Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Cihānda her muvaḳḳi‘ ḫırḳa-pūş ehl-i yaḳīn olmaz
Bir ẓāhirdür ki her vīrānede genc-i defīn olmaz
Egerçi nām-dārān-ı cihāndur zāhid ü ‘āşıḳ
Dili seng-i mezār-ı kemterīn ḳıymet-nigīn olmaz
Ne mümkin zāhid-i nā-dānı ehl-i ‘aşḳ u şevḳ itmek
Hezārān ḥüsn-i tedbīr ile sirke engebīn olmaz
Ḫilāf cinsī-i ülfet birbiriyle hem-mizāc itmez
Dıraḫt-ı bāġ naṣṣ olursa da zeytūn tīn olmaz
N'ola gelmezse ger ol gül-bün-i nev-reste āġūşa
Tenūr-ı āteşīn cāy-ı nihāl-i yāsemīn olmaz
Degüldür şūrezār-ı ‘aḳl-ı ḳābil feyż-i taḥḳīḳe
Nis̱ār-ı toḫm-ı āmāle sezā her bir zemīn olmaz
Bu vādīde dururken naẓm-ı Nābī-i süḫan-perver
Bu güne her ġazel Ṣāḥib sezā-yı āferīn olmaz

In English

1. In the world not every dignified wearer of the dervish cloak is a man of certainty; it is plain that not every ruin holds buried treasure.

2. Though the ascetic and the lover are the famous of the world, the gravestone of the humblest does not become a precious seal stone. (The meaning of the second line is not fully clear.)

3. How could one make the ignorant ascetic a man of love and longing? With a thousand clever devices, vinegar does not become honey.

4. Familiarity does not make things of different kinds alike in temper; even if the garden tree is grafted, the olive does not become a fig. (The reading of the second line is not certain.)

5. What if that newly grown rosebush does not come into the embrace? A fiery oven is no place for a jasmine sapling.

6. The salt marsh of reason is not fit to receive the bounty of true knowledge; not every ground is worthy of the scattering of the seed of hopes.

7. Sâhib, while the verse of Nâbî, the nurturer of speech, stands in this valley, not every ghazal of this kind is worthy of praise.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Here Sâhib names Nâbî openly and counts him the master of this manner. Topal cites the pen-name couplet as an example of the poet's admiration for Nâbî and the opening couplet as an example of his gnomic (hikemî) expression. The whole structure of the ghazal reflects this gnomic manner: the first line of each couplet sets down a judgement, and the second proves it with an example taken from nature or daily life. That not everyone who wears the cloak is a saint is explained by the fact that not every ruin holds treasure; the ignorant ascetic's strangeness to love by vinegar never becoming honey; and the grafted tree's inability to change its kind by the olive never becoming a fig. This manner of "irsâl-i mesel" (proving a statement with a proverbial example) is the best-known feature of Nâbî's poetry.

A witticism is hidden in the third couplet: when "sirke" (vinegar) and "engebîn" (honey) stand side by side, the name of "sirkengebîn", the syrup of vinegar and honey in old medicine, appears. The poet says that the two substances can be mixed in a syrup, but that vinegar can by no device become honey. The olive and the fig in the fourth couplet are named together in the first verse of the sura al-Tîn in the Qur'an; even if the two grow side by side, one does not turn into the other.

The sixth couplet applies the relation between seed and soil to the mind: a barren mind does not hold the seed of truth. At the end of the counsels the pen-name couplet gives a literary verdict: Sâhib measures his own ghazal by this standard too, saying that while Nâbî's poetry is at hand, not every ghazal written in the same valley deserves praise.

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. 3 (couplet 7), p. 6 (couplet 1), p. 151, ghazal 53 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 22b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 9a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 14a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources