Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

O şūḫa eyle niyāzı uṣandırıncaya dek
Ayaġına düş elin öp utandırıncaya dek
Ne pīç ü tāba ḳodı dest-i nāz-ı destārı
Serine ol şeh-i ḥüsnüñ dolandırıncaya dek
Mis̱āl-i ḥalḳa belin bükdi dest-i ġam kemerin
Miyān-ı nāzik-i yāre ḳuşandırıncaya dek
İçürmedi bize bīm-i reḳābet-i aġyār
Şarāb-ı vuṣlat-ı dil-dārı ḳandırıncaya dek
O tünd-ḫūnuñ elinden ne zehrler çekdük
Meẕāḳ-ı ülfete az çoḳ dadandırıncaya dek
O ġonca-i teri gül-bister-i leṭāfetden
Fiġānı kesmedi bülbül uyandırıncaya dek
Ṭolandı başına şeb tā-seḥer o şem‘-i ruḫuñ
Fitīl-i cismini pervāne yandırıncaya dek
Ne çekdi bir gül içün dest-māl-i sīnesi
Sinān-ı sūzen-i ‘aşḳa dayandırıncaya dek
Hezār ṣūret ile ṣatdı kendüyi zāhid
Dürūġ-ı zühdini ḫalḳa inandırıncaya dek
Çalışdı vaṣf-ı leb-i la‘l-i yār ile ḫāme
Devātuñ aġzını Ṣāḥib ṣulandırıncaya dek

In English

1. Plead with that flirt until you weary him; fall at his feet, kiss his hand until you make him ashamed.

2. What twists and turns the hand of coquetry gave the turban until it had wound it round the head of that king of beauty.

3. The hand of grief bent the belt's waist like a ring until it had girded it on the beloved's slender waist. (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear.)

4. Fear of the rivalry of others did not let us drink the wine of union with the beloved until we had won him over.

5. What poisons we suffered at the hands of that harsh-tempered one until we had given him some taste for familiarity.

6. The nightingale did not cease its lament until it had woken that fresh bud from its rose bed of grace.

7. All night till dawn the moth circled the candle of your cheek until it had set alight the wick of its own body.

8. What the handkerchief of his breast endured for one rose, until it had made (the breast) bear the spear of the needle of love.

9. The ascetic sold himself in a thousand guises until he had made the people believe the lie of his asceticism.

10. Sâhib, the pen laboured at describing the beloved's ruby lip until it had made the inkwell's mouth water.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The redif (refrain) "-andırıncaya dek" (until it had made...) turns the ghazal into a poem of patience and process: each couplet tells how long some task lasted, how much labour was needed for something to happen. The rhyme words are Turkish causative verbs: usandırmak, utandırmak, dolandırmak, kuşandırmak, kandırmak, dadandırmak, uyandırmak, yandırmak, dayandırmak, inandırmak, sulandırmak. Many of these carry a second sense as well. "Kandırmak" means both to quench thirst and to persuade, to deceive; in the fourth couplet the beloved must be "won over" before the wine of union is drunk.

The eighth couplet describes a piece of embroidery. "Destmâl" is a handkerchief, "sûzen" a needle and "sinân" a spearhead. To embroider a rose on a handkerchief, the needle pierces it again and again; the lover's breast too bears, for the sake of one rose, the spear-like stabbing of the needle of love. This comparison is an easily understood scene in an age when embroidered handkerchiefs were part of daily life.

The ninth couplet repeats the criticism of the ascetic seen in other ghazals of the divan: the ascetic sells himself in a thousand guises to make the people believe the lie of his asceticism. At the close the talk returns to the pen: the pen trying to describe the beloved's lip makes the inkwell's mouth water. The liquid ink inside the inkwell and the idiom "to make one's mouth water" meet in this last word.

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, pp. 163-164, ghazal 64 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 24b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 11a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 17a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources