Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ruḫsār-ı yār eyleyeli cāygāh ḫaṭṭ
Cevr ile mülket-i dili itdi tebāh ḫaṭṭ
Faṣl-ı bahār irişdi dem-i rūz-ı Ḫıżr olup
Ḳurdı sefer-i ‘azīmete bārgāh ḫaṭṭ
Müjgānlaruñ gürūh-ı silih-dār ise eger
Ey şāh-ı ‘işve oldı senüñçün sipāh ḫaṭṭ
Dün tīġden geçürdi anı pādişāh-ı ḥüsn
Besbelli eylemişdi yine bir günāh ḫaṭṭ
Ḥüsnüñ gider gelince ḫaṭuñ dirdi zülf līk
Olmadı ḳulı itdi anı rū-siyāh ḫaṭṭ
‘Uşşāḳa itdi rāst o şehnāz ile nigāh
Çār ebruvānın eyleyicek penç-gāh ḫaṭṭ
Kālā-yı ḥüsni düzd-i nigāh-ı raḳībden
Ṣāḥib çi bāk-i ba‘d-ezīn eyler tebāh ḫaṭṭ

In English

1. Since the down made the beloved's cheek its seat, it has laid waste the realm of the heart with cruelty.

2. The season of spring has come, it is the time of Hızır's day; the down has pitched its royal tent to set out on campaign.

3. O king of coquetry, if your lashes are the corps of sword-bearers, the down has become an army for you.

4. Yesterday the king of beauty put it to the sword; clearly the down had again committed some crime.

5. The curl used to say "your beauty will go when your down comes"; but it did not happen so, and the down put it to shame. (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear.)

6. When the down made his four eyebrows a Pençgâh (five places), that Şehnaz turned his glance straight (rast) toward the lovers (Uşşak).

7. Sâhib, what fear for the goods of his beauty from the thief of the rival's glance? From now on the down will lay it waste.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The down, which also gives the ghazal its redif (refrain) "hat", is described here as a ruler who conquers lands, sets out on campaign and has an army and sword-bearers. The second couplet carries the Ottoman army's campaign calendar into poetry: campaigns usually set out when spring came, around Hızır's day (Hıdırellez, 6 May), and the sultan's royal tent (bârgâh) was pitched. The down too appears on the face with the coming of spring and pitches its tent on the cheek. In the third couplet the lashes become the corps of sword-bearers (silahdar) and the down the sipah, the army; in the fourth the king of beauty "puts the down to the sword". Shaving with the razor here turns into the punishment of a criminal.

The sixth couplet repeats the musical game seen in ghazal 51, this time with five mode names: Uşşak, Rast, Şehnaz, Çârgâh and Pençgâh. "Rast etmek" means to make straight, and "çâr ebrû" literally "four eyebrows" and in Persian describes a youth whose moustache has just appeared: with two lines of moustache added to the two eyebrows, there are four. When the down makes these four brows a "penç-gâh", five places, the beloved turns his glance to the lovers. The couplet is a display of art in which literal word meanings and mode names are interwoven.

A Persian phrase sits in the last line: "çi bâk", that is, "what fear, no matter". There is no need to guard the beloved's beauty from the rival's glance; from now on the down will lay it waste in any case.

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. 158, ghazal 59 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 24a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 10a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 15b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources