Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ye’si ben vāsıṭa-i cümle-i maṭlab buldum
Her temennāyı tevekkülde müretteb buldum
Sūḳ-ı ḫülyada çü bāzār teṣāvīr-i behişt
Bī-tereddüd ne ṭaleb ḳıldum ise hep buldum
Yine ta‘bīrini ey ġonca lebüñden ṣoralum
Bu gice ḫᵛābda bir cām-ı leb-ā-leb buldum
Dilikim itmişidüm çoḳdan arardum ḫālā
Ḫālveş muḫtefī-i küşe-i ġabġab buldum
Bu ḳadar bilmez idüm meşreb-i meykedeyi
Vüs‘atin ḫaylice şāyeste-i meşreb buldum
Ḫāmenüñ rāzını fehm eyleyemez hem-dem iken
Ben devātı hele pek cehl-i mürekkeb buldum
Görmege Ṣāḥib-i bīmārı nidem vardumsa
Bister-i hicrde bī-çāre vü pür-teb buldum

In English

1. I found despair to be the means to every goal; I found every wish set in order within trust in God.

2. In the market of fancy, as in the market of forms in paradise, whatever I asked for I found, without hesitation.

3. O rosebud, let us ask your lip again for the interpretation: tonight in a dream I found a cup full to the brim (lip to lip).

4. I had lost my heart long ago and was still searching for it; I found it hidden like a mole in the corner of the double chin.

5. I did not know the temper of the tavern was so broad; I found its breadth well worthy of a drinking place (meşreb).

6. While the pen, its constant companion, cannot grasp its secret, I found the inkwell to be utter "cehl-i mürekkeb" (compound ignorance, and an ignorance full of ink).

7. Whenever I went to see the sick Sâhib, I found him in the bed of separation, helpless and burning with fever.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The sixth couplet sets a term from the books of logic among the tools of writing. "Cehl-i mürekkeb" (compound ignorance) is the state of one who does not know that he does not know; "simple ignorance" is that of one who knows he does not know. "Mürekkeb" means both "compound" and writing ink. The inkwell is full of ink; the pen dips into it every day yet never learns its secret. Sâhib brings the two meanings together in a single phrase and turns the inkwell into an ignoramus full of ink. One copy reads the line "Hâmenüñ sırrına vâkıf olamaz" (the pen cannot come to know its secret); the sense does not change.

A similar game is played in couplet five with the word "meşreb". Meşreb is a person's temperament, his nature; the root meaning of the word, however, is a place to drink, a spring or a drinking place. The tavern's temper is so broad that it truly befits a drinking place.

Behind the second couplet lies a report of the Prophet's sayings: it speaks of a market in paradise where nothing is bought or sold, where there are only forms, and whoever wishes enters the form he desires. The poet likens his world of fancy to that market, where whatever is wanted is found at once and without price. The praise of despair with which the ghazal opens belongs to the same thought: one who gives up wishing finds every wish ready within trust in God.

"Leb-â-leb" (full to the brim) in couplet three means word for word "lip to lip"; that is why the meaning of the full cup seen in the dream is sought from the beloved's lip.

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. 177, ghazal 76 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 28a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 12b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 18a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources