Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ne kadar keskin olursa Âzer
Şiddetimle söyünür yakmaz olur
Yıldırım olsa da bâk eylemezem
Suya düşerse hemân çakmaz olur

In English

1. However sharp fire (Âzer) may be, through my force it goes out and can burn no more.

2. Even if it were a thunderbolt I would not fear it; once it falls into water it strikes no more.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt'a (quatrain) of two couplets; the second and fourth lines end with the words "yakmaz olur" and "çakmaz olur". Here "olur" is the redif (refrain word), the word repeated unchanged at the end of each rhyming line; the rhyme is formed by the sounds "-akmaz" in "yakmaz" and "çakmaz". The source does not indicate the metre. The quatrain is an answer to the quatrain of Âzerî İbrâhim Efendi beginning "Dünyâ temeli benim özümdür", and can be fully understood only when read together with it.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The whole wit of the quatrain rests on the pen names (mahlas) of the two poets. "Âzer" is Persian for fire, "âb" for water. In his own quatrain Âzerî had spoken in the voice of fire, saying that the foundation of the world was his essence, that the world was lit by his light and that no one should come near him. Âbî answers in the voice of water: however sharp fire may be, it goes out before the force of water. The word "Âzer" in the first line indicates both fire and the rival poet; this is tevriye (double entendre), the figure that works two meanings of a word together. The word "söyünür" means "goes out" in old Turkish, and "bâk" means fear.

In the second couplet Âbî raises his claim further. He does not fear even the thunderbolt, counted the most terrible of fires, because a thunderbolt that falls into water strikes no more and is extinguished. The relation built between fire and thunderbolt, burning and striking, extinguishing and falling into water is an example of tenasüp (congruence of images), the use together of words from the same field. Hüsameddin describes the two poets' answering quatrains as "mulâtafe ve mufâhare", that is, jesting and a contest of boasts; the harshness of the quatrain is therefore the harshness of a jest among friends in a gathering.

Historical Context

The quatrain reaches us through Hüsameddin from Abdî Efendi's now lost tezkire (biographical anthology of poets) of the poets of Amasya. Hüsameddin gives it in the entry on Âzerî İbrâhim Efendi, immediately after Âzerî's quatrain. According to the editors' note, Âbî's lines stand on the fourteenth page of Hüsameddin's manuscript; because the author later added another entry in the margin, they are printed on the same page as Âzerî's quatrain in the edition. Âbî and Âzerî were the water and fire members of the quartet of poets called in Amasya "anâsır-ı erbaa-i edeb", the four elements of letters; the other two were Türâbî, standing for earth, and Hevâyî, standing for air. Since Âzerî died around 1025 (1616), this exchange must have been composed before that date. For Âbî's life see the article Âbî Mehmed Çelebi, and for the other half of the exchange the article Âzerî İbrâhim Efendi.

Bibliography

Online sources