Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fe‘ûlün
Sefer-nâme yaz ey ḫâme o şâha
Ḳaşı ṭuġrâ başı zerrîn-külâha
Ṣaçı sünbül dili bülbül edîbe
Ruḫı gül ḫâli fülfül dil-firîbe
Dişi incü lebi yâḳût-fâma
Teni sîmîn boyı serv-i ḫırâma
Yüzi rengîn sözi şîrîn emîre
Semâḥat menba‘ı rûşen-żamîre
Hümâ-ṭâl‘at ḳamer-behcet civâna
Sa‘âdetlü ḥabîb-i ‘âli-şâna
Ḫuyı ḫûb imtizâcı nerm-i nerme
Güneş yüzli mizâcı germ-i germe
Emânet it yed-i peyk-i ṣabâya
İrişdirsün maḳâm-ı dil-güşâya
Te’eddüble gire bezm-i ‘alâya
Niçe ta‘ẓîm ide ol yüzi aya
Yüzin süre ḳadem-gâha edeble
Yaḳîn ola o mâha bu sebeble
Atınca semtine ol yâr ṭarfı
Küşâd ide hemân-dem ẓarf-ı ḥarfi
İde bu nâmeyi bir bir ḳırâ’at
İşide baş ayaḳ ol serv-ḳâmet
Sütûr-ı nâme bulduḳda ḫitâmı
Muḥabbet bûyın aldıḳda meşâmı
Ṣorarsa ḥâl-i ‘aşḳı ol dil-ârâ
İderse ẓulmden artıḳ tevellâ
Disün ol nâzenîn-i ḫoş-edâya
Firâḳıñ ḳaddini döndirdi yâya
Gezerken zîr ü bâlâyı te’essüf
Atıldı bi’r-i hicrâna çü Yûsuf
Cüdâ düşdi diyârından o maḥzûn
Firâḳıñla dü çeşminden aḳar ḫûn
Yüziñe baḳmaġa ṭoymazken aḳdem
Selâma muntaẓırdır şimdi her dem
Mürûr idinceye dek tâ aġustos
Ṭolandırdı anı hecriñ çü fânûs
Ḥulûl itdi şu günde mâh-ı eylül
Olur elbet ḫaber gelmezse ma‘lûl
Cemâliñ fikr idüp işin unutdı
Cefâ defterlerin dürdi de yutdı
Seni görmezse olur mı o ḫandân
Olur elbet bu dünyâ aña zindân
Dil-i vîrânı âbâd it sözüñle
Dü çeşmin rûşen ü şâd it yüzüñle
Gelürseñ bezmine ey serv-i bâlâ
‘Aceb dir mi seniñ emriñe lâ lâ
Görürse ḳadd-i ṭûbâñı a şimşâd
Dıraḫt-ı servi eyler mi dili yâd
İderseñ vaṣl ile göñlin ‘imâret
Ḳamu ḫûbâna eylersiñ imâret
Alursañ ‘âşıḳı zîr-i cenâha
İrersin şübhesiz evc-i necâḥa
Açarsañ mâh-rûyüñden niḳâbı
Ara yirden götürürsüñ ḥicâbı
Ḫulûṣâne açar aġzın du‘âya
Atar tîr-i s̱enâyı tâ semâya
Ḳıyupdur uġruña o cân u başı
Aḳar dâ’im seniñçün gözi yaşı
Çün oldı ‘aḳlı zülfüñ tek perîşân
Gezer Ferhâd gibi ṭaġda yemez nân
Gezerken vardı Şeyḫ Şâdî köyine
Derûnı âteşi belki söyine
Naṣılsa gün-be-gün artdı ḥarâret
İçinden ṭışına urdı merâret
Gice gündüz füzûn oldı bükâsı
Gözi yaşıyle ṭoldı müttekâsı
Bu ḥâlde gördi şeyḫiñ ḳabr-i pâkin
Gözine sürme ḳıldı ḫâk-i pâkin
Elif ḳaddini sîmîn dâl ḳıldı
Deri ḥalḳasına tims̱âl ḳıldı
Türâbın öpdi bed’ itdi s̱enâya
Ṣanevber gibi el açdı du‘âya
Didi yâriñ derinde bende olsun
Cihân serverleri efgende olsun
Hemîşe bedr-i ḥüsni bula pertev
Meḥâbîb-i zamâna ola ḫüsrev
Ola baḫtım viṣâliyle ḫuceste
Kelâmıyle ola her ġuṣṣa beste
Çerâġ-ı ḫaddiniñ pervânesiyim
Bahâr-ı ḥüsnünüñ dîvânesiyim
N’ola bir ṣorsa ḥâl-i pür-melâlim
Düşer mi pâyesinden pür-kemâlim
Mesâkîn ḫâṭırın itmek ri‘âyet
Degil mi ‘izzet ehline ‘alâmet
Ḳadem rencîde ḳılsun o şehen-şâh
Buyursun ḥücreme ol ruḥları mâh
Oṭam içre żiyâ virsün çü ḫurşîd
Buyursun şevḳimi vuṣlatla te’kîd
Leb-i ruḫsârını gözden geçürem
Aña da bâde-i ‘aşḳı içürem
Ḳoyam evrâḳımı iki cebine
Merâmım ‘arż idem ol meh-cebîne
Şeb ü rûz bâġ-ı vaṣlına gireyim
Dem-â-dem mîve-i ḥüsnin direyim
Ṭolaşam çâr eṭrâfın dem-â-dem
Yiyem hem dâne-i rûyin çü Âdem
Ṣorayım leblerin yüzin göreyim
Gözine yüzümi bir dem süreyim
İki ellerini alam dü deste
Okuyam her birine nîçe beste
Kemer gibi ṣarılam mû miyâne
Diyem ḥâlim aña ben yâna yâna
Teraḥḥum eyleye bu pür-melâle
Döküp ḳanım ulaşmaya vebâle
Göñül ta‘mîr iden ‘âlî-nesebdir
Ḫarâb iden ḥaḳîḳat bî-edebdir
Yüzin görmek dilerse Muṣtafânıñ
Yüzime açsun ebvâbın ṣafânıñ
Ḫulâṣâ Kâmiliñ meyli vefâya
Marîżdir ṭâḳatı yoḳdur cefâya
In English
1. O pen, write a letter of travel to that king, whose eyebrow curves like the sultan's monogram (tuğra) and who wears a gold-embroidered cap,
2. to the one whose hair is a hyacinth and whose tongue is as eloquent as the nightingale; to the heart-beguiling beauty whose cheek is a rose and whose beauty spot is a peppercorn,
3. to the one whose teeth are pearls and whose lips are the colour of rubies; whose body is white as silver and whose stature is a cypress that sways as it walks,
4. to that prince whose face is rosy and whose words are sweet; a fountain of generosity, enlightened of heart,
5. to the youth whose face is as auspicious as the huma bird and as bright as the moon; to the blessed, illustrious beloved,
6. to the one whose nature is fine and whose temper is soft as can be; to the sun-faced one whose temperament is warm as can be.
7. Entrust the letter to the hand of the morning breeze (saba), that courier; let it carry it to the place where hearts are gladdened.
8. Let it enter that lofty gathering with courtesy and offer the moon-faced one its many respects.
9. Let it humbly rub its face on the ground where he has trodden, and so draw near to that moon.
10. When that beloved casts a glance its way (ṭarf: glance), let it open the envelope of the letter at once.
11. Let it read this letter line by line, and let that cypress-statured one listen from head to foot.
12. When the lines of the letter come to an end and the beloved's nostrils catch this scent of love,
13. if that adorner of hearts asks after the state of love, or shows favour and closeness beyond his cruelty (the word tevellâ can also mean turning away; the line then reads "if he turns away even more than his cruelty"),
14. let the courier say to that coy, graceful beauty: your absence has bent his stature like a bow.
15. As he wandered up and down in sorrow, he was cast like Joseph into the well of separation.
16. That grieving man has been parted from his homeland; through your absence blood flows from both his eyes.
17. Once he could never look enough upon your face; now every moment he waits for a greeting from you.
18. Until August had passed, your absence kept turning him round like a lantern.
19. Today the month of September has come; if no word arrives from you, he will surely fall ill.
20. Thinking of your beauty, he has forgotten his work; he has rolled up the ledgers of his torments and swallowed them, that is, he has borne them all in silence.
21. If he does not see you, can he ever be cheerful? This world will surely become a prison to him.
22. Restore his ruined heart with your words; make both his eyes bright and glad by showing your face.
23. O tall cypress, if you come to his gathering, will he ever answer your command with "no, no"?
24. O you of boxwood stature, once he has seen your stature, like the Tûbâ tree of Paradise, will his heart still remember the cypress tree?
25. If you bring his heart to life with union, you will rule as prince over all the beauties.
26. If you take the lover under your wing, you will without doubt reach the summit of success.
27. If you lift the veil from your moon face, you will remove the curtain that stands between you.
28. He sincerely opens his mouth in prayer and shoots the arrow of praise up to the sky.
29. He has sacrificed his life and his head for your sake; his tears flow for you without end.
30. Since his reason has become as dishevelled as your locks, he roams the mountains like Ferhad and eats no bread.
31. In his wanderings he came to the village of Şeyh Şâdî, hoping the fire within him might die down.
32. Somehow his fever grew day by day; the bitterness within broke out to the surface.
33. His weeping increased night and day; the cushion he leaned on filled with his tears.
34. In this state he saw the pure grave of the sheikh and applied its pure earth to his eyes as kohl.
35. He bent his stature, upright as the letter alif, into a silver dâl; he made himself the image of the ring on the tomb's door and stood at the threshold like that ring.
36. He kissed the earth of the tomb and began to praise; like a pine tree he raised his hands in prayer.
37. He said: may the great ones of the world be slaves at the beloved's door, may they be humbled before him.
38. May the full moon of his beauty always find light; may he be king over the beloveds of the age.
39. May my fortune be blessed by union with him; may his words bind up every sorrow of mine.
40. I am the moth of the lamp of his cheek; I am the madman of the spring of his beauty.
41. What harm if he asked once after my sorrowful state; would my perfect one fall from his rank for that?
42. Is not caring for the hearts of the poor the mark of those who possess honour?
43. Let that king of kings take the trouble to walk this far; let that moon-cheeked one come into my cell.
44. Let him give light inside my room like the sun; let him strengthen my longing with union.
45. Let me gaze over his lips and cheek; let me give him, too, the wine of love to drink.
46. Let me place my written pages in his two pockets; let me lay my wish before that moon-browed one.
47. Night and day let me enter the garden of union with him; every moment let me gather the fruit of his beauty.
48. Every moment let me circle about him on all four sides; like Adam with the grain of wheat, let me eat the grain of the beauty spot on his face.
49. Let me ask after his lips and see his face; let me rub my face for a moment on his eyes.
50. Let me take his two hands into my two hands and recite many songs to each of them.
51. Let me wrap myself like a belt around his waist, slender as a hair, and tell him of my state, burning as I speak.
52. Let him take pity on this sorrowful one, and not shed my blood and bring the sin of it upon himself.
53. The one who restores a heart is of noble lineage; the one who ruins it is, in truth, without manners.
54. If he wishes to see the face of Mustafa, let him open the doors of delight to me. The couplet can be read in two ways: if "Muṣṭafâ" is taken as an epithet of the Prophet, it says that whoever gladdens a heart becomes worthy of seeing the Prophet's face; if it is taken as a personal name, the identity of that person is unknown.
55. In short, Kâmil's heart inclines towards faithfulness; he is sick and has no strength left to bear cruelty.
Literary and Historical Commentary
The Poet
The author of the poem, Mecdîzâde Abdurrahman Kâmil Efendi, was born in Amasya on 28 April 1850 and died there in 1941. After Russia annexed the Crimea in 1783 his family settled first in Mecitözü and then in the Gümüşlü quarter of Amasya; the name Mecdîzâde comes from his grandfather, the Nakşibendî sheikh Mustafa Mecdî Efendi. After memorising the Qur'an he studied at the rüşdiye school built by Ziya Paşa and at the Mehmed Paşa Medrese, learned aruz from his elder brother Sadık Efendi, and received his teaching licence (icazet) from Mir Hasan Efendi in 1879. He served as lecturer at the Sultan Bayezid Mosque, gave Qur'anic commentary lessons at the Gümüşlü Mosque and, from 1900 onwards, was for many years the mufti of Amasya. His Friday sermon in the Sultan Bayezid Mosque on 13 June 1919 and his place in the Amasya Society for the Defence of Rights secured him a place in the history of the National Struggle. His life is told in detail in the biography on this site, "Abdurrahman Kâmil Efendi: Amasya'nın Âlimi, Vaizi ve Millî Mücadele Müftüsü".
For a long time Kâmil Efendi's poetry was mentioned in no more than a few sentences. His son Ahmed Emrî Yetkin said that his father had destroyed some of his poems himself and that others had been lost. In 2019 Avni Erdemir published, in transliteration, the fourteen Turkish poems bearing the pen name (mahlas) "Kâmil" in the Divançe, a 98-page autograph manuscript held in the National Library in Ankara under the number Yz. A 8993: four mesnevis, two kasides (qasidas), one muhammes, one müsemmen and six ghazals (gazel). The work mixes verse and prose; Sufi ideas are set out in prose and the poems are scattered among them according to subject. According to Erdemir, the subject of Kâmil's poems is divine love, and the poet uses the vocabulary that divan poets applied to the idealised beloved in a Sufi sense. The mesnevi published here is the last poem of the manuscript; its final couplet is also the final couplet of the Divançe.
Structure of the Poem
The poem is a mesnevi of 55 couplets (beyit): each couplet rhymes within itself (şâha / külâha, edîbe / firîbe, fâma / ḫırâma …), and there is no common rhyme between couplets. Its metre is the aruz (quantitative metre) pattern "Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fe‘ûlün", a pattern frequently used in mesnevis. Erdemir notes that Kâmil generally handles the metre successfully, though at times he reads a long syllable as short and counts certain lengthened syllables as a single syllable; he explains this as a reflection in his poems of a "Turkish aruz" that had changed over time. The pen name appears in the last couplet.
The poem proceeds as a letter and its sections are easily distinguished. The first six couplets, like the elkab (forms of address and titles of praise) of Ottoman letters, line up epithets for the addressee in the dative case and hold back the verb: "o şâha … edîbe … emîre … civâna". In couplets 7-13 the pen entrusts the letter to the morning breeze and describes how the courier is to behave. Couplets 14-30 are the words the courier is to speak; here the lover is referred to in the third person, as "he". In couplets 31-36 the narrative moves to the village of Şeyh Şâdî and the tomb. With "Didi" (he said) in couplet 37 the prayer offered at the tomb begins, and the language turns to the first person: "pervânesiyim" (I am the moth), "gireyim" (let me enter), "sarılam" (let me embrace). Couplets 53-55 close the poem with a maxim and the pen name.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The main theme is separation. The familiar catalogue of beauty in divan poetry is set out in full in the opening couplets: the eyebrow is likened to the tuğra, the hair to the hyacinth, the cheek to the rose, the beauty spot to a peppercorn, the teeth to pearls, the lips to rubies, the skin to silver, the stature to a swaying cypress. The beloved is also called "şâh" (king), "emîr" (prince) and "şehen-şâh" (king of kings); behind these words lies the convention of divan poetry in which the beloved is imagined as a sovereign and the lover as a slave. The morning breeze serving as messenger is likewise one of the most common conventional images of the tradition.
Allusions tie the lover's condition to familiar stories: Joseph, thrown into the well by his brothers (15), Ferhad, who cut through the mountain for Şirin (30), and Adam, who ate the grain of wheat and was expelled from Paradise (48). In the last example the beauty spot on the beloved's face is likened to the grain Adam ate. Couplet 35 contains a simile drawn from letters: the upright stature is likened to the letter alif, the bent stature to the letter dâl, and the lover remains at the threshold like the ring on the tomb's door. Couplet 25 contains a notable pun built on two meanings of the same word: ‘imâret in the first line means "bringing to life, making prosperous", while imâret in the second means "princely rule". Words such as garden, rose, cypress, boxwood, the Tûbâ tree and fruit call one another up and form a congruence of images (tenasüp) (24, 47). Blood flowing from the eyes (16) and the cushion filling with tears (33) are the hyperboles of the tradition. In couplet 34 the conventional image of using the dust of the beloved's path as kohl for the eyes is applied to the sheikh's grave.
The addressee of the letter is a contested point. Erdemir regards the mesnevi as a poem Kâmil wrote to express his devotion to Şeyh Şâdî, who lies buried in the village, and says the poet addresses the sheikh "as if" addressing the beloved of divan poetry. In the text, however, the letter is sent to a "king" from whom the lover has been parted; the lover visits the tomb, sees the sheikh's grave and prays there for his beloved, so that in couplet 34 the sheikh and the beloved are named separately. Who the addressee was is unknown; neither the poem nor the sources give a name. In another ghazal Kâmil says that divine love cannot be reached "without crossing the bridge of metaphor", which shows that he deliberately used the language of human love to build a Sufi meaning; in this mesnevi the sense in which the beloved should be read is left open. The maxim in couplet 53 (the one who restores a heart is noble, the one who ruins it is without manners) and the counsel in couplet 42 to care for the hearts of the poor also place a preacher's moral teaching beneath the poem's language of love.
Places in the Poem
The village of Şeyh Şâdî. The village named in couplet 31 is today Şeyhsadi, a village in the central district of Amasya. It lies in the direction of Tokat; its distance from the city centre is given in the sources as 45-50 km. The village takes its name from Şeyh Şâdî, who is buried there, and has borne this name since 1928. Its population in 2022 was 303. Hüseyin Hüsameddin lists the village among those of the nahiye (sub-district) inhabited by Turkmen tribes and therefore known as "Öz".
The Tomb of Şeyh Şâdî. The tomb visited in couplets 34-36 belongs to the sheikh whose name appears in Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi as Şihâbeddîn Şâdî Çelebi. According to Hüsameddin, Şâdî Çelebi was a sheikh of great renown in Amasya; because he sided with the Kutlu Şah dynasty, he was removed from the city during Çelebi Mehmed's years in Amasya and sent to his farm, which today bears his name, and he died there in the month of Muharram 811 (1408). His son Abdülmennân Çelebi succeeded him; in 812 (1409) Musliheddîn Mûsâ Bey endowed his properties to the sheikh's zaviye (dervish lodge). In one place Hüsameddin calls him the sheikh of Hacı Bayram Velî, and in another, where he gives the Bayramî chain of succession, the sheikh of his sheikh. The tomb still stands and is visited today. According to Necdet Kurt's survey published in 2022, renovations have taken it a long way from its original form; its surroundings are used as a picnic ground, people with a wish vow a sacrifice, and those whose wishes are granted come to slaughter their animal there.
Historical Context
Kâmil Efendi himself explains the occasion of the poem in the note he placed at the head of the mesnevi in the manuscript. According to Erdemir, Kâmil Efendi had been charged with the rebuilding of the Tomb of Şeyh Şâdî; on "the eighth day of August of three hundred and eight", that is, on 8 August 1308 in the Rumi calendar (20 August 1892), he went to the village of Şeyh Şâdî, visited the tomb, and two days later wrote this 55-couplet mesnevi. In one footnote of the article the date appears as 10 August 1890; the Rumi year 1308, however, corresponds to 1892. The poem itself says that August has passed and that September has come "today" (couplets 18-19). Since the full text of the heading note has not been published, it is not known how this discrepancy is to be explained. Kâmil Efendi was 42 at the time; he would be appointed mufti only in 1900.
The mesnevi is also decisive for dating the Divançe. According to Erdemir, the preface states that the work was begun in Ramadan 1302 (June 1885), and the date of this mesnevi, the last poem, is taken as the date of its completion. The work was thus finished over some seven years. Erdemir suggests that, on the basis of the phrases "nemîka-i firâk" (letter of separation) and "vesîka-i iştiyâk" (document of longing) in the preface, the title Nemîka-i Firâk ve Vesîka-i İştiyâk may be considered for the work. That a book whose preface describes the reason for its writing as a letter of separation should close with this mesnevi, itself cast as a letter of separation, is noteworthy in this respect.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, ed. Songül Keçeci Kurt, Recep Orhan Özel, Metin Hakverdioğlu, Amasya: Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vols. 1-4, vol. 1 p. 186, vol. 3 pp. 452 and 462; vols. 6-8, vol. 6, e-book pp. 22 and 33 (Şeyh Şâdî Çelebi and the Bayramî chain of succession). amasya.bel.tr
- Necdet Kurt, "Amasya ve Tokat Çevrelerinde Türbe ve Yatır İnanç Pratiği Örnekleri ile Velilere (Evliyalar) Bıçak Koyma İnancı", Kültür Evreni 47 (2022), pp. 103 ff. (Tomb of Şeyh Sadi, p. 107).
Academic studies
- Avni Erdemir, "Amasyalı Abdurrahman Kâmil (Yetkin) Efendi'nin Şairliği ve Türkçe Şiirleri", Amasya İlahiyat Dergisi 12 (June 2019), pp. 153-194, poem pp. 179-184 (Mesnevi 4; Mecdîzâde Abdurrahman Kâmil, Divançe, National Library, Yz. A 8993, pp. 93-98), doi:10.18498/amailad.579964 (transliteration: Avni Erdemir). dergipark.org.tr
Other sources
- "Şeyhsadi, Amasya", Turkish Wikipedia (location, name and population of the village). tr.wikipedia.org
Online sources
