Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çekdüm kenāre yāri ḳoyup bir bir üstüne
Giçdüm serīr-i ḫüsrev-i baḥr u ber üstüne
Yārüñ öpince sīnesin oldum eşk-rīz
Ṣan aḳçe dökdüm āyīne-i berber üstüne
Olmaz bedīd o seng-dilüñ sīnesinde mū
Eyler mi pāy-ı mū eṡer-i mermer üstüne
O naḫl-i nāzı bād-ı niyāzum egerse ger
Bālā-nişīn-i ḳudret olur ṣarṣar üstüne
Ṣāḥib baḳar mı yāri ḳoyup her sehī-ḳade
Bülbül ḳonar mı gül var iken ‘ar‘ar üstüne

In English

1. Setting us one upon the other, I drew the beloved into my embrace (to the shore); I mounted the throne of the king of sea and land.

2. When I kissed the beloved's breast I shed tears; it was as if I poured silver coins onto the barber's mirror.

3. No hair is seen on that stone-hearted one's breast; does the foot of a hair leave a trace on marble?

4. If the wind of my entreaty should bend that palm of pride, I would sit on the height of power, above the storm itself. The couplet stays obscure; the subject of the second line and the one to whom "bâlâ-nişîn" (seated on high) belongs are not certain.

5. Would Sâhib leave the beloved to look at every cypress-tall one? Does the nightingale perch on the juniper while there is a rose?

Literary and Historical Commentary

The second couplet carries a custom of the barbers' shops of Istanbul into verse. When the shave was over the barber handed the customer a hand mirror, and the customer laid his fee or tip on that mirror. Sâhib likens the beloved's white, smooth breast to this mirror, and the tears shed as he kisses it to silver akçe coins laid on the mirror. The likening of tears to pearls or silver is a familiar motif; the barber's mirror, however, is a detail from everyday life added to the set stock of divan poetry.

The beloved's breast is marble in couplet three, and her heart stone. A hair leaves no mark on marble; so it is no surprise that no hair appears on that stone-hearted one's breast. One copy reads "mûrçe" (ant) in place of "mû" (hair): does an ant's foot leave a trace on marble? In this reading the word "pây" (foot) in the couplet sits more naturally, and the lover's own frailty is hinted at as well.

The first couplet opens with the word "kenâr", which means both embrace and shore. The lover who draws the beloved into his embrace feels he has mounted the throne of the king of sea and land; the sense "coast" in the word kenâr calls up the pair of sea and land. In the final couplet the juniper (‘ar‘ar) is a tall tree like the cypress but cannot take the rose's place; just as the nightingale will not leave the rose to perch on the juniper, the lover will not leave the beloved to look at every tall figure.

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. 196, ghazal 95 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 32b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 16a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 22a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources