Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün

Bilindi sūz-ı sīnem āh u feryāduñ şüyū‘undan
Duyuldı mā-cerāmuz çeşm-i giryānuñ dumū‘undan
Oturdur ettāhiyyāta bizi bār-ı ġam-ı firḳat
‘Ayāndur bu namāzuñ ḳa‘de-i āḫir rükū‘undan
Ne ḥüsn-i rūyı fehm itdük ne esrār-ı ḫaṭṭı zāhid
Bu ‘ilmüñ bulmaduḳ vāye uṣūlinden fürū‘undan
Sebeb-i bār-ı girān ḳubbe-i destārdur yoḳsa
Degüldür inḥinā-yı re’si zühhāduñ ḫużū‘undan
Miyān-ı ḫaṭda tābān oldıġı Ṣāḥib ruḫ-ı yārüñ
Nişāndur āfitābuñ semt-i Maġribden ṭulū‘undan

In English

1. The burning in my breast became known from the spreading of sighs and cries; our story was heard from the tears of the weeping eye.

2. The heavy load of the grief of separation sits us down for the "ettehiyyâtü"; it is plain from its bowing (our bent-double state) that this prayer has reached its final sitting.

3. O ascetic, we understood neither the beauty of the face nor the secrets of the down; we found no share of this science, neither in its principles nor in its branches.

4. The bowing of the ascetics' heads is not from humility; the cause of the heavy load is the dome of the turban.

5. Sâhib, that the beloved's cheek shines in the midst of the down is the sign of the sun rising from the west (of the Last Day).

Literary and Historical Commentary

The closing couplet, where Sâhib names himself, links one of the signs of the Last Day to a description of beauty. In Islamic belief the rising of the sun from the west is counted among the great signs of the end of the world. The beloved's cheek is the sun; the dark down around it is the darkness of evening, of the west. That the cheek shines in the midst of this darkness is the sign that the sun has risen in the west, and for the lover the Day of Judgement has come. Since the coming of the down marks, for divan poets, the fading of beauty, the couplet carries a jest and a lament at once.

The other couplets of the ghazal feed on the language of prayer and of jurisprudence. "Ettehiyyâtü", in couplet two, is the prayer recited in the sitting part of the ritual prayer; "ka‘de-i âhire" is the final sitting, and rükû the bow. The lover has been bent double under the weight of separation; this bending tells him that his prayer has reached its end, that he has come to the last sitting of his life.

Usul and fürû, paired in couplet three, are the two layers of the science of law: the first deals with the basic principles, the second with the detailed rulings drawn from them. Explaining the "science" of beauty to an ascetic, the lover says he has found no share in it, neither in its principles nor in its branches. That Sâhib, himself a teacher of the madrasa and a judge, uses these terms so aptly comes as no surprise.

The fourth couplet is the mockery of the ascetic that divan poetry loves. The ascetic's head is bowed, but the cause is not humility; it is the weight of his huge, dome-like turban. The thesis bases this ghazal on two copies only and records no variant readings.

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. 179, ghazal 78 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 28b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 13a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources