Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Dilde o mehüñ mihr-i ruḫı oldı ṭāli‘
Endīşeme dirlerse n'ola şerḥ-i Meṭāli‘
Geh tābi‘ eḳall ekṡere geh ekṡer eḳalla
Bu mes'elede mescid olur cümleye cāmi‘
Ḫūbāna ḳulaḳdan olur ādem gehī ‘āşıḳ
Uġrun ḳapudur şehr-i dile bāb-ı mesāmi‘
Bā‘is̱-i heves dāne-i ḫāl-i zeḳanuñdur
Toḫm-ı ḳaleme oldıġı evrāḳ-ı mezāri‘
Gösterdi süḫanda yine Ṣāḥib yed-i ṭūlā
Bu naẓmuñ olup beytleri penc-i aṣābi‘

In English

1. The sun of that moon's cheek has risen in the heart; what if they called my thought "the commentary on the Metâli'"?

2. Sometimes the lesser follows the greater, sometimes the greater the lesser; in this question the small mosque becomes a congregational mosque for all.

3. A man sometimes falls in love with beauties through the ear; the gate of the ears is a secret door to the city of the heart.

4. The cause of desire is the seed of the mole on your chin; (so) the pages have become fields for the seed of the pen.

5. Sâhib has again shown a long hand in the art of speech; the couplets of this poem have become five fingers.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The opening couplet sets the title of a book taught in Ottoman madrasas in a scene of the sky. "Tâli'" means rising and "metâli'" places of rising; but "Şerh-i Metâli'" is the known name of the commentary written by Qutb al-Dîn al-Râzî on Sirâj al-Dîn al-Urmawî's logic book Matâli' al-anwâr, a work taught in the madrasas. When the sun of the beloved's cheek rises in the heart, the lover's thought turns into a commentary explaining this rising. Book title and literal meaning cannot be pulled apart here, and the hand that joined them had passed through the madrasa and served as professor and judge.

The second couplet comes from the language of jurisprudence and its principles. The saying "the lesser follows the greater" is a known principle to which jurists turned in settling a ruling; the poet turns it into a rule that sometimes works in reverse. "Câmi'" means both the large mosque where the Friday prayer is held and "that which gathers, comprehends"; the small mescid in this question becomes a câmi' gathering everyone together. The third couplet rests on the popular idiom "to fall in love through the ear": the ear is a secret door opening onto the city of the heart.

The pen-name couplet makes a witticism about the ghazal's own form. "Yed-i tûlâ", literally "a long hand", means figuratively mastery in some work; as the poet shows this hand, he likens the five couplets of the ghazal to the five fingers of the hand. The ghazal is indeed of five couplets; so the poem takes its own length as a subject too.

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. 159, ghazal 60 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 24a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 10a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 16a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources