Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Didiler Ḳaysı ki Leylānuñ uyurken mış mış
Bāġ-ı vaṣlına girüp bir iki şeftālū yemiş
Ḫalḳı vā‘iẓ yine cez̠b itdi çeküp meclisine
Göre ey pīr-i muġān böyle gerek işte keşiş
Ẓann iderdüm yememiş ṣūfī nā-kām yemiş
Meger ol ḫām-ı nihād ise yemişmiş mişmiş
İtmedüm būs o şūḫ olmaya biādār deyü
Ol mest-i nigāh ise uyurmuş mışmış
Naḳd-i eşk-i terüñe ey dīde ḳızıldur didiler
Olmadı rāyic-i bāzār-ı niyāz anı degiş
Mevlevīler gibi it sen de def ü neyle semā‘
Çalġısız uyanma ey ṣūfī-i dīvāneveş
İtme nā-sāz bu şaṭranc-ı fenāda bāzī
Dimeye tā saña manṣūba ger devrān-kiş
Āteş-i ‘aşḳ-ı ciger-sūz ile Ṣāḥibāsā
Küşt-gīrāna duṭuşmaġa dilā sende alış

In English

1. They said of Kays that while Layla was sleeping soundly, (Kays) went into the garden of her union and ate a peach or two.

2. The preacher has again drawn the people into his assembly; O elder of the Magi, see, this is how a monk must be.

3. I thought the Sufi had not eaten, had gone without; but that raw-natured one, it seems, had eaten apricots after all.

4. I did not kiss that flirt, so that he would not wake; but that one of drunken glance, it seems, was sound asleep.

5. O eye, they said of the coin of your fresh tears "it is red"; it did not pass current in the market of supplication, change it. (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear.)

6. O madman-like Sufi, you too perform the sema with tambourine and ney like the Mevlevis; do not fall into ecstasy without music.

7. Make no ill-judged move in this chess of the transient world, lest the turning of time set a trap for you and say "check".

8. O heart, like Sâhib, with the liver-burning fire of love, you too grow used to grappling with wrestlers.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Among the most playful poems of the divan, the ghazal draws its force from the Turkish suffix "-miş" and from puns on the names of fruits. The first couplet opens with gossip: "they said" that Kays, while Layla slept soundly, went into her garden and ate a peach or two. The word "Kaysı" recalls both "Kays'ı" (Kays, Majnun's real name, in the accusative) and the apricot (kayısı); and the peach (şeftali) was also used in old Turkish for a kiss. In the third couplet the same game grows: while the Sufi was thought not to have eaten, "yemişmiş mişmiş", that is, it turns out he had eaten apricots (mişmiş in Arabic and Persian). That the word "yemiş" means both fruit and "he ate" opens a third layer in the couplet.

The suffixes "-mış" and "-miş" express in Turkish what is heard from others or noticed afterwards, and they set the air of the ghazal. In the fourth couplet the lover gives up kissing so that the beloved will not wake, then realises that the beloved was in any case sleeping "mışıl mışıl" (soundly); "mışmış" carries both the sound of sleep and this late realisation. So the chance is missed.

The middle of the ghazal again takes aim at Sufis and preachers. The preacher's drawing of the people into his assembly is likened to a monk's work; and in the sixth couplet the "madman" Sufi who falls into ecstasy without music is told at least to perform the sema with tambourine and ney like the Mevlevis. The seventh couplet uses the language of chess: "mansûbe" is a set arrangement of play prepared in advance, and "kiş" is the warning given to the king, check. "Küşt-gîr" in the closing couplet means a wrestler; the heart is advised to grow used to grappling with wrestlers through the fire of love.

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. 27 (couplet 4), pp. 155-156, ghazal 57 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 23b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 9b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 15a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources