Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Āşıḳlaruñ aḳıtma şehā eşk-i terlerüñ
Ṭūfān-ı ḫurūş eyleme ḫūn-ı cigerlerüñ
İs̱bāt içün mü'es̱s̱ir-i ‘aşḳuñ es̱erlerüñ
Seyr eyle sīnem üzre olan şerḥa yerlerüñ
Āġūş-ı mihri mıntıḳa-i çarḫ terk ider
Görse bütān-ı sīm-tenānda kemerlerüñ
Tekrārī-i ḥurūfuna ol şūḫ-berberüñ
Mıṣrun şebīh eyle mükerrer şekerlerüñ
İtmişdür āb-ı ḫuşk ile cem‘ āteş-i teri
Seyr eyle sīmiyāger-i bezmüñ hünerlerüñ
Olmaz felekde ḥāṣılı ḥarf āşinā-yı ‘aşḳ
Mānend-i ḫāme eylemeyen pāy-ı serlerüñ
Nergis ki bir piyāz iledür seyr-i çeşm-i dehr
Bezm-i bahāruñ alsa ne ġam cām-ı zerlerüñ
Ṣāḥib ḳudūm-ı şāhid-i naẓm-ı Necīb içün
Eyler nis̱ār dürc-i maḳālin güherlerüñ

In English

1. O king, do not make the lovers' fresh tears flow; do not make the blood of their livers a roaring flood.

2. To prove the traces of the agent of love, look at the places of the cuts on my breast.

3. Were it to see the belts on silver-bodied idols, the girdle of heaven would leave the embrace of the sun.

4. Liken the repetition of the letters of that flirtatious barber to the refined sugars of Egypt.

5. He has joined moist fire with dry water; behold the skills of the conjurer of the gathering.

6. In short, no one under heaven becomes acquainted with the letter of love who does not, like the pen, make his head his foot.

7. The narcissus, whose show of the world's eye is by means of an onion; what matter if it takes the golden cups of the spring feast. (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear.)

8. Sâhib, for the arrival of the beauty of Necîb's poem, scatters the pearls of the casket of his speech.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The pen-name couplet states openly that this ghazal is a nazire, a response poem. As the "şâhid", the beauty, of Necîb's poem arrives, Sâhib scatters the pearls of his casket of speech in its path; the old custom of scattering coins and gifts before one arriving at a wedding or a welcome turns into the answer one poet gives to another's ghazal. Topal too refers to it among the couplets in which the poet names other poets. Many couplets of the ghazal are full of ornate inventions fitting such a welcome.

The fourth couplet sets up a fine play between writing and taste. When the word "berber" (barber) is written in Arabic letters, the same two letters, b and r, are repeated twice (ب ر ب ر). "Mükerrer" means both "repeated" and "refined", and the refined sugars of Egypt were famous. The poet likens the repetition of letters in the flirtatious barber's name to Egypt's refined sugars; so the spelling of a word turns into a sweet comparison. In the fifth couplet the cup is "dry water" and the wine "moist fire": the crystal cup resembles water but is not wet, the red wine resembles fire but does not burn. The cupbearer who brings these two together is the conjurer of the gathering.

The second couplet uses the language of theology: "müessir" is the cause and "eser" the trace that cause leaves, and scholars would prove a cause by reasoning from its traces. To prove the existence of love, the lover shows the scars of the cuts on his breast. In the sixth couplet the pen, which walks on its nib, is a traveller who makes his head his foot; one who would know the letter of love must, like the pen, make his head his foot.

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. 3 (couplet 8), pp. 168-169, ghazal 68 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 26a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 13a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources