Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Geh ḥazīn dil gāh ḫurrem geh ḥażiż (u) gāh evc
Böyledür aḥvāl-i şeb-nem geh ḥażīż (u) gāh evc
Bir ḳarār üzre degüldür kār-ı mūsīḳār-ı dehr
Gāh zīr(ü) gāh olur yemm geh ḥażīż (ü)gāh evc
Bundan anla her maḳamın bir maḳāli olduġun
Oldı çün imżā-yı ḫātem geh ḥażīż (u) gāh evc
Eyledi her ḥarfi bir yüzden tesellī kilk-i ṣun‘
Noḳṭa geh bīş oldı geh kem geh ḥażīż (u) kāh evc
‘İzz ü devlet her zamān taḥvīlden ḫāli degül
Cāy-ı dil ü cāh her dem geh ḥażīż (u) gāh evc
Olduġıçün ṣaḥn-ı dünyā geh nişīb (ü) geh firāz
Oldı ḥāl-i mihr ‘ālem geh ḥażīż (u) gāh evc
Taḫm-ı Ṣāḥib geh olur üftāde gāhī ser-bülend
Böyledür [...] mübhem geh ḥażīż (u) gāh evc

In English

1. The heart is now sorrowful, now joyful; now at the lowest point, now at the highest. Such is the state of the dewdrop: now at the lowest point, now at the highest.

2. The work of the music of time does not stay in one mode: now it is the treble string (zîr), now the bass; now at the lowest point, now at the highest. (The word printed "yemm" in the edition must be "bemm", the bass string.)

3. Understand from this that every station has its word: the imprint of a seal too has been now at the lowest point, now at the highest.

4. The pen of creation consoled every letter in some way: the dot was now too much, now too little; now at the lowest point, now at the highest.

5. Honour and fortune are never free from change; the place of heart and rank is at every moment now at the lowest point, now at the highest.

6. Because the field of the world is now downhill, now uphill, the state of the sun and of the world has been now at the lowest point, now at the highest.

7. Sâhib's ... is now fallen, now held high; ... such it is, uncertain; now at the lowest point, now at the highest. (Since parts of the lines could not be read or solved, the rendering is incomplete.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

The redif (refrain word) rests on two terms of the old science of the heavens. "Ḥażīż" is the point of a planet's orbit nearest to the earth, its lowest point (perigee), and "evc" the farthest, highest point (apogee). Sâhib uses these two terms to describe the ups and downs of life and repeats at the end of every couplet "geh ḥażīż u gāh evc" (now at the lowest, now at the highest). The ghazal is thus less a love poem than a sententious poem reflecting on the transience of the world, of the kind Topal emphasizes in Sâhib.

Each couplet exemplifies the same changeability from a different field. The second couplet has music: the instrument of time does not stay in one mode, but is now the thin "zîr", now the thick string. The word printed "yemm" in the edition must be "bemm" (bass string), named together with zîr; only a dot separates the two in Arabic script. The third couplet has a seal; how the couplet is to be understood is not fully clear, but it may refer to the way some letters of a seal inscription stand low and others high. The fourth couplet takes its example from script: the pen of creation gave some letters too many dots and others too few. The fifth and sixth couplets bring the matter to rank and fortune, and to the state of the sun and the world.

The ghazal is found only in the Istanbul University T. 738 manuscript. The metre limps in the first line of the sixth couplet, as Topal records; she could not read part of the second line of the last couplet and put dots in its place. The first word of the last couplet, "Taḫm", is also a reading whose meaning is not clear.

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. 102, ghazal 9 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 6b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources