Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Naẓm idüp vaṣf-ı ruḫ-ı māhveşüñ maṭla‘da
Aḫter-i naẓmum o vech ile yetürdüm sa‘da
Et-taḥiyyāta oturdur bizi bār-ı ġam-ı ‘aşḳ
Bu rükū‘uñ olur elbette ṣoñunda ḳa‘de
Ġonca-i la‘lüñ idüp ḫande-i dendān-nümā
Nice maẓmūnı edā itdi iki mıṣra‘da
Şu‘le-i ‘ārıżıdur velvele-i ḥüsne sebeb
Berḳ-i dībācedür elbette ẓuhūr-ı ra‘de
Göricek rūy-ı raḳībi ġaşeyān itdi ẓuhūr
Haẓm olunmaz deyü gösterdi bürūdet mi‘de
Encümen ‘ārifi men‘ eyleyemez ḫalvetden
Naẓar it ḫalvete ḥamām gibi mecma‘da
Ḫāmeveş ehl-i süḫan olmadı Ṣāḥib maḫlaṣ
Keẕālik ‘aşḳa serin virmeyicek maḳṭa‘da

In English

1. Putting into verse the praise of the moon-like one's cheek in the matla (both the opening couplet and the place where a star rises), I thus brought the star of my poetry to an auspicious sign.

2. The burden of love's grief sits us down for the "ettehiyyâtü"; at the end of this bowing there is surely a sitting.

3. The rosebud of your ruby lip, with a laugh that showed the teeth, expressed many a meaning in two lines (in two lips).

4. The flame of the cheek is the cause of the uproar of beauty; surely lightning is the preface to the coming of thunder.

5. On seeing the rival's face, nausea set in; the stomach showed coldness, saying "this cannot be digested".

6. Company cannot keep the gnostic from solitude; look at the halvet (the inner hot room) of the bath, in a place where everyone gathers.

7. Sâhib, like the pen, one does not become a man of words by a pen name alone, unless he gives his head to love on the makta (as the pen does not write until its head is cut on the makta).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Many of the rhyme words of this ghazal are terms of poetry itself: matla, mısra, makta. Sâhib uses each of them together with a second meaning and sets each within a likeness. The matla is the opening couplet of a ghazal, but the root meaning of the word is the place where a star rises; when the poet praises the beloved's cheek in the matla he brings the "star of his poetry" to an auspicious sign (sa‘d). The beloved's two lips, parted in laughter, are in couplet three two lines (mısra) of verse, and the rosebud lip says many a meaning in those two lines.

The finest play comes in the couplet that bears the pen name. The makta is the closing couplet of a ghazal; it is also the name of the small block of bone or hard wood laid beneath a reed pen when its nib is cut. A pen writes only after its head has been cut on the makta. In the same way the poet, unless he gives his head to love, is not counted a man of words merely for bearing a pen name. That the word "makta" is used in the final couplet also points to the ghazal's own end.

In couplet six the principle "halvet der encümen", "solitude within the crowd", can be sensed; this saying, one of the founding principles of the Naqshbandi order, describes the dervish who, even while among people, remains alone with God in his heart. Sâhib illustrates it with the bathhouse: the hottest room of the bath is called the "halvet", and this halvet lies inside a building where everyone gathers.

The fifth couplet mocks the rival in the language of old medicine. A "coldness" of the stomach was held to cause indigestion; the rival's face brings on nausea, and the stomach declares that it cannot digest him. The prayer image of couplet two is one the poet also used, in almost the same words, in the second couplet of ghazal 78.

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. 189, ghazal 88 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 31a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 14b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 22b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources