Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün
Her ne endīşe göñülden giçirirse ol ḥūr
Görinür sīne-i ṣāfında miṡāl-i billūr
In English
1. Whatever thought that houri lets pass through her heart can be seen in her clear breast as if within crystal.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Here the beloved's breast is likened to transparent crystal. In divan poetry the skin of a beauty is often likened to silver, jasmine or crystal; the crystal likeness conveys both the whiteness and the smoothness of the skin. Sâhib carries the likeness a step further: the breast is so clear that even the thoughts passing through it can be seen. Everything that passes through the beloved's heart can be made out from outside, like an object in a crystal vessel.
The couplet speaks as much of a secret laid bare as it is a piece of praise. The beloved's thoughts cannot stay hidden; the lover can read what she thinks by looking at her breast. This creates a transparency unusual in the divan tradition, which keeps the beloved behind a veil of coyness and secrecy. "Hûr" is the name given to the maidens of paradise, and it ties the beloved's skin to that heavenly beauty. The crystal-breast couplet is not seen in any copy other than T. 738.
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. 228, matla 16 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 4a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
