Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: close to fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel; identification of the metre is ours, with irregularities in some syllables)

Çoḳ zamândır intiẓârım ḳaşı yâyı görmedim
Yerde midir gökde midir ol hümâyı görmedim
Gün gibi bilmem (neden) ġam ḫânesin yüz (biň) ider
Sîmleri şems ü ḳamerden ḥüsni ayı görmedim

In English

1. For a long time I have been waiting; I have not seen the one with bow-shaped brows. Is she on earth or in the sky, I have not seen that hüma bird.

2. The first line of the couplet is given with words supplied in parentheses and its meaning is not clear; a sense such as "that beauty shining like the sun, I know not why, multiplies my house of sorrow a hundred thousand times" can be sensed, and this reading is ours. I have not seen that moon of beauty whose silvery face is lovelier than the sun and the moon.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The four lines we have are the first two couplets of a ghazal recorded under the name Âşık Mustafa on page 104 of the Merzifon Cönkü. For this poem Metin Hakverdioğlu gave two couplets as the first unit; the rest of the ghazal and the pen-name couplet are unpublished. The two lines of the matla end in "yâyı görmedim" and "hümâyı görmedim": "görmedim" is the refrain and "-âyı" the rhyme. The second line of the second couplet is tied to the same rhyme and refrain with "ayı görmedim". The metre is not stated in the source; the lines are close to the fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün pattern of remel, but in words such as "ḳaşı" short syllables stand where aruz requires long ones. Irregularities of this kind are frequent in poems that folk poets composed in aruz. The words "(neden)" and "(biň)" in the first line of the second couplet are readings given by the editor in parentheses.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The central feeling of the ghazal is waiting and not seeing; the refrain "görmedim" stresses it anew in every couplet. In the first line the beloved is named only by her brow: "kaşı yâ", the one whose brow is a bow. The bow-shaped brow is among the commonest similes of folk and divan poetry. In the second line the beloved is likened to the hüma bird. In the literatures of the East the hüma is a legendary bird that never alights and makes fortunate and royal whomever its shadow falls upon; being hard to see and exalted, it becomes the emblem of the unattainable beloved. The question "is she on earth or in the sky" ties this uncertainty of the bird between earth and heaven to the beloved's disappearance. The second couplet builds a picture of beauty with bright things such as sun, moon and silver; "ḥüsni ayı", the moon of beauty, is a metaphor likening the beloved to the moon. This harmony of sun, moon and silver is an example of tenasüp, congruence of images.

Historical Context

Who Âşık Mustafa was is not known; his name appears only in this cönk. In the article's list of poets this poem is counted as "1 syllabic", while in the section on the poems it is given as a ghazal in aruz; the text is written in aruz. The Merzifon Cönkü contains dozens of poems composed in aruz by folk poets, and Âşık Mustafa's ghazal is an example of this tradition. What is known of the poet is set out in the biography of Âşık Mustafa.

Bibliography

Online sources