Translation of an excerpt from the "Hilya-i Sharifa"

by Mehmet Hakani

Excerpt from "Hilya-i Sharifa" (Hilye-i Şerif) of Mehmet Hakani (d. 1606).

Source: A History of Ottoman poetry, Volume 3. By Elias John Wilkinson Gibb (1857–1901). Luzac, 1904 (Google Books).

Translation of the section on the detail 'bright of blee':

All of the folk hereon agree,

That the Pride of the World^[1] was bright of blee,

Full sheen was the radiance of his face,

His cheeks were lustrous with lustre's grace.

One of heart with the rose was his face's hue;

Like the rose, unto ruddiness it drew.

Yeled his face in the light of delight,

'Twas the Chapter of Light^[2] of the dawn of light.

The scripture of beauty was that fair face;

The down on his cheek was the verse of grace.

Shamed by his visage bright as day,

Life's Fountain hid in the dark away.^[3]

Well may the comrades of joyance call:

'The sheen of his visage conquers all!'

Yon radiant face shone in the sky,

The light of the harem-feast on high.

The Portrait-painter of Nature gave

Thereto all beauty that man may have.

When the sweat upon that Sultan stood

He was forsoth like the rose bedewed.^[4]

Notes

1  The Pride of the World is a title of Muhammad

2  Sura XXIV of the Koran is called the Chapter of Light

2  Another allusion to the myth of the Fountain of Life in the Dark Land, which has been interwoven with the Alexander Legend.

4  The blushing cheek studded with perspiration is sometimes compared to a dew-sprent rose.