Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün
O sehī-ḳadd gibi ‘ālemde güzel az bulunur
Ḳad bu taḳrīb ile taḳlīl içün ẕikr olunur
In English
1. Beauties like that cypress-tall one are rarely found in the world; "kad" (stature) is mentioned on this occasion to signify rarity (taklîl).
Literary and Historical Commentary
In the second line a rule of Arabic grammar is tied to the beloved's stature. In Arabic the particle "kad", when it comes before a verb in the imperfect, adds the sense of "taklîl", fewness, rarity: it tells that something happens only now and then, seldom. In Turkish "kad" also means stature, figure. The poet joins the two words: beauties like that cypress-tall one are rare in the world; so when "kad" (stature) is mentioned, like the grammatical "kad", it announces rarity.
The word "takrîb" also stands beside the grammatical terms; when the same particle is used with the past tense it expresses that an action is near, and this too is called takrîb. The poet uses the word here in the sense "on this occasion, by this means", but its grammatical echo is also felt in the couplet. That a scholar who taught Arabic syntax in the madrasa should build a praise of beauty on the rules of particles can be seen in other couplets by Sâhib as well; the image of assimilation (idgâm) in ghazal 112 is an example. With no counterpart in Ali Emîrî or T. 1710/6, the text of this grammarian's jest rests on T. 738 alone.
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. 229, matla 20 (Istanbul University Library T. 738, fol. 4a). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
