Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

‘Azīz olmaḳ dilerseñ dehre Yūsufveş vaṭandan geç
Nigīnveş ister iseñ nām-dār olmaḳ Yemenden geç
Teşekkī itme ey cān nāvek-i dil-dūz-ı çeşminden
Getürme mā-meżāyı yāduña hergiz geçenden geç
N’ola serden geçerse pīrehen ser de geçer andan
Geçenden geç dimişler sen de serden pīrehenden geç
Yine hem çend nedür āteşüñ mānend-i ‘ūd ey cān
Seni oldur yaḳan hep micmer-i bī-cirm-i tenden geç
Ḳomaz ger pāse gerçi intiḳām-ı rişteyi sūzen
Sen olma intiḳām üzre bu da‘vā-yı kühenden geç
Yaḳar bir gün seni bu cism-i külḫan tāb-ı sūzānum
Saḳın ey tīr-i ġam çoḳ da ṭoḳunma baña benden geç
Gülū-yı āsiyā-yı dilde ey endīşe-i Ṣāḥib
Daḳīḳ ol soñra gel pervīzen-i teng-i dehenden geç

In English

1. If you wish to be dear (aziz) in the world, leave your homeland like Joseph; if you want to win fame like a ring stone, leave Yemen.

2. O soul, do not complain of the heart-piercing arrow of his eye; never bring the past to mind, let go of what is gone.

3. What wonder if the shirt passes over the head; the head too passes from it; they say "let go of what is gone", so you too let go of head and shirt.

4. O soul, how long will your fire be like that of aloe wood? What burns you is always that guiltless censer, the body; let go of the body. (The reading of the first line is not certain.)

5. Though the needle does not leave the thread's revenge, do not you be bent on revenge; let go of this old lawsuit. (The meaning of one word in the first line could not be solved.)

6. O arrow of grief, the heat of this burning furnace of my body will one day burn you; beware, do not touch me too much, pass me by.

7. O thought of Sâhib, in the throat of the mill of the heart become fine as flour, then come and pass through the sieve of the narrow mouth.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The first couplet of the ghazal is one that Topal cites twice as an example of Sâhib's sententious manner. The prophet Joseph left his homeland, was taken to Egypt and there became "aziz", that is, vizier; the precious carnelian too wins fame when it leaves its place, Yemen, and is set in a ring. Topal notes that in this couplet separation is presented as a cause leading to success. That the word "aziz" means both "dear, precious" and the "Aziz" of Egypt creates the double entendre (tevriye) of the couplet.

The redif (refrain word) "geç" is used throughout the ghazal in the sense of "leave, give up", and in the third couplet it is tied to a proverb. Topal counts the line "Geçenden geç dimişler" (they say, let go of what is gone) among the places where Sâhib gives room to idioms and folk sayings. The couplet sets up a game between shirt and head: the shirt one puts on passes over the head, but on the road of love the head too passes from the shirt, that is, the lover sacrifices life and body; the saying "do not cling to the past" widens here into "give up everything".

The fourth couplet makes the body a censer in which aloe wood is burned; what burns is not the fire but the body that holds it, and so one must give up the body. The pen-name couplet brings together all the stages of making flour: thought must pass through the throat of the mill of the heart and become "daḳīḳ", both flour and fine, and then be sifted through the sieve of the beloved's narrow mouth. The two meanings of "daḳīḳ" bring the subtlety of poetic speech and the beloved's small mouth together in one comparison.

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. 101, ghazal 8 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 14b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 3b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 6b); also pp. 6-7 and 21 (couplets 1 and 3). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources