Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Āh ile cihān ḫalḳını bīmār ideyin mi
Nālemle seg-i kūyuñı āzār ideyin mi
Dil-berlere mey almaġa mey-ḫānecilerden
Cāmi‘de ḫaṭībem diyü ben ‘ār ideyin mi
Meşhūr-ı cihān olmaġa rindān arasında
Bir tāze ġazel gün gibi iẓhār ideyin mi

In English

1. Shall I make the people of the world sick with my sighs; shall I trouble the dog of your street with my moans.

2. Shall I be ashamed to buy wine from the tavern-keepers for the fair ones, because I am a preacher in the mosque.

3. To become famous throughout the world among the libertines, shall I bring forth a fresh ghazal, bright as the sun.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The three couplets we have are part of a ghazal (gazel) that Sehî Bey quotes under the heading "Şi'r". The refrain (redif) is "ideyin mi", and the rhyme the sound "-âr" in the words "bīmār, āzār, ‘ār, iẓhār". Since the pen name (mahlas) does not appear, the last couplet of the ghazal was not quoted. The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre; the lines fit the pattern mef'ûlü mefâîlü mefâîlü feûlün, an observation that is ours. The edition's notes also record other manuscript readings for the first couplet: some manuscripts have "Āhumla" for "Āh ile" and "ben zār" for "bīmār". With this reading the line comes closer to the meaning "shall I, with my sighs, make the people of the world moan".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

All the couplets are built on the same question pattern, and each question weighs what the lover will and will not do. In the first couplet the lover implies that his sighs are strong enough to make the world sick and his moans to disturb even the dog in the beloved's street; the dog at the beloved's door is, in divan poetry, a symbol of a closeness envied even by the lover, and hesitating to hurt it is an extension of the respect felt for the beloved. This question shows that the lover chooses to bury his trouble within himself.

The second couplet is the most striking point of the ghazal. The poet says he will not be ashamed to buy wine from the tavern for the fair ones, even though he is a preacher in the mosque. In divan poetry the ascetic and the preacher usually stand opposite the libertine (rind) as those who reproach him; here the preacher who should be reproached has gone over to the libertine's side. Given that Sehî and Âşık Çelebi write that Makâmî served for a long time as a preacher, this couplet can be read as a playful confession about his own profession; this interpretation is ours. In the third couplet the poet considers bringing forth a ghazal bright as the sun to win fame among the libertines; "gün gibi izhâr" carries both the sense of revealing openly and of brightness. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "mey" (wine) and "mey-hâneci" (tavern-keeper), "câmi" (mosque) and "hatîb" (preacher), "rind" and "gazel".

Historical Context

Describing Makâmî in his Heşt Bihişt, Sehî Bey says that he was a man of pleasant nature with fine libertine poems and graceful ghazals, and gives these couplets as an example of his poetry. Sehî wrote his tezkire during the lifetime of Süleyman the Magnificent, in language that prays for him; that he mentions Makâmî as having died on the sultan's Baghdad campaign shows that the couplets were recorded not long after the poet's death. When the ghazal was written is not known; its mention of preaching suggests that it may belong to the years when Makâmî worked as a preacher, that is, to the period before the statesmen brought him to Istanbul and released him from preaching.

Bibliography

Online sources