Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün

Ben saňa mübtelâ oldım cemâliň görsem olmaz mı
Yanaġıň gül gül açılmış gülüňi dersem olmaz mı

In English

1. I have fallen captive to you; may I not see your beauty? Your cheek has opened rose upon rose; may I not pluck that rose?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The article gives only two lines of this poem. Hakverdioğlu calls the poem a divan, but the lines have sixteen syllables each and follow the pattern "mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün"; in folk poetry poems sung in this pattern are mostly called semâî. The identification of the metre is ours. Both lines share the redif "-sem olmaz mı" (may I not); the sound "-r" in "görsem" and "dersem" makes the rhyme.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The two lines are the words of a lover asking leave of the beloved, and both are built on the same question. In the first line the lover only wishes to see the beloved's "cemâl", his beauty and face. In the second the wish goes a step further: the beloved's cheek has opened rose upon rose, and the lover wishes to pluck that rose. The comparison between cheek and rose is common in both divan and minstrel poetry; "plucking the rose" is a veiled way of asking the beloved for a kiss or for union. The doubling "gül gül" (rose upon rose) brings to mind both the blushing of the cheek and opening rose petals. The redif in question form softens the wishes and gives the lover's voice a gentle, diffident tone. The short and fluent expression reflects the structure of the semâî, suited to being sung with the saz.

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