Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Geldi bir nāme ki efsūn oḳımış ḫāmesine
Ki gören ‘āşıḳ olur ṣūret-i ser-nāmesine

In English

1. A letter has come whose writer seems to have cast a spell upon his pen; whoever sees the heading of the letter falls in love with the beauty of that writing. ("Ser-nâme" is the address and titles written at the head or on the outside of a letter.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet appears only in Âşık Çelebi's Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, after Âfitâbî's kaside couplets, under the heading "Ve lehu" (also his), and it is missing from some manuscripts of the anthology. Since both lines rhyme ("ḫāmesine / ser-nāmesine"), it is probably the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal; the rest of the ghazal is not known. The rhyme is "-āme" and the redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-sine". The metre is from the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), "fā‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The couplet does not say from whom the letter came; nor is anything known of to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet draws a scene from the letter-writing customs of the time. Ottoman letters opened with a long heading listing the titles and praises of the addressee; this part, called the "ser-nâme", was often the place of the most careful script and the most ornate wording. In Âfitâbî's couplet the pen of the letter's writer is so enchanting that the poet likens it to a bewitched pen, one over which a spell has been recited. The result, too, resembles the effect of a spell: whoever sees the heading of the letter falls in love with the "sûret", the appearance, of the writing.

The words "nâme" (letter), "ḫâme" (pen) and "ser-nâme" are linked in both sound and sense; this congruence of images (tenasüp) makes up the whole ornament of the couplet. The word "ṣūret" also faces two ways: it means the form of the writing, but in divan poetry it is also used for the beloved's face and appearance. The couplet may therefore describe a letter from the beloved, and seeing the beloved's beauty in the script of that letter. The comparisons between script and face, ink and the down on the cheek, pen and stature, frequently drawn in divan poetry, support this reading. Because the couplet stands alone, it is hard to say which reading the poet intended.

Bibliography

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 144, entry on Âftâbî; for the manuscript variant see footnote 1416. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr