Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

İtmesün çarḫ-ı sitemgerle dil-i dīvāne baḥs̱
Āsiyāb ile nice ḳābildür itmek dāne baḥs̱
Ḥarf-i ṭa‘n-ı zāhide olmaz sükūtāsā cevāb
Eylemek şāyān degül nā-dān ile ferzāne baḥs̱
Yoḳdur anuñ gibi hiç def‘-i riyāya bir sebeb
Sübḥa-ı zühhād ile itse n’ola peymāne baḥs̱
Hep bilürler biri ca‘lī biri taḥḳīḳ itdügin
Girye-i zāhidle itsün girye-i mestāne baḥs̱
Araya dildür tavassuṭ eyleyen ıṣlāḥ içün
Biri birine girüp indikçe zülfü şāne baḥs̱
Cümle ‘acz u meskenetdür güft-gūy-ı fenn-i ‘aşḳ
‘İlm-i fālāsā olunmaz anda ne da‘vā ne baḥs̱
Var mıdur perde-bīrūn olmaḳdan özge ḥāṣılı
Ṣāḥibā eylerse ger fānūs ile pervāne baḥs̱

In English

1. Let the mad heart not dispute with the tyrant sky; how can a grain dispute with the millstone?

2. There is no answer like silence to the taunting words of the ascetic; it does not befit the wise man to dispute with the ignorant.

3. There is no better means than this to dispel hypocrisy: what wonder if the wine cup disputes with the ascetics' rosary?

4. Everyone knows that one is false and the other true; let the weeping of the drunkard dispute with the weeping of the ascetic.

5. As the lock and the comb enter into one another and dispute while it descends, it is the heart that steps in between to reconcile them.

6. The talk of the science of love is all helplessness and humility; there, as in the science of divination, there is neither claim nor dispute. (The meaning of the second line is not fully clear.)

7. O Sâhib, if the lantern and the moth were to dispute, would there be any result other than remaining outside the veil?

Literary and Historical Commentary

The redif (refrain word) "baḥs̱" (dispute), ending in the letter "se", builds the ghazal like a debate, and in every couplet two parties face each other: the heart and the sky, the grain and the mill, the wise man and the ignorant, the rosary and the wine cup, the ascetic's tears and the drunkard's tears, the lock and the comb, the lantern and the moth. In most couplets the dispute is between unequal forces and its outcome is clear from the start. The grain that disputes with the mill becomes flour; the best answer to the ascetic's jibes is silence. The idea in the second couplet, that the wise do not dispute with the ignorant, is an example of the sententious, admonishing manner that Topal emphasizes in Sâhib.

The third and fourth couplets translate the divan opposition of the libertine (rind) and the ascetic (zahid) into the language of dispute. The ascetic's rosary is the sign of hypocrisy, the libertine's cup the sign of sincerity; the poet regards setting the two to dispute as the best way to dispel hypocrisy. In the same way the ascetic's tears are "ca‘lī", false, and the drunkard's are "taḥḳīḳ", true. In the fifth couplet the dispute turns into a graceful scene: as the comb enters the lock and descends, the two become entangled, and the lover's heart steps in between to reconcile them; the image of the lock that binds hearts takes on, in this couplet, the appearance of mediation.

The pen-name couplet adds a detail to the tradition of the candle and the moth. The moth circles the flame, but if the candle is inside a lantern, the moth can do nothing but dispute with the glass; in the end it remains outside the veil. The couplet says indirectly that in love it is not disputing but giving oneself to the fire that has value.

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. 100, ghazal 7 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 14a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 3b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 6a); also pp. 3-6 (sententious style). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources