Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Ġamzeñ ṣununca nice seni cāna ibtidā
Cāna yapışdı ḫançer-i müjgāna ibtidā
Zülfüñ taḳaddüm itse n’ola ḫaṭṭ-ı fitnede
Ṭuġrā olur suṭūrda fermāna ibtidā
‘İzzetle oldı ṣadr-nişīn-i bütān o şūḫ
‘İzzetlüdür çü nāmede ‘unvāna ibtidā
Evvel dehān-ı pür-nemekin öpdüm ol mehüñ
Çün resmdür nemekle olur ḫᵛāna ibtida
Ḫaṭṭından evvel oldı ḫaṭ-ı la‘l-i ser-zede
Gūyā yazıldı besmele Ḳur‘āna ibtidā
Aç tügmesin niyāz eyle öp soñra sīnesin
İzn al buluş duḫūlde derbāna ibtidā
Ṣāḥib şümāra başladı ‘āşıḳların o şūḫ
Ben zāri çekdi sübḥa-i ṣad-dāne ibtidā

In English

1. As your glance offered you many a soul, the dagger of the eyelash clung first to the soul. (The reading of the first line is not certain.)

2. No wonder if your lock goes before in the script of mischief; in the lines, the tughra is the beginning of the decree.

3. That coquette, with honour, took the seat of honour among the idols (the beauties); for in a letter the title begins with "izzetlü" (honourable).

4. First I kissed the salty (sweet-spoken) mouth of that moon; for it is the custom that a meal begins with salt.

5. Before the down, the down above his ruby lip appeared; it was as if the basmala were written at the beginning of the Qur'an.

6. Open his button, entreat, then kiss his breast; on entering, first ask leave of the doorkeeper, then meet.

7. Sâhib, that coquette began to count his lovers; he began drawing the rosary of a hundred beads with wretched me.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Every couplet calls up something placed at the head of something else, for the redif (refrain word) is "ibtidā" (beginning). Sâhib gathers these beginnings from the customs of his time and from the tradition of writing: a tughra is drawn at the head of a decree, letters open with a title beginning "izzetlü", a meal begins with salt, the basmala is written at the beginning of the Qur'an, leave is asked of the doorkeeper before entering a house, and the counting of a rosary begins with the first bead. The charm of the ghazal comes from adapting each of these everyday customs to the beauty of the beloved or the state of the lover.

Three couplets rest on the world of writing and documents. In the second couplet the lock goes before among the lines of the "script of mischief" and resembles the tughra at the head of a decree; the tughra comparison had also been used for the forelock in the previous ghazal. In the third couplet the beloved's taking the seat of honour among the beauties is told through the title "izzetlü", chosen in Ottoman letters according to the rank of the addressee. In the fifth couplet the first down appearing above the lip is likened to the basmala written at the beginning of the Qur'an: it is the first line of the "script" that will later cover the whole face.

The word "nemek" (salt) in the fourth couplet also expresses, in divan poetry, the sweetness and charm of the beloved's lip and speech; the lover first kisses the "salty" lip, for a meal begins with salt. In the last couplet the beloved counts his lovers like the beads of a rosary, and the first bead of the hundred-bead rosary is the wretched lover. In the Istanbul University copies the order of the lines has changed many times.

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. 97-98, ghazal 5 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 12b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 3a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 4b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources