Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Sāḳiyā ṣanma ki ḫāhişker-i ibrāmuz biz
Emrine pīr-i muġanuñ ne dise rāmuz biz
Açmazuz beste gibi ḥalḳa dehān-ı şekve
Seng-i cevr-i feleġe ṣabrda bādāmuz biz
Yoḳ mecāz ehli gibi bizde televvünden es̱er
Ḥaciyān-ı ḥarem-i vaḥdete iḥrāmuz biz
Ḥarfveş geh müteḥarrik oluruz geh sākin
Zīr ü bālāda olur cilvemüz i‘cāmuz biz
Çeşm-dūz-ı kerem-i sāḳī-i şīrīn-dehenüz
Būs-ı la‘l-i leb-i yāre dolanur cāmuz biz
Farḳı yoḳ şenbih ü āẕīnemizün ḥayretden
Saṭr-ı taḳvīm-i kühen-i sālde eyyāmuz biz
Oluruz defter-i her fırḳada Ṣāḥib meẕkūr
Mühre hem seng-i mezāra yazılur nāmuz biz

In English

1. O saki, do not think that we are ones who beg insistently; to the command of the elder of the Magi, whatever he says, we are obedient.

2. Like a closed ring we do not open the mouth of complaint; against the stone of fate's cruelty we are almonds in patience.

3. There is no trace in us of changing colour as in the people of metaphorical (love); for the pilgrims to the sanctuary of Unity we are the pilgrim's garb.

4. Like a letter we are sometimes vowelled, sometimes quiescent; our display is below and above, we are the dots (of letters).

5. We have fixed our eyes on the generosity of the sweet-mouthed saki; we are the cup that goes round to kiss the ruby of the beloved's lip.

6. From bewilderment our Saturday and our Friday are no different; we are the days in a line of the calendar of an old year.

7. Sâhib, we are mentioned in the register of every company; our name is written both on the seal and on the gravestone.

Literary and Historical Commentary

In every couplet the lover defines himself by an object, and the redif (refrain) "-âmuz biz" (we are...) turns these definitions into a statement of identity. He becomes an almond in patience, the pilgrim's garb on the road of Unity, a dot in writing, a cup in the gathering, a day in the calendar. The almond comparison in the second couplet rests on its closed shell: the almond is struck with a stone to be cracked but does not open its mouth of its own accord; the lover too makes no complaint under fate's stones. In the third couplet "televvün", changing from colour to colour, is the fickleness of metaphorical love; the single-coloured, unsewn ihram worn by pilgrims expresses simplicity and constancy on the road of Unity.

The sixth couplet is the finest invention of the ghazal. The lover has come to be unable, from bewilderment, to tell Saturday from Friday, and likens himself to the days in the calendar of a year gone by. The days of an old calendar are of no use any more, and no difference remains between them. The fourth couplet is built in the language of Arabic script: a letter with a vowel is called "müteharrik" (moving), a letter without a vowel "sâkin" (still); "i'câm" is putting dots on letters, and the dots stand below or above the letter. The lover is like a dot that sometimes moves and sometimes rests, appearing now below and now above.

Topal mentions the opening couplet among the places where the idea of the "pîr-i mugan" (elder of the Magi, the tavern master) occurs in the poet's verse. The seal and the gravestone in the pen-name couplet show the two ends of a statesman's life: his name is engraved on the seal that authenticates official documents while he lives, and on the gravestone after his death.

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. 17 (couplet 1), p. 153, ghazal 55 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 23a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 9b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 14a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources