Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Görinüp dā'ire şeklinde bu ġırbāl-ı felek
Dāneler dökdi uṣūliyle dile gendüm tek
Çerb-i şīrīn-yemege mā'ilüz ol āfetden
Būs u keşden bizi bir yanı ne mümkin itmek
Gūşe-i çeşmle ġayra nigeh-i yāri görüp
Āteş-i reşk ile hażm itmedi çatladı tüfeng
Şerbet-i la‘l-i lebin zaḫm-ı dile em didiler
Ṣoraraḳ bulduḳ anı līk biraz çekdük emek
Bu ḳadar bu nemekīnlik o şeker-lebde nedür
Ṣāḥibā olmaz iken şeker ü ḥelvā vü nemek

In English

1. Appearing in the shape of a circle, this sieve of the sky has, by its method, poured grains like wheat for the heart.

2. We are inclined to eat the rich sweets of that calamity; how could one keep us away from kissing and embracing?

3. Seeing the beloved glance at another from the corner of the eye, the musket could not digest it for the fire of envy, and cracked.

4. They said that the sherbet of your ruby lip is the remedy for the heart's wound; we found it by asking around, but we took some pains.

5. O Sâhib, while sugar, halva and salt do not go together, what is so much saltiness (charm) in that sugar lip?

Literary and Historical Commentary

The third couplet brings into a love scene a weapon not often seen in divan poetry, the musket. The barrel of a firearm could crack from too much powder or from heat; Sâhib ties this technical event to envy through a hüsn-i ta'lil (poetic aetiology): the musket, seeing the beloved glance at another from the corner of the eye, cannot digest the fire of envy and cracks. That the musket works by fire makes the phrase "ateş-i reşk" (fire of envy) fit twice over. The chronograms in the divan composed on Mahmud I's musket shots also show that the poet was no stranger to this weapon.

The rest of the ghazal is built on the language of food and taste. In the opening couplet the sky is a sieve: it turns with its round shape and pours grains like wheat for the heart. In divan poetry the mole is likened to the grain placed beside a snare; the bird of the heart comes to this grain and falls into the trap. That wheat is remembered as the forbidden grain that caused Adam's expulsion from paradise may add another layer of meaning to the couplet.

The pen-name couplet draws a witticism from the incompatibility of sweet and salty. "Nemekîn" means salty, and belongs to the same field of meaning as "melâhat", which in divan poetry describes a dark, winsome beauty. While sugar, halva and salt do not mix on one table, the beloved's sugar lip is at the same time salty; that is, both sweet and charming.

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. 165, ghazal 65 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 25b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 11b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 17b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources