Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Hevâs-ı nefs râm olmaz anı tevbîhe tahkîm et
Mu‘allem olmasa şâhin çıkar elden şikâr hayfâ

In English

1. The desires of the self do not become tame of themselves; bind it firmly with rebuke. If the falcon is not trained, the prey slips from the hand, alas.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Advice on the training of the self is given here through a comparison drawn from hunting. The desires of the self are like a wild bird; they do not become "râm", tame, of their own accord; they must be made firm with "tevbîh", rebuke and reproach. The second line shows why: an untrained falcon does not catch the prey but lets it slip from the hunter's hand. In the language of the Sufi orders, governing the self like a trained hawk is an old comparison. The word "mu'allem" is also familiar from the language of jurisprudence: in Islamic law the game caught by a trained, "mu'allem", hunting animal is lawful, while that of an untrained one is not; the fourth verse of the sura Mâide is the basis of this ruling. It may be thought that in a teacher's couplet the word carries this association too.

Of the couplets Hüsameddin gives, Hakverdioğlu quotes only this one. Since the lines of the couplet do not rhyme, it is not the opening couplet of a ghazal but an inner couplet. The voice of a teacher who began to teach after his sheikh's death and spent his life in teaching is heard clearly in this couplet on "training". His life story is in the article Bahâeddîn Mehmed Efendi (Şirvânî).

Bibliography