Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çoḳ da ey cām o bütüñ şerbet-i la‘lin ṣatma
Pisteyi bezmde ḥasretle yeter çatlatma
Kirm-sūd (?) istemezüz aṭlasadur raġbetimüz
Ṣāf ṣun bādeyi ey sāḳī bize ṣu ḳatma
Düşdi Ya‘ḳūb dilüñ dīdesine giryeden aġ
Yeter ey Yūsuf-ı ṡānim anı çoḳ aġlatma
Ḥavż-ı ḥamāmı raḳīb eyledi murdār deyü
Güzelüm girme günāhına vebāle batma
Vā‘iẓā Ṣāḥibe dün nāvek-i ṭa‘n atmışsın
Saña biñ kez dimişüm böyle yeleksiz atma

In English

1. O cup, do not sell so freely the sherbet of that idol's ruby lip; enough, do not make the pistachio (the beloved's small mouth) in the gathering split with longing.

2. We do not want "kirm-sûd" (?); our liking is for satin; O cupbearer, serve the wine pure, do not add water for us. The word at the head of the first line has a question mark in the edition too; judging by the contrast with satin, a mixed, cheap cloth may be meant.

3. A white film has fallen from weeping over the eye of the Jacob of the heart; enough, O my second Joseph, do not make him weep so much.

4. Saying "the rival has made the pool of the bath unclean", my beauty, do not go in; do not sink into his sin and his guilt.

5. O preacher, yesterday you shot the arrow of reproach at Sâhib; I have told you a thousand times, do not shoot like this without fletching.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The language of this ghazal stands closer to spoken Turkish than many poems in Sâhib's divan. Commands such as "enough, do not make it burst", "do not add water", "do not make him weep so", "do not go in", "do not shoot without fletching" carry the sound of everyday speech, and the refrain "-atma" carries that sound from couplet to couplet. Nowhere is this manner plainer than in the last couplet, where the poet rounds on the preacher with "I have told you a thousand times". "Yeleksiz atmak" means shooting an arrow with no feathers at its end, which therefore does not reach its mark, and it is the idiom for speaking thoughtlessly, without grounds. The preacher's reproach is such an arrow: aimed at Sâhib, but with no sure direction.

Couplet three draws on the story of Joseph. The Qur'an tells that the eyes of Jacob turned white from weeping over his separation from his son Joseph. The lover's heart is this Jacob, and the beloved a second Joseph; the poet asks the beloved not to make the heart weep any longer. The word "ağ" here refers to the whiteness that comes over the eye.

An everyday bath scene turns into a jest in couplet four. The pool the rival has entered has become ritually unclean; the beauty is asked not to go in and "sink into the rival's sin". The rules of ritual purity in religious law serve the lover's jealousy. The pistachio with which the poem opens is the nut to which divan poetry likens a small mouth; when it ripens its shell splits. While the cup offers the sherbet of the beloved's lip to everyone, the pistachio mouth splits with longing.

The thesis, too, could not read the word at the beginning of the second couplet; the wish for the wine to be pure and the cloth to be satin is clear, however.

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. 188, ghazal 87 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 30b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 14b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 22a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources