Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Kıbleden döndi esüp bâd-ı nesîm-i kudret
Başladı itdi temevvüc yine deryâ-yı çemen
Câ-be-câ yelken açup çıkdı açıldı ezhâr
Sanki deryâ-yı sefîd oldı fezâ-yı gülşen
Serv bir hûb direk dikdi turup anda revân
Yâsemenler anun etrâfına bagladı resen
Keştî-i tâli’imüz gel salalum engîne
Be diye n’olsa gerek tente forasun yelken
Bizi salın diye çignetdi hevâ-yı kaddün
Karaya indi gam-ı hattun ile keştî-i ten

In English

1. The breeze of divine power turned and began to blow from the kıble; the sea of the meadow again began to swell in waves.

2. Here and there the flowers set sail, came out and opened; the expanse of the rose garden became, as it were, the White Sea (the Mediterranean).

3. The cypress at once set up a fine mast there; the jasmines tied ropes around it.

4. Come, let us launch the ship of our fortune onto the open sea; what harm if we cry "be!", unfurl the awning and spread the sail.

5. The air of your stature stirred us up, saying "set sail"; but the ship of the body ran aground through the grief caused by the down on your cheek. The couplet can be read in two ways: "salın" carries a double entendre (tevriye) between launching a ship and the beloved's swaying gait; the meaning of "çignetdi" is also uncertain and has been understood here as "stirred up, incited".

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The five couplets we have are a fragment of a kaside (qasida) by Derûnî-i Sânî taken into the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire); the whole kaside is unknown. The couplets end in the rhyme "-en" (çemen, gülşen, resen, yelken, ten). Beyânî introduces this poem as a nazire (response poem) to a kaside of Âgehî and says "hûb dimişdür", he spoke well. Kınalızâde, too, writes that the poem is a bahariye, a kaside describing spring, and that it is in no way inferior to Âgehî's kaside. The editions of the tezkires do not indicate the metre; the lines fit the pattern fâilâtün feilâtün feilâtün fa'lün, an observation that is ours. The text is given from Beyânî. In Kınalızâde the second line of the fourth couplet reads "Be diye n'olsa gerek tente fora sun yelken" and the second line of the fifth couplet "Karaya atdı gam-ı zülfünle keştî-i ten"; on this reading it is the grief caused by the beloved's lock of hair that casts the ship aground.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This part of the kaside rests on an extended metaphor (istiare) presenting spring as a sea voyage. In the first couplet the wind blows from the kıble; in seafaring, kıble is the name given to the wind blowing from the south, and as a spring breeze it is fitting here. With the wind the meadow swells and turns into a sea. In the second couplet the opening flowers are likened to ships setting sail, and the rose garden to the Mediterranean; "deryâ-yı sefîd", the white sea, also calls to mind a garden covered with white flowers. In the third couplet the cypress becomes the ship's mast and the jasmines winding around it the ropes tied to the mast. Because these images rest on the sight of the upright cypress in the garden and the jasmine vine climbing it, they are easily visualised.

In the fourth couplet the poet calls for the ship of fortune to be launched onto the open sea, the engin. "Tente" (awning) and "fora" are words used by sailors; fora is the command given to unfurl a sail or a flag. "Be" is an exclamation of address and excitement. In the fifth couplet the poem turns to love: the air of the beloved's stature has roused us and incited us to put to sea, but the grief caused by the down on the beloved's cheek, or in Kınalızâde's reading by the beloved's lock of hair, has run the ship of the body aground. The word "hevâ" means both air, wind, and desire, and so carries a double entendre (tevriye); the spring wind and the lover's desire meet in one word. There is a strong congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words kıble, sail, mast, rope, open sea, awning, fora and shore.

Historical Context

According to Kınalızâde, Âgehî was a judge from Yenice-i Vardar, and his best-known poem is the kaside beginning "Çekdürüp firkateni oldun alarka benden", composed in sailors' terms when he fell in love with a young seaman; Beyânî, too, writes that his frigate (firkate) kaside won great fame. That the kaside Derûnî wrote as a nazire is woven with seafaring words such as sail, mast, rope, open sea, awning and fora suggests that it was written in response to this frigate kaside. Since the biographers do not name the kaside to which the nazire was written, this identification is our inference. Kınalızâde records that Âgehî died in Istanbul in 985 (1577); the date of Derûnî's nazire is unknown.

Bibliography

Online sources