Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Olup āzürde dehrüñ cünbiş-i bī-irtibāṭından
Ayaḳ çekdük bu bezm-i nā-be-sāmānın bisāṭından
O māhuñ ārzū-yı ‘ıyd-ı nev-rūz-ı visāliyle
Teşekkī itmezüz serdī-i hicrānuñ şubāṭından
Ruḫ-ı dil-ber bu reng-i rū ile bu āb u tāb ile
Delīl-i rāstdur āteşle ābuñ iḫtilāṭından
Yine bir mübtelāsın çerb-i şīrīn ile seyr itdi
O ḫᵛān-sālār-ı ‘işve la‘l-i şīrīni simāṭından
Kemerāsā geçen mūy-ı miyān-ı yāre dil-beste
Olur āgāh Ṣāḥib ḥaşruñ aḥvāl-i ṣırāṭından

In English

1. Wearied by the disjointed revels of the age, we drew back our feet from the carpet of this disordered feast.

2. Hoping for the New Day feast (Nevruz) of union with that moon, we do not complain of the February of separation's cold.

3. The beloved's cheek, with this colour of face, with this freshness and glow, is true proof that fire and water can mingle.

4. That steward of the banquet of coquetry has once again filled a lover of his with a sweet, rich morsel from the spread of his sweet ruby lip. ("Seyr itdi" here seems to stand for "sîr itdi", he filled; this is how the thesis prints it.)

5. Sâhib, one whose heart is bound to the hair-fine waist of the beloved, slipped round like a belt, comes to know the state of the Sirat bridge of the Resurrection.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The beloved's slender waist is tied, in the final couplet, to the bridge of the Last Day. In Islamic belief the Sirat is the bridge laid over hell, described as finer than a hair and sharper than a sword; at the Resurrection everyone must cross it. In divan poetry the beloved's waist, too, is counted finer than a hair. Sâhib sets the two kinds of fineness side by side: the lover who binds his heart to a hair-like waist learns already in this world what the Sirat is like; to keep one's footing on that waist is as hard as crossing the bridge.

The second couplet draws comfort from the calendar. February is the harshest month of winter; Nevruz, the "new day", is the feast kept on 21 March at the opening of spring. Hoping that union will come like a Nevruz, the lover bears the cold February of separation. Two opposite elements are reconciled in couplet three on the beloved's cheek: its redness is fire, its freshness and lustre ("âb u tâb", literally water and glow) are water.

The fourth couplet is built from the language of the table. The hân-sâlâr is the steward who directs the palace table; simât is a great banquet spread, çerb a rich, savoury dish. The beloved's lip is a banquet, the beloved its master. One copy reads the line "piyâz-ı huşk-i cevr" (the dry onion of cruelty), and in that reading the couplet turns the other way: the beloved feeds the lover not honey but dry onion. The idiom "drawing back the foot", with which the poem begins, likewise means rising from the carpet of a gathering; the ghazal opens with a withdrawal from company.

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. 181, ghazal 80 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 29a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 13b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 18b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources