Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün
Reşk-i rūyuñ ḳıpḳızıl dīvāne itmişdür güli
Kākülüñ evṣāfı gömgök mest itmiş sünbüli
In English
1. Envy of your face has made the rose a deep-red madman; the praises of your forelock have made the hyacinth deep-blue drunk.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The whole flavour of the matla lies in Turkish intensified colour adjectives. "Kıpkızıl" (deep red) is the colour of the rose, but in the phrase "kıpkızıl deli" it also expresses a madman's utter madness; "gömgök" (deep blue) is the blue-violet of the hyacinth, and in "gömgök sarhoş" it also conveys a drunkenness past all bounds. The poet puts the two flowers into two different states: the rose, envying the beloved's face, has flushed deep red and lost its mind, while the hyacinth, hearing the praise of the forelock, has become deep-blue drunk.
In divan poetry the rose is the flower to which the beloved's cheek is likened, the hyacinth the flower likened to curling hair. Sâhib leaves these familiar pairs in place but changes the direction of the likeness: the flowers do not resemble the beloved, they envy him and lose themselves before him. The entry of intensives from popular Turkish speech into a line woven of Persian and Arabic words gives the couplet a lively, jesting sound. The thesis gives T. 738 as the couplet's only source.
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. 226, matla 11 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 3b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
