Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Mey bāġ-ı bezm-i ‘ayşa çekilsün ḳabaḳ ḳabaḳ
Yine kümeyt-i bāde yürisün ayaḳ ayaḳ
Her ṣubḥ ṭıfl-ı ġonca oḳur Fetḥ sūresin
Ḫāce nesīm-i feyż-i es̱erden sebaḳ sebaḳ
Esrār-ı ḥüsnüne baḳup eyler muṭāla‘a
Bülbül kitāb-ı ġoncayı açmış varaḳ varaḳ
Pür-mihri oldı ‘aşḳı ile māh-ı bī-ḳarār
Şehri ṭoḳuz ṭolandıġı oldur soḳaḳ soḳaḳ
Ḫavf ile dil açıldı Kefe lālesi gibi
Tātār-ı çeşmi cāna gelince ḳonaḳ ḳonaḳ
Geldikce bāġa vaṣf-ı ruḫ-ı yār ile ṣabā
Zer-pāş olur ḳudūmine güller ṭabaḳ ṭabaḳ
Ol pādişāh-ı şu‘le ruḫ-ı āteşīn-mizāc
Hep ḳullarını yoḳladı Ṣāḥib ocaḳ ocaḳ

In English

1. Let wine be carried gourd by gourd to the garden of the pleasure feast; let the bay-red wine again walk, like a horse, cup by cup.

2. Every morning the child of the bud recites the sura al-Fath; its teacher is the breeze of the work of bounty, (giving it) lesson by lesson.

3. Looking at the secrets of your beauty, the nightingale studies; it has opened the book of the bud leaf by leaf.

4. The restless moon has become full of love (of the sun) through love of him; that is why it roams the city nine times, street by street.

5. When the Tatar of his eye came at the soul stage by stage, the heart opened in fear like the tulip of Kefe.

6. Whenever the breeze comes to the garden with a description of the beloved's cheek, the roses scatter gold tray by tray at his arrival.

7. Sâhib, that king with a cheek of flame and a fiery temper has inspected all his servants, hearth by hearth.

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Turkish reduplication stands in every rhyme position: kabak kabak, ayak ayak, sebak sebak, varak varak, sokak sokak, konak konak, tabak tabak, ocak ocak. Each reduplication expresses that something happens one by one and in order, and gives the ghazal the air of a procession, a count. "Kabak" is the gourd hollowed out to hold wine, and "ayak" in old Turkish a cup; "kümeyt" is both a bay-red horse and red wine. So wine walks through the gathering like a horse, "ayak ayak", step by step and cup by cup.

The second couplet, which Topal also mentions in her thesis, is a school scene. The bud that opens every morning reciting the sura al-Fath rests on a link between the word "fath" (opening, victory) in the sura's name and the opening of the bud. The bud is a schoolchild, its teacher is the morning breeze, and the lessons are given "sebak sebak", section by section. The third couplet continues this school scene: the nightingale opens the book of the bud leaf by leaf and studies it.

The geography of the age appears in the fifth couplet. Kefe (Caffa) in the Crimea had given its name to a variety of tulip loved in Ottoman gardens; and the raiding units of the Crimean Tatars were known for their swift horsemen advancing stage by stage. The beloved's eye is a Tatar raider; as it advances stage by stage on the land of the soul, the heart opens in fear like the tulip of Kefe. The pen-name couplet plays on the word "ocak": the fiery-tempered king inspects his servants "ocak ocak". Ocak is both the hearth where fire burns and the corps (ocak) of the sultan's household troops; the sultan's roll call of his soldiers turns here into the fire of love passing through each heart one by one.

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. 12 (couplet 2), p. 162, ghazal 63 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 25a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 10b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 16a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources