Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün
Fikr it ol vaḳt ki ruḫ bī-tef ü tāb olsa gerek
Ḫāller zā’il olup naḳş-ı ḥabāb olsa gerek
‘Araḳ-ı şerm ile rū-beste niḳāb olsa gerek
‘Āḳıbet ḫaṭṭ meh-i ruḫsāra seḥāb olsa gerek
Taḫt-ı gül pā-zede-i ḫayl-i ġurāb olsa gerek
Reng-i ḥasretle gül-i ‘ārızuñ ey ġonca ṣolup
Gülşen-i ḥüsn ü bahā bād-ı ḫazān ile ṭolup
Ka‘be-i rūyuñı i‘rāb-ı ḫaṭ-ālūde ḳılup
Bozılup ḳıble-i ḥüsnüñ ṣaff-ı ‘işve ṭaġılup
Ṭāḳ-ı ebrū ise miḥrāb-ı ḫarāb olsa gerek
Güle bir dem ki ruḫuñdan gide bu reng-i şarāb
Seni gördükde yüzün döndire bir bir aḥbāb
Ẓulmet-i ḫaṭda ḳala mihr-i ruḫ-ı ‘ālem-tāb
Reng-i ruḫsāruñ ola teb-zede-i nār-ı ḥicāb
Āb-ı tābuñ giderek mevc-i serāb olsa gerek
Böyledür ḳā‘idesi bu felek-i nā-sāzuñ
Bir ḳarār üzre degül naġmesi her bir sāzuñ
Telḫ olur āḫiri her kār meserret-sāzuñ
Bir ḫumārı olur elbet bu şarāb-ı nāzuñ
Neş‘e-i ḥüsn ü bahā pā-be-rikāb olsa gerek
Köhne taḳvīme müşābih ola bu çīn-i cebīn
Bu şeker-ḫande ile ḳalmaya bu la‘l-i şīrīn
Gide güftār-ı leẕīzinden edā-yı rengīn
Şerbet-i lā‘lüñ olup telḫī-i eyyāma ḳarīn
Ṣoñı bu neş‘enüñ āḫir şeker-āb olsa gerek
Ḥüsne maġrūr olup ey pādişeh-i bī-pervā
Görme üftāderüñ olmaġı pā-māl-i revā
İtdigüñ zulmün olur cümle mecāzātı saña
Ehl-i ‘aşḳa ne ḳadar eyler iseñ cevr ü cefā
Hep saña bā‘is-i ṣad-şerm ü ḥicāb olsa gerek
Bu mıdur lāzıme-i ḥüsn-i leṭāfet ey māh
Ṣāḥibüñ eylesin ömrini ḥasretle tebāh
Öyle ṣanma es̱er itmez saña bu nāvek-i āh
‘Āşıḳa eyledigüñ cevr ü cefālar bi’llah
Saña bir bir ṣarılur rūz-ı ḥesāb olsa gerek
In English
1. Think of the time when the cheek will be without fire and lustre; the beauty marks will fade and be like the trace of a bubble; the face will be veiled with the sweat of shame; in the end the down will be a cloud over the moon of the cheek; the throne of the rose will be trampled under the feet of a flock of crows.
2. O rosebud, when the rose of your cheek fades with the colour of longing, when the garden of beauty and worth fills with the autumn wind, when the Kaaba of your face is (covered) with vowel marks smeared with down, when the qibla of your beauty is spoiled and the rows of coquetry scatter, the arch of your eyebrow will be a ruined mihrab.
3. When this wine colour suddenly leaves the rose of your face, when friends turn away from you one by one on seeing you, when the world-illuminating sun of your cheek remains in the darkness of the down, when the colour of your cheek is seized by the fever of the fire of shame, the water of your lustre will go and become the wave of a mirage.
4. Such is the rule of this discordant sky: the melody of no instrument stays in a single mode; the end of every joy-giving affair turns bitter; this wine of coquetry surely has its hangover; the elation of beauty and worth will have its foot in the stirrup, ready to depart.
5. This frown will come to resemble an old calendar; this sweet lip will not remain with this sugary smile; the colourful grace will leave your delightful speech; the sherbet of your lip will be mixed with the bitterness of the days; the end of this elation too will at last be "şekerâb" (coolness, estrangement).
6. O fearless sovereign proud of your beauty, do not think it right that your humble lover should be trodden underfoot; all the punishment for the cruelty you do will return to you; however much tyranny and torment you inflict on the people of love, it will all be a cause of a hundredfold shame and disgrace for you.
7. O moon (faced one), is this what beauty and grace require: that your owner (your lover, Sâhib) should ruin his life with longing? Do not think that this arrow of sighs will have no effect on you; by God, the tyranny and torment you inflict on the lover will cling to you one by one when the day of reckoning comes.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The only muhammes (poem in five-line stanzas) in the divan is a poem of warning that reminds the beloved of the transience of beauty. The last line of every stanza ends "olsa gerek" (will surely be) and tells the future like a prophecy: the cheek will lose its brightness, the beauty marks will fade, the down will cover the moon-like face like a cloud, and a flock of crows will trample the throne of the rose. The "ḫaṭṭ", the down that in the ghazal tradition is also praised as an ornament that adds to beauty, is seen here as an invasion that brings beauty to an end; what is celebrated in the chronograms Sâhib wrote for Hattî turns into a threat in this poem.
The second stanza builds the face as a place of worship: the face is the Kaaba, beauty is the qibla, the coquettish glances are the rows of worshippers, and the eyebrow is the mihrab. When the down covers the Kaaba, the qibla is spoiled, the rows scatter, and the arch of the eyebrow turns into a ruined mihrab. The fourth stanza gives the reason for the prophecy: the discordant sky leaves no instrument in a single mode, and every wine has its hangover. The last word of the fifth stanza, "şeker-āb", is two-sided: in the sense of "sugared water" it continues the sherbet of the lip in the line before, and in its sense of coolness and estrangement between friends it tells of the end of elation.
The last two stanzas change the tone and pass from warning the beloved to accusing him: the sovereign proud of his beauty will be repaid for every cruelty he has done to the lover, and his torments will cling to him one by one on the day of reckoning. The word "Ṣāḥibüñ" in the seventh stanza can be read both as "your owner, the one devoted to you" and as the poet's pen name (mahlas). The five-line stanzas are written in the four-foot pattern of the remel metre; the first four lines of each stanza rhyme among themselves, and the fifth lines bind the whole poem with "-āb olsa gerek". The muhammes is found only in the Ali Emîrî manuscript (fol. 36b).
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. 90-91, muhammes 1 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Manzum 243, fol. 36b). https://openaccess.firat.edu.tr/handle/11508/16014
Online sources
