Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Ey nihāl-i ḥadīḳa-i mi‘rāc
Vey ser-i ‘arşa na‘l-i pāyüñ tāc
Sensin ol pādişāh-ı ‘ālem-gīr
K’eyledüñ mülk-i küfri hep tārāc
Seni ḳıldı ṭabīb-i rūz-ı ezel
Maraż-ı bī-devā-yı cirme ‘ilāc
Tīr-i tīz-i ‘urūcuña Mevlā
"Ḳābe ḳavseyn"i eyledi amāc
Ḳadd-i sidre-cenāb-ı rif‘atüñe
Vaṣf-ı levlāk-ı cāme-i dībāc
Ḫoş hevā-yı nesīm-i luṭfuñdur
Eyleyen baḥr-i raḥmeti mevvāc
Çāre-sāz-ı ikmāl-i luṭfuñdan
Müstefīż ola tā ki her muḥtāc
Ola anlarla rūz-ı rüst-ā-hīz
Bī-elem Ṣāḥib şikeste-mizāc

In English

1. O sapling of the garden of the Ascension, O you who made the sandal of your foot a crown on the head of the Throne!

2. You are that world-conquering king who plundered the whole realm of unbelief.

3. The physician of the day of pre-eternity (God) made you the cure for the incurable disease of guilt.

4. For the swift arrow of your ascent, the Lord made "two bows' length" (the nearness of) the target.

5. For the stature of your exaltation, whose station is the Sidra, the praise "levlâk" is a garment of silk brocade.

6. It is the pleasant air of the breeze of your grace that sets the sea of mercy in waves.

7. So that every needy one may draw bounty from the remedy of the perfection of your grace.

8. On the Day of Resurrection, may broken-hearted Sâhib too be free of grief together with them (the needy).

Literary and Historical Commentary

With the fourth couplet the Ascension (Mi‘rac) becomes an arrow shot. The Prophet's ascent is a swift arrow, and the target is "ḳābe ḳavseyn", "two bows' length", the phrase in the sura al-Najm that describes how near the Prophet came to God. When the word bow in the verse is named together with the arrow, a complete picture from the world of archery emerges: arrow, bow and target ("amāc"). For Topal this is one of the couplets referring to the Prophet's having been as near to God as "the two ends of a bow" during the Ascension. The first couplet is tied to the same night: the Prophet, sapling of the garden of the Ascension, makes the sandal on his foot a crown on the head of the Throne. That the lowest thing, a shoe, should be a crown on the head of the highest builds the couplet on a small antithesis.

Of the three na‘ts (poems in praise of the Prophet), this kaside (qasida) has the shortest metre. The "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" aruz pattern squeezes the lines into compound phrases of a few words; most couplets therefore consist of a single comparison. In the second couplet the Prophet is a king who takes the world, in the third a physician who gives a remedy for the disease of guilt, in the fifth a sultan for whose stature a robe is cut. The robe in the fifth couplet is a silk kaftan woven from the holy hadith "levlâke", which states that creation was made for his sake; the Ali Emîrî manuscript reads "vāṣıf" instead of "vaṣf-ı".

The rhyme in "-āc", running "mi‘rāc, tāc, tārāc, ‘ilāc", closes in the pen-name couplet with the words "şikeste-mizāc" (broken-hearted, of shattered temper). The poet asks for a place for himself among the needy who will benefit from the sea of mercy; Sâhib, who in the two previous na‘ts openly asked for intercession, is here content to join the crowd of the needy.

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. 52-53, kaside 4 "Na‘t-ı Şerîf-i Nebevî" (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 3b; Istanbul University Library T. 1710/6, fol. 2a; Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 2b); also p. 13 (couplet 4). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014

Online sources