Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

Peyvend-i ‘ahd eyldüñ ol dil-rübā ile
İtdüñ ḳabūl-i cevrini şarṭ-ı vefā ile
Pür-çīn-i ḫışm eyledi ebrūların baña
Zülfine müşg-i Çīn dimiş oldum ḫaṭā ile
Cebr ile būse çīnligüñ olmaz ḥalāveti
Beñzer şu bey‘a k’olmaya ḥüsn-i rıżā ile
Ben tīr-i ġamdan eyler idüm sīnemi nihān
Geldi doḳındı nāvek-i ġamzeñ ḳażā ile
Biz de ḥaṣīrveş döşerüz zīr-i pālara
Zāhid iderse Ḥaḳḳa eger bu riyā ile
Geçdikce tīr-i ġamzesi yārüñ derūnuma
İtdük şifā-pezīr-i mażā-ma-mażā ile
Düşdük yem-i muḥabbete Ṣāḥib ḥabābvār
İtdük heves o kişvere āb u hevā ile

In English

1. You bound yourself by covenant to that heart-stealer; you accepted her cruelty on condition of faithfulness.

2. She filled her brows with wrinkles of anger at me; it seems I called her curl "musk of China" by mistake (or "of Khitay").

3. A kiss taken by force, with a frown, has no sweetness; it resembles a sale not made with good consent.

4. I used to hide my breast from the arrow of grief; the dart of your glance came and struck it by chance.

5. If the ascetic should gain (nearness) to God with this hypocrisy, we too would spread ourselves like straw mats under people's feet. The verb of the line seems to be missing; one copy's reading "kurba" (to nearness) completes the sense.

6. Whenever the arrow of the beloved's glance passed into my breast, we left the wound to heal with "what is past is past".

7. Sâhib, like a bubble we fell into the sea of love; we longed for that land with water and air (for its climate).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Two place-names in couplet two carry two meanings each. "Çîn" is both China and a wrinkle or crease; "Hatâ" is both an error and Khitay, the old name of northern China, counted like China in divan poetry as a land of musk. The lover called the beloved's curl "musk of China", and the beloved, offended, filled her brows with "çîn", with frowns of anger. The lover admits he said it by "hatâ", by mistake; yet the word, naming the land of musk, keeps up the praise.

Several couplets of the ghazal are built on legal notions. The opening couplet's bond of covenant, acceptance and condition are the elements of a contract: the lover has accepted the beloved's cruelty on condition of faithfulness. A kiss taken by force is likened in couplet three to a sale made without consent; in jurisprudence the validity of a sale depends on the consent of both parties. The phrase "mazâ mâ mazâ" (what is past is past) in couplet six plays on the arrow "passing" into the breast.

Sâhib chose the closing image of the bubble (habâb) with care. A bubble is born of the meeting of water and air; "âb u hevâ", literally "water and air", means the climate of a place. The lover who has fallen like a bubble into the sea of love has longed for that country with water and air, that is, by giving his heart to its climate.

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. 194, ghazal 93 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 32a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 15b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 21b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources