Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Of yârdan ayrılıḳla itdigim feryâda of
Virdigim maḥṣûl-i ‘ömr-i nâzenîni bâda of
Öyle of çekdim ki lerzân eyledi endâmımı
Âh n’ola bir iş göreydi meclis-i bâlâda of
Dil-berin cevrin görüp âlüfte oldum ofla
Of baña itdi ta‘alluḳ ben ofa sevdâda of
Yâriñ aġyâre viṣâlin ṭuydıġımda ben ‘aceb
Beyt-i aḫzâna girüp itmez miyim tenhâda of
Âteş-i hicrânda yandı Kâmilâ cism ü tenim
Âh vuṣlat eyleseydim yâre tek ma‘nâda of

In English

1. Alas for the cry I raised at parting from the beloved; alas that I gave the precious harvest of my life to the wind.

2. I sighed such an "of" that it set my whole body trembling; ah, if only that sigh had done some work in the lofty assembly.

3. Seeing the heart-stealer's cruelty I was undone by sighing; in passion the sigh clung to me, and I to the sigh.

4. When I hear that the beloved has given union to the rivals, would I not go into the house of sorrows and sigh in solitude?

5. O Kâmil, my body and flesh have burned in the fire of separation; ah, had I but been united with the beloved in the world of meaning alone, alas.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal has five couplets and is written in the "fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilâtün fâ‘ilün" pattern. The redif is the interjection "of" (alas, a sigh); the rhyme is built on the sound "-âda" before it: "feryâda, bâda, bâlâda, sevdâda, tenhâda, ma‘nâda". The pen name appears in the last couplet. Avni Erdemir mentions this poem as "a poem with the redif of" and quotes its first and last couplets.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

According to Erdemir, in this ghazal the poet cries out in the grief of separation from the beloved and sighs because he has given the best years of his life to the wind. He has come to believe that union will not come about in this world; his body has burned in the fire of separation, and he wishes at least to be united with the beloved in the world of meaning. The word "ma‘nâ" in the last couplet carries the poem's love beyond this world; it is one of the couplets that most clearly supports Erdemir's mystical reading of Kâmil's poems.

That the redif is an interjection of a single syllable gives the ghazal a sound of its own. "Of" recurs not only at the end of each couplet but within the lines too: "öyle of çekdim" in the second couplet, "ofla", "of baña", "ofa" in the third. The words "of baña itdi ta‘alluḳ ben ofa" in the third couplet create an intertwining in which the sigh clings to the lover and the lover to the sigh. "Meclis-i bâlâ" in the second couplet means the lofty assembly and describes the divine presence in the heavens; the poet wishes that his sigh, which shakes the earth, might do some work there. These interpretations are ours. The idiom "bâda virmek" (to give to the wind) in the first couplet describes a life wasted. The ghazal is one of the plainest examples of the fervent lyricism in Kâmil's poems.

Bibliography

  • Avni Erdemir, "Amasyalı Abdurrahman Kâmil (Yetkin) Efendi'nin Şairliği ve Türkçe Şiirleri", Amasya İlahiyat Dergisi, 12, June 2019, pp. 191-192 (text), p. 174 (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. 65-66 (author's autograph).

Online sources