Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün
Mā-selef ḥācīlerüñ ihdāsı ṣarıḳ cūdıdur
‘Aṣrımuz ḥācīlerinüñ şimdi cūdı ‘ūdıdur
In English
1. The gift of the pilgrims of old was the generosity of turban cloth; the generosity of the pilgrims of our age is now nothing but aloeswood (‘ûd), or nothing but their return. In which sense the word "‘ûd" is used in the second half of the couplet is not certain.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The gifts brought back by pilgrims become, in this couplet, a measure for weighing two generations. Returning from the Hejaz, pilgrims used to bring those around them gifts such as turban cloth, prayer beads, tooth-sticks and incense. The poet says that the gift of the pilgrims of "mâ-selef", times gone by, was a turban; to give a length of turban cloth was open-handed generosity. The pilgrims of his own age give only "‘ûd". ‘Ûd is aloeswood, which gives off a sweet scent when burned, and even a small sliver of it can be given as a present; in Arabic, the word "avd", written with the same letters, means return. With this second reading the couplet grows sharper still: the generosity of today's pilgrims consists only in their coming back.
The couplet is an example of the criticism of the age often met in Sâhib's divan; the contrast between "then" and "now" fits the observation of a society grown stingy into a brief witticism. Whom the couplet was aimed at is not known, and it occurs nowhere but in Istanbul University's 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. 223, matla 2 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 3b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
