Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Ey gönül deryâ-yı ‘aşḳa dalmaġa şüpheň mi var
Felegiň tondan tona atmamaga şüphen mi var(?)
Daġıdup gülistan-ı ‘ömrüm eserse bâd ecel
Ṣararup ḥazân misâli ṣolmaġa şüpheň mi var

In English

1. O heart, do you doubt that you will plunge into the sea of love? Do you doubt that fate will toss you from guise to guise, from state to state? If the wind of death blows and scatters the rose garden of my life, do you doubt that you will yellow and fade like autumn leaves?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The quatrain is the beginning of a divan recorded under the name Ömer on page 31 of the cönk. In folk poetry the divan is a form sung in quatrains in aruz, usually in the pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün"; it spread among minstrels from the seventeenth century on, and Âşık Ömer was one of its most prolific representatives. The redif "şüpheň mi var" (do you doubt) runs through the stanza; "dalmaga, atmamaga, solmaga" carry the rhyme, while the third line, ending in "bâd ecel", stands apart. The lines follow the pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün"; the identification of the metre is ours. The question mark at the end of the second line belongs to the article and shows that the reading is not certain.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The quatrain is built as the poet's address to his own heart, and each line ends with the same question. The question in fact states a certainty: the heart will plunge into the sea of love, fate will toss it from state to state, and death will come and make life fade. "Tondan tona atmak" in the second line appears to be an idiom formed on the word "don", garment, and means to throw someone from guise to guise, from one condition to another. The article's reading "atmamaga" is negative and so contradicts the sense; we believe the line should be read as "atmaga", and this assessment is ours. In the last two lines life is likened to a rose garden, death to the wind that scatters it, and ageing to yellowing and fading in autumn. Love, fortune and death are themes often treated in both divan and minstrel poetry; the stanza brings them together in a short and orderly sequence.

Historical Context

The poem is recorded in the Merzifon Cönkü under the pen name Ömer. Metin Hakverdioğlu refers the Ömer of the cönk to Şükrü Elçin's book Âşık Ömer, published in 1987, and so identifies him with the great minstrel poet of the seventeenth century. The Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü notes that Âşık Ömer's poems have become mixed with those of other poets using the pen name Ömer; since we could not compare the poem with the editions of Ergun or Elçin, the attribution rests on the record in the cönk. The poet's life is in the article Âşık Ömer.

Bibliography

Academic studies

Official sources

  • Şükrü Elçin, Âşık Ömer, Ankara: Kültür Bakanlığı Yayınları, 1987 (as cited by Hakverdioğlu 2019).

Books

Online sources