Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün

Oldı ṣurāḥī ser-keş baş egmedi ḳabaġa
Mey şimdi çıḳdı başda söz düşdi hep ayaġa
Devr-i ḳadüñde çün serv baş çekdi bāġīlerle
Bāġ-ı felekde āḫir bend oldı pāyı bāġa
Bezmüñde bāġīlerveş meydāna çıḳdıġıçün
Her gice yandırır çarḫ odlar ser-i çerāġa
Sīnem bu ḥalḳa ḥalḳa efsürde dāġlarla
Gūyā peleng dürür kim ‘aşḳuñla düşdi dāġa
Ebkār-ı ḥüsn-i ma‘nī eyler mi hiç temeyyül
Ṣāḥib dil-i ḥazīnveş bīmār u bī-dimāġa

In English

1. The flask grew headstrong and would not bow its head to the gourd; now the wine has gone to the head, and talk has all fallen to the foot (ayak, also the cup; talk has sunk to the level of the drinking cup).

2. Since in the age of your stature the cypress raised its head along with the rebels, in the garden of the heavens its foot was at last bound fast.

3. Because (the candles) came out into the field in your gathering like rebels, every night the sky lights fires on the heads of the lamps.

4. My breast, with these ring upon ring of faded brand marks, is like a leopard that has been driven to the mountains by love of you.

5. Sâhib, do the virgins of beautiful meaning ever turn towards one who, like the sorrowful heart, is sick and out of spirits?

Literary and Historical Commentary

The word "dâğ" in couplet four bears two meanings at once: a brand mark and a mountain. The lover's breast has been branded by the fire of love and is covered with ring upon ring of scars; this spotted breast resembles the leopard, whose hide is marked with rings. The leopard lives in the mountains, so "falling to the dâğ" means both acquiring wounds and being driven into the mountains like a wild beast. In divan poetry love is said to drive a man to mountain and rock, as Majnun was driven into the desert; Sâhib refreshes this familiar state with the image of the leopard.

The second and third couplets are built like a tale of rebellion. In the age of the beloved's stature the cypress rose up together with the "bâğîler", the rebels; its punishment is to have its feet bound. The cypress that cannot leave the garden, nailed to the ground by its roots, is the picture of this punishment, and the word "bâğ", meaning both garden and bond, serves the idea. Next, the candles of the gathering have come out like rebels; the flame that burns on their heads every night is the punishment dealt to them.

The first couplet is a scene of drinking. The flask does not bow its head to the gourd (the dried gourd used to hold drink); the wine goes to the head, that is, drunkenness begins, and talk "falls to the foot". Since "ayak" meant a wine cup in old Turkish, talk has fallen to the cup, to the light chatter of a drinking party. The final couplet speaks in a quite different voice: "ebkâr-ı ma‘nâ", the virgin meanings never said before, do not come to a sick and joyless heart. The poet ties the inspiration of verse to ease of heart.

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. 190, ghazal 89 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 31a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 15a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 21a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources