Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫūbān-ı ḫurde-sāle dimek dil-firībcik
Gūya ḥakīme ḫaste dimekdür ṭabībcik
Taṣfīr ü ḫūr olması emr-i ehemm iken
Aġyār-ı fitne-sāza dinilmez raḳībcik
Ol ġonca hem açıldı hem oldı ḫazān-peẕīr
Bir nāle ile ḳaldı hemān ‘andelībcik
Şeb-nem fütādelikle olur mihre çehre-sā
Elbette bir firāza irer bir nişībcik
Doymazdı fikr-i cum‘a ile fikr-i şenbihi
Olsaydı ṭıfl-ı dilde birazcıḳ şebībcik
Almaḳda ḥiṣṣe ḫalḳ-ı cihān ḫürd u ḫᵛābdan
Ḳaṭ‘a dile virilmedi az çoḳ naṣībcik
Ṣāḥib dil-i şikeste-ten-i sūznākde
Külḫanda gūyā ḫaste yatur bir ġarībcik

In English

1. To call young beauties "little heart-deceivers" is as if one called a physician "little sick doctor". (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear.)

2. While ... is the most important matter, mischief-making strangers are not called "little rivals". (The meaning of the first line is not clear.)

3. That bud both opened and was struck by autumn; the little nightingale was left with only a moan.

4. The dew, through its lowliness, rubs its face on the sun; surely a little low place reaches a height.

5. Had the child of the heart a little youth, it would not be sated with thoughts of Friday and thoughts of Saturday. (The meaning of the couplet is not fully clear.)

6. While the people of the world take their share of food and sleep, not even a little portion was given to the heart.

7. Sâhib, the broken heart in the burning, broken body is like a sick little stranger lying in the stokehole of a bath.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Arabic and Persian words enter the rhyme here wearing the Turkish diminutive suffix "-cik": firîbcik, tabîbcik, rakîbcik, andelîbcik, nişîbcik, şebîbcik, nasîbcik, garîbcik. With this small Turkish suffix, the heavy foreign words of divan poetry take on an endearing, even mocking sound. The ghazal appears only in the Istanbul University T. 738 copy and shows the side of the poet that enjoyed playing with language.

The pen-name couplet carries a scene from the Istanbul of the age. The külhan was the part of the bathhouse holding the furnace that heated its water; homeless people slept at night in these warm places, and the name "külhanbeyi" (lord of the stokehole) comes from them. Sâhib likens the broken heart inside the burnt body to a sick stranger lying in the külhan; the burning of the heart and the fire of the stokehole meet in one scene.

The fourth couplet uses the Persian pair "firâz u nişîb" (rise and fall, high and low). The dewdrop fallen to the ground stands low, but rises by rubbing its face on the morning sun; lowliness becomes the way to elevation. In the third couplet the bud that opens and is at once struck by the autumn wind, leaving the nightingale with only a moan, tells of the short life of beauty.

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. 171, ghazal 70 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 17b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources