Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün

Olsan da bu şaṭrancda mālik nice ata
Manṣūba duran sürer āḫir seni māta
Mümkin midür ābād ola yerde dil-i vīrān
Şāyān olamaz kāse-i ṣad-pāre küşāta
İtmekle taḳaddüm ṣaf-ı müjgāna dü-ebrū
Tuġrālar imām oldı ṣaf-ı saṭr-ı berāta
Menşūr-ı ḫaṭuñ şeş ciheti itdi taṣarruf
Mālīye bir at öyle gerek böyle cihāta
Fikr-i şeb-i hicrānuñ ile olalı pūyān
Düşdi reh-i ḥayretde ḳalem çoḳ ẓulemāta
La‘l-i leb-i yār üzre ẓuhūr itdi ḫaṭ-ı sebz
Gūya ki Ḫıżır oldı resā āb-ı ḥayāta
Şevḳum bir iken ḫāl-i ruḫuñ eyledi on ḳat
Ṣāḥib ṣıfır āḥādı yaturdı ‘aşerāta

In English

1. Though you be the owner of many a horse in this chess, the problem set up on the board (mansûba) will drive you in the end to checkmate.

2. Is it possible for a ruined heart to flourish anywhere on earth? A bowl broken in a hundred pieces is not fit for an opening feast.

3. As the two brows took precedence over the row of lashes, they became like the tuğras that lead, as imam, the ranks of lines of a berat.

4. The decree of your down has taken possession of the six directions; the second line is unclear and may be understood as saying that the finances need such a name for such revenue heads (cihât).

5. Ever since the pen began to run with the thought of your night of separation, it has fallen often into the darkness (Zulumat) on the road of bewilderment.

6. The green down has appeared upon the ruby lip of the beloved; it is as if Hızır had reached the water of life.

7. Sâhib, while my longing was one, the mole of your cheek made it tenfold; the zero laid the units down among the tens.

Literary and Historical Commentary

In the couplet that carries Sâhib's name, the mole is a zero. In Arabic numerals zero is shown by a dot; a dot placed beside the figure one turns it into ten. The mole on the beloved's cheek is such a dot, and it raises the lover's single longing tenfold. "Âhâd" (units) and "aşerât" (tens) are the names of the places of figures in the books of arithmetic; with these terms the poet says that the mole works like a zero.

The first and third couplets open onto the world the poet knew from the life of the state. In chess the "at" (horse, the knight) is a piece and "mat" is the end of the game; "mansûba" is a problem or position set up on the board, and the word shares its root with "mansıb", an office. However many horses, that is, however much power, one has, the game that has been laid out ends in checkmate. In couplet three the brows are likened to the tuğra, the sultan's monogram at the head of a berat (patent of appointment): the tuğra stands before the lines like an imam before the rows of worshippers, and the brows have taken their place before the row of lashes. The image of berat and tuğra comes from a pen that knew the documents of Ottoman government at close range.

Couplets five and six belong to the same story. Tradition places the water of life in the land of darkness called Zulumat, and Hızır is the one who reached it. The pen falls into darkness as it thinks of the night of separation, and the blackness of the ink is this Zulumat. The green down appearing on the lip is Hızır, who is associated with green, and he has reached the water of life, that is, the lip.

The second line of the chess couplet, the first of the poem, does not quite fit the metre; the thesis records the fault itself. The only known text of the ghazal is in manuscript T. 738 of the Istanbul University Library.

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. 201, ghazal 99 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 20b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources