Original Persian Text

Istanbul 1306 printing, couplet 4 of ghazal 6; the full ghazal is not given in the source.

Ber-mā egerçi mülk-i cihān ʿarże dāştend
Cüz derd-i ʿaşk-ı yār neşüd dil-peẕîr-i mā

In English

4. Though they offered us the kingdom of the world, our heart accepted nothing but the pain of love for the beloved.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the fourth couplet of ghazal 6 in the Istanbul 1306 printing. Seda Aydın quotes this couplet in her article showing how Selîmî combines the identity of the sultan with that of the lover in his Persian ghazals, under the heading "Leadership". Aydın counts that in the 102 ghazals of this printing the word "cihān" (world) occurs 22 times and "mülk" and "mülūk" (realm, kings) 12 times, with "vaṭan, eḳālîm, kişver, memālik" and "memleket" (homeland, climes, country, dominions, realm) besides. The rhyme is formed by "-îr" in "dil-peẕîr" and the redif (refrain word) by the suffix "-i mā". In the source the word "ʿaşk" is printed in this form. Selîmî's life, his Persian divan and the debate over his Turkish poems are discussed in detail in Yavuz Sultan Selim (Selîmî) and his poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The heart of the couplet is the choice between the kingdom of the world and the pain of love. The world is offered like a gift (ʿarże dāşten), but the heart does not take it and accepts only the pain of love. The idea is common in divan poetry; the lover gives up worldly sovereignty for love. In Selîmî, however, these words come from the mouth of a sultan who really did possess a worldly kingdom, and so they carry more weight than an ordinary theme. Aydın notes that in the poems Süleyman the Magnificent wrote under the pen name Muhibbî it is an ordinary poet rather than a sultan who speaks, whereas Selîmî keeps his identity as sultan. This couplet is one of the places where the two identities meet in a single sentence. The word "dil-peẕîr" (accepted by the heart) completes the contrast between what is offered and what is accepted.

Bibliography

Online sources