Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Çāk idüp sīneñi tīġ-i ġam ile kāf eyle
Şevḳ-i ‘anḳā-yı muḥabbetle dili Ḳaf eyle
Fikr-i luṭf u ġażab-ı yāri çıḳarma dilden
Cennet ü dūzaḫa baḳ ḳalbüñi a‘rāf eyle
Bir bütüñ rāhına ṣarf ile didi ki esküñ
Dimedüñ şām u seher durmayup itlāf eyle
Bir selām ile bizi eylemedüñ hergiz şād
Sen de bir kez ḳo eliñ sīneñe inṣāf eyle
Ṣāḥibā naẓma çeküp vaṣf-ı dür-i dendān
Gūş-ı bārānı dür-i naẓmuña aṣdāf eyle

In English

1. Split your breast with the sword of grief and make it a cleft (kâf); with longing for the Anka of love make your heart Mount Kaf.

2. Do not put the thought of the beloved's kindness and anger out of your mind; look at paradise and hell, and make your heart the A‘râf (keep it between them, between hope and fear).

3. He said, "spend all you have on the road of an idol"; but you did not say, evening and morning without pause, "squander it". We could not draw a sure meaning for this couplet from the text; the rendering is an attempt based on the dictionary sense of the words.

4. You never once gladdened us even with a greeting; you too, for once, put your hand on your breast and be fair.

5. O Sâhib, putting the praise of pearl-like teeth into verse, make the ears of friends (?) oyster shells for the pearls of your poem. (The word printed "bârân", rain, can just as well be read "yârân", friends, in Arabic script.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

The first couplet is built on two words written alike in Arabic script. Persian "kâf" means a slit or crack; "Kaf" is the mountain believed to encircle the world, home of the legendary Anka bird. The lover is to split his breast with the sword of grief into a gaping crack, and make his heart the Mount Kaf on which the Anka of love will settle. Since the Anka is a bird with a name but no body, to be its nest also means to give one's heart to the unattainable.

The A‘râf of couplet two is named in the Qur'an as the height between paradise and hell; those who stand there can see both sides. The poet likens the beloved's kindness to paradise and her anger to hell, and asks the lover to make his heart an A‘râf waiting between the two, between hope and fear. The state Sufis call the balance of havf and recâ, fear and hope, is here translated into the language of love.

The final couplet brings pearl, oyster shell and ear together. The ear resembles a shell in shape; the pearls of the poem fall into the listeners' ears and are kept there. The word printed "bârân" (rain) in the edition also recalls the belief that a raindrop falling into a shell becomes a pearl, but the construction of the line makes the reading "yârân" (friends) more likely. The phrase "put your hand on your breast" in the fourth couplet describes both a gesture made in greeting and the turning to conscience contained in the expression "be fair".

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. 198, ghazal 97 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 32b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 16a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 21b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources