Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Arż-ı niyāze kim perīnüñ rıżāsı yoḳ
Bī-hūde nāliş eylemenüñ iḳtiżāsı yoḳ
Yār ile leb-be-leb olalı cām-ı dil-güşā
Rindān iderse bādeye ḥürmet ḫaṭāsı yoḳ
Ney itmeyince la‘l-i leb-i yāri būselik
Eylerse ṣad-nev-āyīne berg ü nevāsı yoḳ
Baḥre nedür bu ḫūn-ı dilüñ ‘arż-ı cūşişi
Tebrīde bā‘is̱ anuñ ile mā-cerāsı yoḳ
Şehr-i ḳanā‘atüñ o ḳadardur ġınāsı kim
Deryūze-i meẕellet ider bir gerdāsı yoḳ
Sükkān-ı mülk-i ḥırṣ gerek şeh gerek gedā
Hep faḳr u iḥtiyācdadur aġniyāsı yoḳ
Dil mālikāne eyledi Ṣāḥib tevekküli
Şol şarṭla ki mezra‘ası yoḳ ḳarası yoḳ

In English

1. Since the fairy does not consent to the offering of supplication, there is no need to moan in vain.

2. Since the heart-opening cup has come lip to lip with the beloved, there is no fault if the rinds show reverence to wine.

3. Unless the ney kisses the beloved's ruby lip (plays the Bûselik mode), (even if it plays) in a hundred new ways, it has no provision and no melody.

4. What is this display to the sea of the boiling of the heart's blood? It has no dealings with (the sea) that would cause it to cool. (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear.)

5. The wealth of the city of contentment is so great that it has no beggar who begs in humiliation.

6. The inhabitants of the land of greed, be they king or beggar, are all in poverty and need; it has no rich.

7. Sâhib, the heart has taken trust in God as its life-tenure estate, on the condition that it has neither field nor village.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A fiscal institution particular to the poet's age is tied, in the couplet bearing the pen name, to a mystical idea. The malikâne was the system, spreading in the Ottoman state after 1695, under which a source of tax revenue was granted to a person for life against a lump-sum payment; in the tax registers these sources are recorded as villages (karye) and mezraas (land that was cultivated but had no settlement). Sâhib says that the heart has taken trust in God as a malikâne, but this malikâne has neither mezraa nor village. Relying on God becomes a life-long holding whose return is not measured in income. As judge and military judge, Sâhib must often have met these terms.

The fifth and sixth couplets set up a contrast that Topal cites as an example of the idea of contentment: the city of contentment and the land of greed. In the city of contentment there are no beggars, for everyone is rich with what he has; in the land of greed both king and beggar are poor, for no one is ever satisfied. The two couplets give a gnomic counsel that measures wealth not by goods but by the heart.

The third couplet plays with music: "Bûselik" is the name of a mode but carries the Persian word "bûse" (kiss); "nevâ" is both a mode and "provision, portion", and the phrase "berg ü nevâ" is used for livelihood, provisions. Unless the ney makes the beloved's lip "bûselik", that is, kisses it, it remains without portion even if it tries a hundred ways.

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. 18 (couplet 5), p. 161, ghazal 62 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 24b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 10b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 16b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources