Time & Brevity
Out on This Jugglery
Translated by E. J. W. Gibb (1905) · From A History of Ottoman Poetry, vol. IV (1905)
Out on this jugglery! by God! out on this idle snare!
Out on this pomp and circumstance! out on this glory and glare!
Since never pasha finds a rag to shroud his lopped off head,
Out on his flag of honour, his badge of horse's hair!
Since ever must the blast of death blow out the lamp of life.
Out on the useless candle that above the tomb doth flare!
How often often have I traced it on the page of earth!
Out on this form of nights and days for aye repeated there!
A mansion whose foundation rests on sighs and bitter tears;
Woe for such show and bravery! out on such beauty fair!
From torment's furnace let them issue forth mid sweat of pain,
Out on them all, these regal pearls, these rubies pure and rare!
To those who, erst of high estate, their rank have forfeited
'Out on thee!' groans the rumbling drum, and 'Out!' the tabor's blare.
Since that the wedding-revelry must turn to mourning's gloom,
Pugh for the taper of the feast! out on the flambeau-glare!
O Ghalib, be thou dervish-souled, seek poverty's retreat;
Take flute in hand and play, then out on Fortune everywhere!
The while that at Our Master's gate I find my hopes I'll sing:
'Out on the stress and anguish which from earth's duresse I bear!'
Codex Note
A ghazel on the vanity of pomp and power, in which every worldly show is cursed in turn, from the pasha's horse-hair standard to the candle on the tomb. Gibb's notes explain the tugh, the horse-hair standard that marked a pasha's rank.
Cite this poem
MLA
Şeyh Galip. “Out on This Jugglery.” Translated by E. J. W. Gibb. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/galib/2/.
Chicago
Şeyh Galip. “Out on This Jugglery.” Translated by E. J. W. Gibb. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/galib/2/.
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