Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün

Yine diş yârası var sîb-i zenaḫdânuñda
Yine şeftâlü yimişler gibi pistânuñda

In English

1. Once again there is a tooth mark on the apple of your chin; once again there are marks on your breast, as though someone had been eating peaches. (Kınalızâde and Beyânî read the end of the second line as "bostanında", "in your garden"; in that reading the sense is "once again, as though they had eaten peaches in your garden", that is, someone has reached for the fruit in the beloved's garden.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Because both of its lines rhyme, this couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal; the rest of the ghazal is not known today. The rhyme is the sound "-ân" (zenaḫdân, pistân), and the suffix "-uñda" serves as the redif (refrain word). The metre is from the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), "fā‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". This couplet is the line of Âfitâbî most often cited in the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire): Latîfî gives it as a "famous matla", Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi presents it as a matla that became as famous as the sun and won the admiration of readers, and Beyânî too calls it a "famous ghazal". None of the three says to whom or when the poem was written.

The last word of the second line appears in two forms in the sources. In Rıdvan Canım's edition of Latîfî the reading is "pistân" (breast). Kınalızâde has "bûstân" and Beyânî "büstân"; this is the word "bostan", meaning garden. In Arabic script the two words are very close and are distinguished only by a few dots. It is impossible to say with certainty which one came from the poet's pen; but the fruit relation between "sîb" (apple) and "şeftâlü" (peach) holds in both readings.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In divan poetry the beloved's chin, being round and glossy, is likened to an apple and called "sîb-i zenaḫdân" (the apple of the chin). Âfitâbî turns this established image in an unexpected direction: the apple bears a tooth mark. It has been bitten, which is to say that someone has kissed or bitten the beloved's chin. This mark, which does not escape the lover's eye, voices his jealousy and reproach. The repetition of "yine", once again, at the head of both lines suggests that this is not the first time and that the lover sees the same marks again and again.

The fruit imagery continues in the second line. In Latîfî's reading there are marks on the beloved's breast as though peaches had been eaten. In Turkish the word "şeftali" is also used figuratively to mean a kiss; it is possible that this secondary sense is intended in the couplet as well. In the reading "bostan" of Kınalızâde and Beyânî the statement becomes more veiled: someone has once again eaten peaches in the beloved's garden. In both readings the congruence of images (tenasüp) between apple and peach, chin and breast or garden, holds the couplet together. The fame of the couplet comes from the way it brings a familiar comparison to life with a concrete detail drawn from everyday experience, the mark of a tooth.

There is a striking difference between the biographers' portrait of Âfitâbî in his last years as a Sufi who preached in Amasya and kept away from people, and the playful, even daring language of this couplet. In divan poetry such couplets are read less as a reflection of the poet's personal life than as a display of skill within the images the tradition supplies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ ve Tabsıratü'n-nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 135, entry on Âftâbî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), p. 196, entry on Âftâbî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Beyânî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), p. 26, entry on Âftâbî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr