Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Şarāb-ı ‘aşḳuñı ref‘-i ḫumāra dek çekerüz
Kemend-i ṭurrañı boynumda dāra dek çekerüz
Ġam-ı firāḳuñ unutmaḳ ne mümkin ey āfet
Bu āh-ı ḥasreti künc-i mezāra dek çekerüz
Metā‘-ı nāleye ḳıymet yoġ ise kūyında
Bahāsı rāyic olan bir diyāra dek çekerüz
Yem-i muḥabbete düşdük bu keştī-i ‘aşḳı
Keş-ā-keş-i ġam ile bir kenāra dek çekerüz
Müsā‘id olmaz ise ger nesīm-i merḥametüñ
Bu fülk-i hicri nice rūzgāra dek çekerüz
Ġām-ı ḫazān-ı firāḳ senüñle ey bülbül
Ne çāre ṣabr idelüm tā bahāra dek çekerüz
Şümār-ı sübḥa-i dāġ-ı derūnum ey Ṣāḥib
Ġam-ı ḥesābını rūz-ı şümāre dek çekerüz

In English

1. We drink the wine of your love until the hangover lifts; we pull the noose of your tress about my neck as far as the gallows.

2. O calamity, how could the grief of your separation be forgotten? We shall heave this sigh of longing as far as the corner of the grave.

3. If the goods of lament have no value in your street, we shall carry them to a land where their price is current.

4. We have fallen into the sea of love; with the tugging of grief we shall haul this ship of love to some shore.

5. If the breeze of your mercy is not favourable, for how many winds (how many ages) shall we tow this ship of separation?

6. O nightingale, the grief of the autumn of separation, with you, what remedy, let us be patient, we shall bear until spring.

7. O Sâhib, (our heart) counts the rosary of the scars within me; we shall keep the account of grief until the day of reckoning.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The whole load of this ghazal is carried by the verb "çekmek", and the verb is set to a different task in each couplet: wine is drawn (drunk), a noose is pulled to the gallows, a sigh is heaved, goods are carried from one land to another, a ship is hauled to shore, grief is borne and an account is kept. The rhyme "-âra dek" (as far as) also sets a point of arrival in each couplet: the lifting of the hangover, the gallows, the grave, a distant land, the shore, spring and the day of reckoning. So the ghazal tells by seven different measures how far the lover's endurance will last.

Topal counts the third and seventh couplets among the examples of the influence of the Indian style (Sebk-i Hindî) in Sâhib. The third couplet turns lament into merchandise: if it has no value in the beloved's street, these goods are taken to another land where their price is current. Thinking of an abstract feeling as an object bought and sold is a kind of invention this style loves. In the seventh couplet the scars within become the beads of a rosary; counting these beads, the lover keeps the account of grief until the day of judgement, "rûz-ı şümâr" (the day of counting). The counting function of the rosary and the counting sense of the day of reckoning meet in the same root.

The fourth and fifth couplets build a sea voyage. The ship of love is being hauled with much tugging toward some shore in the sea of grief; if the beloved's wind of mercy does not blow, the ship of separation will be towed for many more ages. Here too the word "rüzgâr" means both wind and time.

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. 6 (couplets 3 and 7), p. 147, ghazal 49 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 21b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 15a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources