Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: 11'li hece ölçüsü

Diňle ḥasb-i ḥâlim benim efendim
Yerden göge degin senden şikâyet
Yâ helâk iderim kendi kendimi
Yâ sen bu nâzıňdan eyle ferâġat

In English

1. My lord, listen to the account of my state; from the earth to the sky I have a complaint against you. Either I will destroy myself with my own hand, or you must give up this coquetry of yours.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The quatrain is the beginning of a koşma on page 109 of the cönk and is Âşık Ömer's only poem in syllabic metre in the cönk. The lines have eleven syllables; the syllable count is ours. The second and fourth lines form a half rhyme in the sounds "-ayet/-agat" of "şikâyet" and "ferâgat", while "efendim" and "kendimi" in the first and third lines echo each other. Since Hakverdioğlu gives only the first quatrain, the rest of the koşma is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

"Hasb-i hâl" is giving an account of one's own state, pouring out one's troubles. The lover addresses the beloved as "efendim" (my lord); this address belongs to an old language of love that puts the beloved in the place of a master and the lover in the place of a servant. The hyperbole "from the earth to the sky" in the second line conveys the size of the complaint. The last two lines are built on a choice: either the lover will destroy himself or the beloved will give up her coquetry. "Naz" is the playful resistance and indifference the beloved shows the lover; it is one of the best-known traits of the beloved in aşık poetry. The reproach of the stanza is spoken in a voice that moves between threat and entreaty; the language is plain and the expression direct. The assessments that find Âşık Ömer's syllabic poems livelier and more successful than his poems in aruz are borne out in this stanza too.

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