Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün

‘Āşıḳlarını āh o Mesīḥā-dem öldürür
Bu ādem öldürür ki Mesīḥ ādem oldurur

In English

1. Alas, that beloved with the breath of the Messiah kills her lovers; while the Messiah brings men to life, this one kills them. ("Oldurmak" means to bring into being, to give life; the Messiah is believed to have raised the dead with his breath. In Latîfî's text the end of the second line is written separately, "Mesîḥ âdem ol durur", which can also be read "the true Messiah is that man".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Since its two lines rhyme ("öldürür / oldurur"), the couplet is an opening couplet (matla). The metre is from the muzâri family of aruz (quantitative metre), "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". This opening couplet is not among the Turkish poems in Basîrî's divan manuscript; Ahmet Kartal gives it under the heading "Basîrî's Other Poems", on the basis of Gelibolulu Âlî's Künhü'l-ahbâr. The couplet also appears in the entries on Basîrî by Latîfî and Âşık Çelebi: Latîfî places it first among Basîrî's sample opening couplets, and Âlî gives it with the words "this opening couplet is his". Hüseyin Hüsameddin too quotes it from Latîfî in his History of Amasya. The rest of the ghazal is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on a contrast resting on the belief that Jesus raised the dead with his breath. In divan poetry the beloved's lips and breath are likened to the life-giving breath of the Messiah; hence the beloved is called "Mesîḥâ-dem", having the breath of the Messiah. Basîrî reverses this comparison: the beloved with the breath of the Messiah kills her lovers. The second line states the contradiction openly: the Messiah brings men into being, revives them; this beloved kills them.

The real skill of the couplet lies in the meeting of the words "öldürür" (kills) and "oldurur" (brings into being). These two words are written in the same way in Arabic script and differ only in pronunciation; one means to kill, the other to cause to be, to create. Using two identically written words with opposite meanings in rhyme position is a fine example of the art the old rhetoricians called cinas (paronomasia), and gives the couplet a sharp balance in both sound and sense. The repetition of the word "âdem", man, twice in the second line also stresses that the one killed and the one revived are the same human being. In Latîfî's text the separate writing of the end of the second line as "ol durur" gives the couplet a second reading, "the true Messiah is that man"; the texts of Âşık Çelebi and Âlî, however, support the reading "oldurur".

Historical Context

This opening couplet is among Basîrî's lines most often cited in the anthologies. In giving it, Gelibolulu Âlî says that although Basîrî was "Persian" he had a good grasp of Turkish expressions and the idioms of everyday speech. Latîfî too states that because Basîrî spent most of his life in the land of Rûm, he adopted the manner of the poets of Rûm who wrote in Turkish. Hüseyin Hüsameddin, however, interprets Latîfî's words "Diyâr-ı Rûm" as Amasya and presents Basîrî as a poet raised in Amasya; this interpretation conflicts with the other sources on Basîrî's origins. In which years the couplet was written is not known.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ ve Tabsıratü'n-nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 148, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 181, entry on Basîrî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî, Künhü'l-ahbâr'ın Tezkire Kısmı, ed. Mustafa İsen, Ankara: Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, 1994, p. 152, entry on Basîrî.
  • Abdizâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi 6-8. Cilt, ed. Songül Keçeci Kurt - Recep Orhan Özel - Metin Hakverdioğlu, Amasya: Amasya Belediyesi, 2022, p. 419. amasya.bel.tr

Books

Online sources