Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilâtün Fâ‘ilün
Bir metâ‘-ı bî-bahâdır ey göñül kâlâ-yı ‘aşk
Serde püskülli belâdır ey göñül sevdâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Şol ezel bezminde kim îcâd olundı ‘aşḳ-ı pâk
Cebheme imlâ olındı ey göñül ṭuġrâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Câm-ı ‘aşḳı nûş idince yoḳdı bende iḫtiyâr
Pes baña dâd-ı Ḫudâdır ey göñül ṣaḥbâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Eşk-i çeşmin dâ’imâ ruḫsârına icrâ ider
Aġlamaḳla mübtelâdır ey göñül rüsvâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Ḳalbi reng-â-reng ider ḳavs-ı ḳuzaḥ-âsâ hemân
Beyt-i dilde bir cilâdır ey göñül ma‘nâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Niçe ‘âşıḳlar ḳırıpdır keştîsin bu lüccede
Sâḥili taḥte’s̱-s̱erâdır ey göñül deryâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Geçmeden cisr-i mecâzı ḥâṣıl olmaz ‘aşḳ-ı Ḥaḳ
Böyle yazılsa be-câdır ey göñül fetvâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Ḥasret-i dil-dâr ile itdim temâşâ ‘âlemi
Ravża-i bî-intihâdır ey göñül ṣaḥrâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Sâḥa-i ḳaṣr-ı dil-ârâda hemân pervâz ider
Ḳâṣıd-ı bezm-i ṣafâdır ey göñül ‘anḳâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Zülf-i yâriñ târını ṣad pâre itmekdir hüner
Telde biñ ḥikmet-nümâdır ey göñül monlâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Fikr ile intâc-ı eş‘âr eylemek ẓanneyleme
Cism ü cânı heb fedâdır ey göñül da‘vâ-yı ‘aşḳ
O perî-zâdı müsaḫḫar ḳılmaġa her dem çalış
Pek mü’es̱s̱ir bir du‘âdır ey göñül esmâ-yı ‘aşḳ
Ḳanḳı bir Kâmil ḳulı görse hemân mecnûn ider
Böyle bir ḥûrî-liḳâdır ey göñül Leylâ-yı ‘aşḳ
In English
1. O heart, the goods of love are a priceless ware; O heart, the passion of love is a tasselled calamity on one's head.
2. O heart, in that feast of pre-eternity where pure love was created, the tughra of love was inscribed on my brow.
3. When I drank the cup of love no will was left in me; O heart, the wine of love is therefore God's gift to me.
4. The one disgraced by love ceaselessly pours his tears down his cheeks; O heart, he is afflicted with weeping.
5. The meaning of love colours the heart like a rainbow; O heart, it is a polish in the house of the heart.
6. Many lovers have wrecked their ships in this vast sea; O heart, the shore of the sea of love lies beneath the earth.
7. Love of God is not attained without crossing the bridge of the figurative; O heart, it would be fitting if the fatwa of love were written so.
8. I gazed on the world with longing for the beloved; O heart, the desert of love is a garden without end.
9. The Anka bird of love at once flutters its wings in the courtyard of the heart-adorner's palace; O heart, it is the herald of the feast of delight.
10. The skill lies in splitting a strand of the beloved's tresses into a hundred pieces; O heart, the mullah of love shows a thousand wisdoms in a single strand.
11. Do not think that poems are produced by thinking; O heart, the claim of love is the sacrifice of soul and body entire.
12. Strive every moment to win that fairy-born beauty; O heart, the names of love are a most potent prayer.
13. Whatever perfect servant the Leylâ of love sees, she at once makes him a Mecnûn; O heart, she is a beauty with the face of a houri.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The ghazal has thirteen couplets and is written in the "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün" pattern. It has a long redif: at the end of every couplet the pattern "-dır ey göñül ... -yı ‘aşḳ" recurs. The rhyme is built with the words inside this pattern: "bî-bahâ / belâ", "Ḫudâ", "mübtelâ", "cilâ", "taḥte's-s̱erâ", "be-câ" and so on, while the words at the end of the lines, "kâlâ, sevdâ, ṭuġrâ, ṣaḥbâ, rüsvâ", form a second rhyme series. The pen name appears in the last couplet. In the first line of the opening couplet the redif is written "‘aşk", without the dot, in Avni Erdemir's text; it has been left so here.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The ghazal consists of a series of definitions of love, each couplet addressing the heart and showing another face of love: a priceless ware, a tasselled calamity, a divine wine, a sea, a desert, an Anka bird, a mullah, a prayer, a Leylâ. Erdemir highlights two couplets. In the second couplet the source of love is the feast of pre-eternity; pure love was created there, and the tughra of love was written on the poet's brow at that feast. In the seventh couplet it is said that divine love cannot be reached without crossing the bridge of the figurative, and that it would be fitting for the fatwa of love to be written so. Erdemir presents these couplets as the essence of the mystical understanding of love in Kâmil Efendi's poems. That the word "fetvâ" should be used in a mufti's poem to pronounce the ruling of love is also striking; this observation is ours.
In the sixth couplet love is a sea whose shore lies beneath the earth; many a lover has wrecked his ship there. In the eighth couplet the desert of love turns into an endless garden. The words "monlâ" (mullah) and "ḥikmet" (wisdom) in the tenth couplet, like the madrasa of love in the second mesnevi, are taken from the world of learning; splitting a strand of the tresses into a hundred pieces recalls the idiom of splitting a hair forty ways. The eleventh couplet pronounces on poetry: poems are not produced by thinking, and the claim of love is the sacrifice of soul and body. In the last couplet "Kâmil ḳulı" means both a perfect servant and carries the poet's pen name; the Leylâ of love sees such a servant and makes him a Mecnûn.
Bibliography
- Avni Erdemir, "Amasyalı Abdurrahman Kâmil (Yetkin) Efendi'nin Şairliği ve Türkçe Şiirleri", Amasya İlahiyat Dergisi, 12, June 2019, pp. 190-191 (text), pp. 172-173 (on the poem), 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. 10-12 (author's autograph).
Online sources
