Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün
O şeb ki şāhid-i mey yüzden itdi ref‘-i niḳāb
Maḳāmın eyledi tevbe-derāy-ı künc-i ḥicāb
Açıldı rūyuma gūyā ki bāb-ı ümmīdüm
Tecerru‘ itdüm o şevḳ ile kāse kāse şarāb
Göründi çeşmüme bu heft ḳubbe-i mīnā
Derūn-ı sāġar-ı pür-meyde hem-çü şekl-i ḥabāb
Göreydi ger bu leṭāfetle bezmümi Cemşīd
Vücūdın eyler idi nār-ı ḥasret ile kebāb
İdeydi nūş eger nīm-cür‘asın Cem anuñ
Dir idi pāy-ı ḫum-ı meyde "leyte küntü türāb"
Ṣafā-yı meclisüme farṭ-ı şevḳ u ḥasretden
Sinin-i ātiye eylerdi sāl-i ḥāle şitāb
‘Arūs-ı ‘işretüme dīde-dūz-ı ḥayret olup
Ḳalurdı tā-be-seher dīde-i felek bī-ḫᵛāb
Bu neş’e ile iderken cihāna ḫande velīk
Gelüp ḫayālüme nā-gāh ‘aḳl-i zühd-i niṣāb
Yetürdi sāmi‘ama ṣad-‘itāb u şiddetle
Va‘īd-i sāmi‘a sûz "fe-keyfe kâne ‘iḳâb"
Çeküp melāmet ile tīġ-i tīz tevbīhin
Bu resme didi ki ey Ṣāḥib-i caḥīm-me‘āb
Hidāyet itmez ise saña Kirdgār-ı kerīm
Meded-res olmaz ise ger Müfettiḥü’l-ebvāb
Çeker caḥīme seni bu isā‘et ‘amelüñ
Şefā‘at ide meger kim resūl-i sidre-cenāb
Gül-i riyāż-ı nübüvvet Muḥammed-i ‘Arabī
Şefī‘-i ma‘ṣiyet-ālūdegān-ı rūz-ı ḥesāb
O şehr-yār-ı melā’ik-ḥaşem ki ḳıldı Ḫudā
Semend-i rif‘atine ‘arş u kürsī seng-i rikāb
Odur o dürc-i dü-‘ālem bahā-yı raḥmet kim
Naẓīr-i nüh ṣadef-i kā’inātda nā-yāb
O baḥr-ı cūd ki engüşt-i meh şikāfından
Riyāż-ı ṭab‘ını çoḳ teşne eyler idi serāb
‘Alīm-i nüsḫa-i ḥikmetle levḥ-i dānişinüñ
Kemīne ḥarfine arż u semā iki i‘rāb
Ṣabāḥ maṭla‘-ı rūyında bedduha ile vāżıḥ
Me‘āl-i nüsḫa-i çeşmi tesevvürü’l-miḥrāb
Vücūdı āyīne-i ‘aks-i rāz-ı levḥ ü ḳalem
Dili ḥadīḳa-i ezhār-ı sırr-ı ümmü’l-kitāb
Nihāl-i ḳāmet-i ṭūbā-resiyle bu kevnüñ
Yazıldı şānına ṭūbī leh ü ḥüsn-me‘āb
Ḳıbāb-ı ravża-i rif‘at-cenābına nisbet
Ḥabāb deñlü degül nüh revāḳ-ı heft-ḳıbāb
Şeh-i ḳalem-rev-i isrā ki hestī-i kevne
Vücūdını sebeb itdi Müsebbibü’l-esbāb
Eyā ṭabīb-i şifā-sāz-ı zaḫm-ı duzaḫiyān
Veyā penāh elem-i pīşegān-ı rūz-ı ḥesāb
Sen ol Ḥabīb-i Ḫudāsın ki farṭ-ı ‘ismetden
Ṣiyābuñ olmadı leke-peẕīr-i pāy-ı zebāb
Teşekkül itmek ile sāye serv-ḳāmetüñ
Taḥarrüẓ itdi o maḥẕūrı sāyebān seḥāb
Bu ḳā’ināt cesed aña rūḥ ẕātuñdur
Olur mı hīç ki ide rūḥ sāyeyi īcāb
Ben ol ġarīḳ-i yem-i bī-kerān-ı ma‘ṣiyetem
Ki ġavṭa-ḫur(?) olurum eylesem kenāre şitāb
O münfa‘il-ter-i a‘māl-i bī-me‘ālüm kim
Kenār-ı yāduma hīç girmedi ‘arūs-ı ṣavāb
Bu cürm-i ma‘ṣiyet-i bī-nihāyetüm göricek
Revādur eylese benden kenāre ehl-i ‘iḳāb
Şefā‘at itmez isen Ṣāḥib-i ża‘īfe eger
Ne vech ile vire rūz-ı su‘āl-i Ḥaḳḳa cevāb
O gün ki maḥşeryānı kemāl-i ḥasret ile
Ḥarāret-i ‘aṭaş-ı maḥşer eyleye bī-tāb
Kemāl-i merḥametinden o nā-tüvān ḳulı
Zülāl-i şefḳatüñe nā‘il eyle bi’l-aḥbāb
In English
1. On that night when the beauty of wine lifted the veil from her face, the breaker of repentance (that beauty) made the corner of the curtain her station.
2. It was as if the door of my hope had opened before my face; in that rapture I drank wine bowl after bowl.
3. These seven azure domes (the heavens) appeared to my eye like a bubble inside the brimming cup.
4. Had Jamshid seen my gathering in such refinement, he would have roasted his being in the fire of longing.
5. Had Jam drunk half a sip of it, he would have said at the foot of the wine jar, "would that I were dust".
6. Out of excessive desire and longing for the delight of my gathering, the coming years would have hurried into the present year.
7. The eye of the sky, fixed in amazement on the bride of my revelry (my gathering), would stay sleepless until dawn.
8. But as I was laughing at the world in this elation, reason, with the measure of asceticism, suddenly came into my mind.
9. With a hundred rebukes and with severity it brought to my ear a threat that burns the ear: "How then was My punishment?"
10. Drawing in reproach the sharp sword of its scolding, it spoke thus: "O Sâhib, whose final abode is hell,
11. If the generous Creator does not guide you, if the Opener of doors (God) does not come to your aid,
12. These evil deeds of yours will drag you to hell, unless the Messenger whose station is the Sidra intercedes."
13. (He is) the rose of the garden of prophethood, Muhammad the Arab, the intercessor on the day of reckoning for those stained with sin.
14. He is the king with a retinue of angels, for whose steed of exaltation God made the Throne and the Footstool a mounting stone.
15. He is the pearl, worth all mercy, in the jewel case of the two worlds, whose like is not to be found in the nine shells (the nine heavens) of creation.
16. He is the sea of generosity whose finger that split the moon left even the mirage very thirsty for the garden of his nature. (The couplet is obscure; the rendering is approximate.)
17. To the smallest letter on the tablet of the knowledge of the One who knows by the copy of wisdom, earth and sky are two vowel marks (i'râb signs).
18. In the rising place of his face the morning is plain with "by the forenoon" (ve'd-duhâ); the meaning of the copy of his eye is "they climbed over the sanctuary" (tesevverü'l-mihrâb).
19. His being is the mirror reflecting the secret of the Tablet and the Pen; his tongue is the flower garden of the secret of the Mother of the Book.
20. With the sapling of his stature that reaches the Tûbâ tree, it was written in honour of this world: "blessedness is theirs and a fair return".
21. Compared with the domes of his exalted tomb, the nine porticoes with seven domes (the heavens) are not even the size of a bubble.
22. He is the king who roamed the realm of the Night Journey, whose being the Causer of causes made the cause of the existence of creation.
23. O physician who heals the wounds of the people of hell, O refuge of those accustomed to pain on the day of reckoning!
24. You are that Beloved of God whose garments, from the excess of your sinlessness, never took a stain from the foot of a fly.
25. So that your cypress stature should not cast a shadow, the cloud, guarding against that impropriety, became your canopy.
26. This universe is a body and its soul is your essence; can a soul ever cast a shadow?
27. I am the one drowned in the shoreless sea of sin, who would be swallowed by the waves even if I hurried to the shore. (The edition gives the reading of one word in this line with a question mark.)
28. I am the one most ashamed of my meaningless deeds, to the edge of whose memory the bride of right conduct never came.
29. Seeing this endless guilt of my sin, it would be fitting if even the people of punishment kept their distance from me.
30. If you do not intercede for feeble Sâhib, with what face will he answer God on the day of questioning?
31. On that day, when the heat of the thirst of the Gathering leaves the people of the Gathering powerless with utter longing,
32. Out of the perfection of your mercy, let that weak servant of yours reach the sweet water of your compassion together with his friends.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The na‘t (poem in praise of the Prophet) opens with a scene one would not expect from such a poem: a wine gathering. The beauty of wine has lifted her veil, the cup that breaks repentance has taken its place, and the seven heavens have shrunk to a bubble inside the cup. Jamshid would burn with envy if he saw this gathering, and Jam, if he drank of it, would repeat at the bottom of the jar the words "would that I were dust", which in the Qur'an the unbeliever speaks on the Day of Judgement. Topal cites these two Arabic phrases (couplets 5 and 9) among the examples of how the language of Sâhib's kasides becomes heavier than that of his ghazals.
In the eighth couplet the scene turns abruptly: reason, with the measure of asceticism, arrives and whispers into the ear "fe-keyfe kâne ‘iḳâb" (how then was My punishment), the words that close the Qur'anic verses telling of the destruction of earlier peoples. Reason calls the poet by his pen name (mahlas), "Ṣāḥib-i caḥīm-me‘āb"; here the word "sâhib" can be read both as the pen name and in its sense of "owner, one belonging to". At the end of the rebuke the only way of salvation is shown: the intercession of the Messenger who reached the Sidra. The revelry section thus stands in for the traditional nesîb (opening section) of the kaside (qasida) and gives the praise a reason.
The section of praise after the thirteenth couplet compresses well-known accounts about the Prophet into compound phrases. In the sixteenth couplet the finger that split the moon (şakk-ı kamer) appears to be joined with the miracle of water flowing from his fingers; the couplet is obscure and the edition offers no explanation. In the eighteenth couplet the face is associated with the oath "ve'd-duhâ" (by the forenoon) of the sura al-Duhâ, and the eye with the phrase "tesevverü'l-mihrâb" from the sura Sâd; linking the eyebrow-as-mihrab image to this Qur'anic phrase is a find of the poet's own. The twentieth couplet rests the phrase "ṭūbā lehüm ve ḥüsnü me’āb" from the sura al-Ra‘d on the image of the Tûbâ tree. The twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth couplets work the traditions that no fly settled on the Prophet's garments and that his body cast no shadow; the twenty-sixth couplet closes this with a reason: the universe is a body, the Prophet is its soul, and a soul has no shadow. The idea in the twenty-second couplet, that he is the cause of the existence of creation, is this kaside's counterpart to the holy hadith "levlâke" that Topal cites for the third kaside.
The last six couplets return to the poet's own state. Sâhib, who sees himself as one drowning in a shoreless sea of sin, says that even if he ran to the shore the waves would catch him; Topal too gives the reading of this word in the twenty-seventh couplet only tentatively. The kaside ends with the wish to reach the water of intercession in the thirst of the Day of Gathering, that is, with another drink that answers the wine at the poem's opening. The text of thirty-two couplets is in the "mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" metre; the rhyme in "-āb" (niḳāb, ḥicāb, şarāb, ḥabāb…) carries the whole kaside. The poem is found in all three manuscripts; the Istanbul University T. 738 copy lacks couplets 4 and 5, the T. 1710/6 copy lacks couplet 18, and in the latter the second lines of couplets 6 and 7 have also changed places.
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. 45-49, kaside 2 "Na‘t-ı Şerîf-i Nebevî" (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 2a; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 1b; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 2a); also pp. 5-6 (language and style) and p. 13 (intercession). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
