Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dil-i bī-şūr-ı ‘aşḳ içre melāḥatden es̱er olmaz
Baḳılsa āb-ı şīrīn mevḳi‘-i dürr ü güher olmaz
Sebükdür i‘tibārı dūş-ı merdān-ı şecā‘atde
Miyānında anuñ kim nīzeveş ḳat ḳat kemer olmaz
Menāṣıb ehlinüñ gün yoḳ ki fikr-i naṣb u ref‘ ile
Ḥurūfāsā binā-yı ḫāṭırı zīr ü zeber olmaz
Degül şām-ı ṭalebde ẓulmet-i ġam def‘ine ḳādir
Şu kim rāh-ı muḥabbet içre mānend-i fener olmaz
Nevā-yı sükkerīn ü būs-ı la‘l-i ḳand-rīzüñle
‘Acebdür ney elüñde ey şeker-leb nīş-ger olmaz
Ḳoyup ḫāl ü ḫaṭı itmiş ta‘alluḳ çeşm-i cānāna
Bu gülşende hele nergis ḳadar ṣāḥib-naẓar olmaz
Olan ṣandal-nişīn zevraḳ-ı mey-i yār ile Ṣāḥib
Cihān deryā-yı ġam olsa anuñçün derd-i ser olmaz

In English

1. In a heart without the salt (the passion) of love there is no trace of charm; if one looks, sweet water is not the place of pearls and gems.

2. Light is the esteem, on the shoulders of men of valour, of one who has no belt wound layer on layer like a spear at his waist. (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear.)

3. There is no day on which the building of the office-holders' minds is not turned upside down like letters with the thought of appointment and dismissal.

4. One who is not like a lantern on the road of love cannot dispel the darkness of grief in the evening of seeking.

5. O sugar-lipped one, it is strange that, with your sugary melody and the kiss of your sugar-scattering ruby lip, the reed in your hand does not become a sugar cane.

6. (The narcissus) has left mole and down and attached itself to the beloved's eye; in this rose garden there is none so discerning as the narcissus.

7. Sâhib, for one who sits in the wine skiff with the beloved, even if the world were a sea of grief, it would be no headache.

Literary and Historical Commentary

In the third couplet official life is told in the terms of Arabic grammar. "Nasb" and "ref'" are both two grammatical cases (accusative and nominative) and appointment to and removal from an office; "binâ" is both a building and a term for words whose endings do not change; "zîr ü zeber" means both the vowel marks kasra and fatha and "upside down". The building of the office-holders' minds is turned upside down like letters every day with the worry of appointment and dismissal. The man who wrote it had served as judge and military judge and rose at the end of his life to the office of şeyhülislam; he knew this worry from the inside.

The opening couplet is built on salt. "Şûr" means both saltiness and passion, and "melâhat" both saltiness and the beauty of a dark complexion. The poet supports this with a piece of natural knowledge: pearls form not in sweet water but in the salt sea; and in a heart without the salt of love there is no trace of beauty.

The fifth couplet works the likeness of sound and sense between "ney" (reed flute) and "nîşker" (sugar cane): the ney too is a reed, and it is expected to turn into a sugar cane through the beloved's sugary melody and lip. The sixth couplet joins the tradition that likens the narcissus to an eye with the pen-name; "sâhib-nazar" is both a discerning person and a play on the name "Sâhib". In the pen-name couplet "sandal" too has two senses: both a small boat and the sandalwood rubbed on the forehead in old medicine against headache. That one sitting in a sandal has no headache is thus fitting twice over.

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. 146, ghazal 48 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 21b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 8b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 4a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources