Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün

Dil yine bir şeh-levendiñ ‘aşḳına sevdâlıdır
Gözleri şehlâ vü ruḫsârı güli ḥamrâlıdır
Yek-naẓarda ḫâṭır-ı nâ-şâdımı târâc iden
Meh yüzinde hâle-veş ibnü’l-‘arab ber-ḥâlidir
Bû-yı rû-yı âliniñ ṣorsañ baña fi’âtını
Bey‘ olan biñ altuna ancaḳ anıñ mis̱ḳâlidir
Dişleri dürr-i cinândır zülfleri ‘anber-feşân
Cebhesi cây-ı emândır ḳaşları ṭuġrâlıdır
Lebleri teng-i şekerdir ruḫları reşk-i ḳamer
Mû miyânı zer-kemerdir luṭf anıñ aḥvâlidir
Dâyesinden sinniniñ çend oldıġın itdüm su’âl
Didi bu sâl o ġazâliñ on üçünci sâlidir
Dâġ-ı ‘aşḳıyla o cân-ı cân-fezânıñ Kâmilâ
Bu dil-i sûziş fa‘âlim lâle-veş tamġalıdır

In English

1. My heart is once again in love with a handsome youth; his eyes are dark blue and his cheek a red rose.

2. On the moon face of the one who plundered my joyless heart in a single glance, like a halo, there dwells an "Arab's son". The couplet can be read in two ways; the "Arab's son" most probably describes the dark mole on the face.

3. If you ask me the price of the scent of his moon face, only a mithqal of it sells for a thousand gold pieces.

4. His teeth are pearls of paradise, his tresses scatter ambergris; his brow is a place of refuge, his eyebrows bear the tughra.

5. His lips are a small mouth laden with sugar, his cheeks make the moon jealous; his hair-thin waist wears a golden belt, and kindness is his nature.

6. I asked his nurse how old he was; she said that this year is the thirteenth year of that gazelle.

7. O Kâmil, branded with the wound of love for that soul-reviving one, this heart whose work is burning is marked like a tulip.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal has seven couplets and is written in the "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün" pattern. The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-dır", and the rhyme is built on the sounds "-âlı / -âli": "sevdâlı, ḥamrâlı, ber-ḥâli, mis̱ḳâli, ṭuġrâlı, aḥvâli, sâli, tamġalı". The rhyme is not fully regular; "sevdâlı" and "sâli" share the same sound only approximately, which is our observation. The pen name appears in the last couplet. Avni Erdemir gives the text of the ghazal without a separate assessment; to whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a portrait of a beauty from beginning to end. "Şeh-levend" is used in divan poetry for a handsome, dashing youth; the eyes are dark blue, the cheek a red rose. In the second couplet the "ibnü'l-‘arab" (Arab's son) that sits like a halo on the moon face may be linked to the convention in divan poetry of likening a dark mole to a dark-skinned person; this reading is ours, and the couplet may be understood otherwise. In the third couplet the scent of the face is weighed like a commodity: the mithqal is a small unit used to weigh precious substances, and a single mithqal of the beloved's scent is worth a thousand gold pieces.

The fourth and fifth couplets string the stock images one after another: teeth as pearls of paradise, tresses scattering ambergris, brows as a tughra, sugar lips, cheeks that make the moon jealous, a waist as thin as a hair. The phrase "teng-i şeker" describes both a small, narrow mouth and a load of sugar. The sixth couplet is the most curious in the ghazal: the poet asks the beloved's nurse his age and learns that he is thirteen. Expressions stressing the youth of the beloved are a convention of classical poetry; according to Erdemir, the words belonging to the beauty in Kâmil's poems carry a mystical meaning. In the last couplet the dark spot at the heart of the tulip is likened to the scar, the "dâġ" (brand), that love leaves on the heart. This link between the tulip and the brand is common in divan poetry.

Bibliography

  • Avni Erdemir, "Amasyalı Abdurrahman Kâmil (Yetkin) Efendi'nin Şairliği ve Türkçe Şiirleri", Amasya İlahiyat Dergisi, 12, June 2019, pp. 189-190, doi:10.18498/amailad.579964. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/amailad/article/579964
  • Mecdîzâde Abdurrahman Kâmil, Divançe, National Library of Turkey, Manuscripts Collection, Yz. A 8993, pp. 6-7 (author's autograph).

Online sources