Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Taḥvīl ideli ṭal‘at-i ḥüsnüñ ḫaṭ-ı lebden
Naḳl eyledi dīvāne göñül Şama Ḥalebden
Ruḫ ġāret-i dil ḫaṭ kederi māye-i ḫāṭır
Yoḳ ḥāṣılı rāḥat ne ‘Acemden ne ‘Arabdan
İẓhār-ı mezāyā-yı ḫaṭ u ḫālüñ içündür
Devr-i felekün maḳṣadı bu rūz ile şebden
Virmez lebinüñ neş’esini būse-i ḫāli
Yeġdür baña bir ḳaṭre mey afyon ile ḥabdan
Her gice ki bil-ḳadr dimişler çü meṡeldür
Biz dāḫı esīrüz ḫaṭ u zülfe o sebebden
Nesl-i bede beddür şeref-i aṣlını taḳrīr
Mey ẓāhir ider ḳaçını da‘vā-yı nesebden
Her çend ḫaṭā dinse de cumhūra muḫālif
Ṣāḥib yine sen geçme mürā‘āt-ı edebden

In English

1. Since the face of your beauty moved from the lip to the down above the lip, the mad heart has moved house from Aleppo to Damascus.

2. The cheek is the plunder of the heart, the grief of the down the leaven of the mind's distress; in short, there is no rest, neither from the Persian nor from the Arab.

3. The purpose of the turning of the heavens with this day and night is to display the merits of your down and mole.

4. The kiss of the mole does not give the delight of your lip; a single drop of wine is better to me than opium and pills.

5. "Take every night for the Night of Power," they have said, for it is a proverb; for that reason we too are captive to the down and the curl (black as night).

6. It ill suits the base-born to declare the nobility of their origin; wine reveals how many of those who claim a lineage are false. The sense of the second line is not certain; "kaçını" (how many of them) has been rendered according to this reading.

7. Sâhib, even if it is called an error contrary to the majority, do not you give up the observance of good manners.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The fifth couplet ties a proverb to the beloved's down: "Take every night for the Night of Power, take everyone you meet for Hızır." The Night of Power (Kadir) is the night on which the Qur'an was sent down, counted better than a thousand months; since it is not known for certain which night of the year it is, people are advised to regard every night in that light. Sâhib takes the proverb as it stands but carries the darkness of night over to the beloved's black down and curls: if every night is the Night of Power, then down and curls, black as night, must be held sacred too. The lover's captivity to them is thus grounded in a popular saying.

At the outset two city names tell of a change of colour. Şam (Damascus) means evening in Turkish and recalls the darkness of the down; Halep (Aleppo) is linked with whiteness and milk, since popular etymology ties its name to Abraham milking his cow there. When the face of beauty passes from the smooth lip to the downy upper lip, the mad heart moves from Aleppo to Damascus, that is, from white to dark. "Tahvîl" is also the astrologer's term for the passage of the sun from one sign of the zodiac to the next.

Towards its end the ghazal turns to counsel. Wine acts like a witness in couplet six: drunkenness reveals the true face of those who boast of their lineage. "Cumhûr", the key word of the last couplet, is the term of jurisprudence for the majority of scholars; the poet advises keeping to good manners even if this runs against the majority. The voice of a mufti who uses the word with precision is easily heard in this couplet.

Elsewhere the mole is likened to an opium pill: both are small and black. The poet chooses a drop of wine over the kiss of the mole; neither opium nor pill gives the pleasure of the 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. 184, ghazal 83 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 29b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 14a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 20a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources