Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün

Ne gün teşrîfiňiz âyâ ne ḫoş geldiň ṣafâ geldiň
Ḳademler baṣdıňız bu yana ḫoş geldiň ṣafâ geldiň

In English

1. On what day, I wonder, was your arrival? How welcome you are, you have brought joy; you have set foot this way, welcome, you have brought joy.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is recorded in the cönk as a güfte. A güfte is a song lyric written to be set to music; in cönks it is often recorded without the name of the mode (makam). Because Hakverdioğlu's article publishes only the first verse unit of each poem in the cönk, we know only the opening couplet of this poem. The refrain is "ḫoş geldiň ṣafâ geldiň"; the rhyme in "âyâ / yana" is weak. The identification of the metre is ours; as is usual in the aruz poems of folk poets, some syllables may not fit the pattern exactly. To whom and on what occasion the poem was composed is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This güfte is a song of welcome. The formula "hoş geldin, safa geldin" is what one says in Turkish when receiving a guest, and its use as a refrain makes the poem look as if it were sung on the occasion of a visit or a return. The words "teşrîf" (honouring with one's presence) and "kadem basmak" (setting foot) show great respect for the one who has come; the arrival may be a person of rank, a friend, or a long-awaited beloved. Neither the cönk nor the article gives information on to whom or on what occasion the poem was written. The conversational, repetitive structure of the güfte clearly shows that it was written to be set to music.

Historical Context

The poem is recorded under the pen name "Ârif" in the Merzifon Cönkü introduced by Metin Hakverdioğlu in 2019. The cönk contains eleven aruz poems by Ârif: güftes, dîvâns, a ghazal and a semai. Ârif is the poet whose güftes are given most space in the cönk. The article gives no information about the poet; the poet's identity and the century in which he lived have not been determined. Since the cönk is thought to have been compiled in Merzifon within the literary circle of Eyüb Sabrî, the poet may have been one read or living in that circle. For details, see the page on Ârif. The poem is on page 17 of the cönk and page 551 of the article; its full text is in the cönk itself and has not been published to date.

Bibliography

Online sources