Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sāḳī ki ehl-i bezme sunar mül mül üstüne
Hū ḫūlar anda ġālib olur ḳulḳul üstüne
Sevdā-yı ḫāl-i rūyuña göñlüm ṣarıldıġı
Beñzer şu kāġıda ṣarılur fülfül üstüne
O şeh-süvār-ı ‘işve bugün raḫş-ı nāz ile
Zīn-pūş-ı reşk urdı yine düldül üstüne
Ebrūlarumla ḥalḳa-ṣıfat çeşmümi gören
Dir cūy-ı eşke oldı binā pul pul üstüne
Ol ġonca olsa bāliş-i pür-naḳşa rū-nihād
Beñzer şu bāġbāna ki ḳor kül kül üstüne
İtmiş şikār ol āhūyı çünki raḳīb-i seg
Şāyāndur ursalar aña ger çül çül üstüne
Şeb-nem ṣanur görenler anı līk Ṣāḥibā
Lü’lü-yi eşk dökdi gülüñ bülbül üstüne

In English

1. As the cupbearer offers wine upon wine to the gathering, the cries of "hû hû" there drown the gurgling of the flask.

2. My heart's being wrapped in passion for the mole of your face is like black pepper wrapped in paper.

3. Today, as that champion rider of coquetry came out on the steed of pride, envy once again threw a saddle-cloth over Düldül. The couplet can be read in two ways: envy has saddled even Düldül and sent him into the race, or it has covered Düldül with the cloth of jealousy.

4. Whoever sees my ring-like eye together with my brows says, "a structure has been built, scale upon scale, over the stream of tears".

5. If that rosebud laid her face on an embroidered pillow, she would be like a gardener who sets rose upon rose (the word "kül" should be read "gül" here).

6. Since the dog of a rival has hunted down that gazelle, it would be fitting to throw horse-cloth upon horse-cloth over him.

7. O Sâhib, those who see it take it for dew, but the rose has shed pearls of tears upon the nightingale.

Literary and Historical Commentary

All the rhymes of this ghazal are built on a syllable said twice: "mül mül", "kulkul", "fülfül", "düldül", "pul pul", "kül kül", "çül çül", "bülbül". Some of these are single words (kulkul, fülfül, düldül, bülbül), others are a word repeated (mül mül, pul pul, çul çul). Joined to the refrain "üstüne" (upon), each line gives a picture of heaping, of one thing piled on another. This ghazal, which shows Sâhib's fondness for games of sound, recalls the echoing rhymes of ghazal 74.

The seventh couplet exchanges the familiar roles of rose and nightingale. In divan poetry it is the nightingale that weeps and laments, while the rose pays no heed. Here the rose sheds tears upon the nightingale, and those who see the drops take them for morning dew. The dew on the rose's petals is read as the pearl-like tears the rose sheds for the nightingale.

The second couplet is one of the likenesses Sâhib took from everyday life. Black pepper used to be sold wrapped in paper cones; the black mole on the beloved's cheek resembles a heart wrapped in "sevdâ", which means both love and black bile, black colour. Düldül, in couplet three, is the famous mule of Ali; the full sense of the couplet is uncertain, but one senses that before the beloved's horse of pride even Düldül has fallen prey to envy.

With couplet five the writing of "k" and "g" with the same letter in Ottoman script raises a problem of reading; the thesis gives the word as "kül" (ash), but the likeness of the rosebud laying its face on a pillow to a gardener requires the reading "gül gül üstüne" (rose upon rose).

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. 195, ghazal 94 (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