and sometimes ties it.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The language of dress and adornment carries the redif (refrain) "bağlanur" (is tied): a sword is girded, a waist is bound, a headband is tied on the bride, a bunch of roses is tied with thread, a sash is tied and untied. The ghazal's second couplet likens the down to a wedding custom. "Hacle" is the bridal chamber, "nev-arûs" the new bride, and "çember" the thin printed kerchief women tied on their heads. The down on the beloved's face is the tying of a musky headband on the bride of beauty; the down encircling the face is likened to the headscarf framing it.

The fourth couplet carries a popular saying into poetry: tying a donkey where the horse was tied means the worthless taking the place of the worthy. The beloved has filled his street with rivals and driven the lover away from it; the poet likens the rivals to donkeys and himself to a displaced horse. The idiom "bel bağlamak" (to gird the waist) in the opening couplet also has two senses: both to gird on a sword and to commit oneself wholeheartedly to something and trust in it.

In the third couplet the lover who embraces the beloved's neck resembles the thread that binds a bunch of roses: the red cheeks are the roses and the lover's arm is the thread. In the closing couplet a sash is untied and tied again, a light and cheerful scene.

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 (couplet 5), p. 142, ghazal 44 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 10b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources