Original Ottoman Turkish Text

The text in Filiz Kılıç's edition of Âşık Çelebi's tezkire:

Şerḥ ider derdin dehān açmış dil-i ṣad-pārenüñ
Baġladum ol dem hemān aġzını muḥkem yārenüñ
Ḳatı göñlek yumşadur cānā benüm zārīlıġum
Kūh-ken zūrına döymez güci seng-i ḫārenüñ
Gün yüzinde beñleri deñlü ṣafāda olmaya
Gök yüzinde zīneti mihr ü meh ü seyyārenüñ

The version quoted in Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar's Amasya Tarihi:

Şerh ider dürden dehân açmış dil-i (sad)pârenin
Bagladım ol dem hemân agzını muhkem yârenin
Katı gönlün yumuşadur câna benim zârlıgım
Kûh-ken zoruna döymez gücü seng-i hârenin
Gün yüzünde benleri denli safâdan oluna
Gül yüzünde zîneti mihr ü meh-i seyyârenin

In English

1. The open-mouthed wound of my heart, broken into a hundred pieces, kept telling of its pain; at that very moment I bound the mouth of that wound tight.

2. O beloved, my lamenting softens the hard heart; the strength of hard granite cannot withstand the might of Ferhad, the mountain-digger.

3. The sun, the moon and the planets, the ornaments of the face of the sky, do not give as much delight as the moles on the (beloved's) face bright as the day.

In the first line of the second couplet the edition reads "göñlek"; Hüsameddin's reading "gönlün" (your heart) gives the sense more clearly, and the translation follows it. The third couplet is translated according to the edition's reading "olmaya" and "Gök yüzinde"; most manuscripts write "olına" instead of "olmaya", and with this reading the couplet turns into a wish, something like "may the sun, the moon and the planets, the ornaments of the face of the sky, be as delighted as the moles on the face bright as the day".

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Wound and the Mouth

The opening couplet (matla) rests on a wound that speaks like a mouth. In divan poetry a wound is often called "dehân", a mouth; an open wound is a mouth ready to speak. Abdî carries this image to its end: the wound of the shattered heart is "explaining" (şerh ider) its pain at length. One meaning of "şerh" is to slit or cut the skin; the wound's "şerh" can therefore be read both as telling and as being split open. This second meaning is not stated in the couplet, but the choice of word calls it up. The solution in the second line also comes from within the same metaphor: the mouth of the talking wound is bound tight. Dressing the wound and silencing it become a single act. The lover does not want his pain to spill out; he keeps his secret.

Ferhad and the Stone

Behind the second couplet stands Ferhad, the stone-cutting hero of the story of Hüsrev and Şirin. "Kûh-ken", the mountain-digger, is Ferhad's epithet. "Seng-i hâre" is granite, reckoned the hardest of stones. The lover's lament softens the beloved's hard heart, just as granite cannot withstand Ferhad's strength. The comparison may also be built the other way round: the beloved's heart is the stone, the lover's lament Ferhad's pickaxe. The edition's word "göñlek" means "shirt" in old Turkish and does not fit the sense of the couplet. A problem of reading or printing is likely here; Hüsameddin's reading "katı gönlün" (your hard heart) makes the couplet intelligible.

Day-Bright Face and Face of the Sky

The last couplet sets two "faces" against each other: the beloved's "day-bright face" and the face of the sky. In the sky are the sun, the moon and the planets; on the beloved's face, moles. The poet says that all the ornaments of the face of the sky do not give as much delight as the moles on one face. Comparing moles to planets is a familiar conceit (mazmun) in divan poetry; here number and brightness are thought of together. In Hüsameddin's version the second line begins "Gül yüzünde" (on the rose face); with this reading the contrast between sky and face is lost. The edition's arrangement "Gün yüzinde / Gök yüzinde" gives the couplet a symmetry, as the two lines open with the same pattern.

Text and Source

The three couplets appear at the end of the entry on Müeyyedzâde Abdî Çelebi in Âşık Çelebi's Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, under the heading "Şi'r-i û" (his poem). The rhyme is the sound "-âre" in the words "pâre", "yâre", "hâre" and "seyyâre"; the suffix "-nüñ" at the end of each line is the refrain (redif). The couplet with the pen name and the rest of the ghazal are unknown. Hüsameddin takes the fragment from the tezkire but reads differently in several places: in the first line "dürden" (from pearls) instead of "derdin", in the second couplet "gönlün" instead of "göñlek", in the last couplet "Gül" instead of "Gök". According to the edition's footnotes, "ṣafāda" in the third couplet appears in one manuscript as "ṣafādan", and "olmaya" appears in all the other manuscripts as "olına". When and to whom it was addressed is unknown. The discussion of the poet's life and lineage is on the page Abdî Abdullah Efendi.

Bibliography

Online sources