Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün
Gelür ḫoş bezm-i Cemden meclis-i rindāne rindāne
Olur iksīr-i devlet himmet-i merdāne merdāne
Çekildi çünki nāmın sūziş-i şem‘-i muḥabbetle
Saña min-ba‘d bezm ehlinden ey pervāne pervāne
Ayaġı bezmden kesmem deyü ṣad-va‘de itmişken
Döner durmaz bizümle itdigi peymāne peymāne
O mest-i ‘işve baḳmaz pāy-māl olsaḳ da rāhında
Naẓar itmez güẕer itdikce maḫmūrāne mūrāne
Ṭabībā şerbet-i luṭfuñ gerekmez ḫaste-i ‘aşḳa
Hemān tek neşter-i zaḫm urma bīmārāna mārāne
Ḫazānın dest-i berdin def‘a ḳıl bir çāre ey bülbül
Hücūm-ı ceyş-i deyden gitme tālāne tālāne
Ayaġın bezme pür-sūzişle baş ey şem‘-i meclis kim
Ser-encām-ı muḥabbet irmedin pāyāna pāyāna
Durur erbāb-ı dīvān içre gūyā kim delilerdür
Helāl-i sec‘de taḥrīr olan dīvāna dīvāna
İder ḳaṭ‘-ı ta‘alluḳ mezra‘-ı āmālden Ṣāḥib
Düşerse āsiyā-yı çarḫ-ı kec gerdāna gerdāna
In English
1. To libertines a libertine gathering seems sweeter than the feast of Jamshid; to men, manly resolve becomes the elixir of fortune.
2. O moth, since your name has been written in with the burning of love's candle, from now on the people of the gathering have issued you a permit (pervâne).
3. Though he swore a hundred times "I will never cut the cup off from the gathering", the covenant he made with us turns round cup by cup and does not hold.
4. That one drunk with coquetry does not look at us even if we are trampled on his road; as he passes, heavy-eyed, he does not so much as glance, as one ignores an ant.
5. O physician, the one sick with love has no need of the sherbet of your kindness; only do not strike the sick with the lancet of wounds like a snake.
6. O nightingale, find some remedy to drive off the cold hand of autumn; do not go to be plundered by the onslaught of winter's army.
7. O candle of the gathering, set your foot in the gathering with burning; for love's conclusion does not come to an end until it reaches the foot.
8. Among the men of the divan they stand as if they were madmen; whoever is written into the divan in a crescent of rhymed prose is mad (dîvâne). The couplet is obscure: a play between "divan" (both council and book of poems) and "dîvâne" (mad) is plain, but the arrangement of the second line does not settle into a sure sense.
9. O Sâhib, if the millstone of the crooked heavens falls, turning, upon one's neck, he cuts his ties with the field of hopes.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Every line of this ghazal ends with the same word said twice, and the two words usually carry separate meanings. "Rindâne rindâne" is a gathering in the libertine manner that pleases the libertines; "merdâne merdâne" is manly resolve that becomes an elixir for men. In the second couplet "pervâne" is used once for the moth that circles the candle at night and once in its Ottoman chancery sense, a document granting permission for something. In the third couplet "peymâne" is a cup, while "peymân" means a covenant, a promise; the promise turning round cup by cup is the promise that turns about along with drunkenness.
This kind of rhyme is a game in which divan poets showed their skill, and it leaves an echo in the reader's ear. Sâhib's divan has other ghazals resting on repeated sound, but here the game does not remain one of sound alone: each pair carries a shift of meaning. In couplet four the pair "mahmûrâne mûrâne" sets in one line the beloved walking drunkenly by and the lover underfoot like an ant (mûr). In couplet five "bîmârâna mârâne" describes striking the sick like a snake (mâr).
In the sixth couplet "dey" is the cold winter month, which attacks the garden like an army; the nightingale is asked to find a remedy against this plunder. In couplet seven "pâyân" is used both as "end" and with its echo of "pây", foot: the end of love is not reached until the candle has burned from head to foot. The nine-couplet ghazal runs over two pages of the thesis, and the pen-name couplet is on the second. There the pair "gerdâna gerdâna" describes both the turning millstone and the neck (gerdan): once the millstone of fate is round one's neck, one cuts one's ties with the field of hopes. The play between "dîvân" and "dîvâne" in couplet eight is clear, though the full sense of the line stays uncertain.
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, pp. 199-200, ghazal 98 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 33a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 16b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 20b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
