Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâʿilâtün fâʿilâtün fâʿilâtün fâʿilün (identified by us)

Dâġ-ı ʿışḳın umaram ol şemʿ-i ḥüsnüñ ben yaḳam
Âteş-i âhı ḳamu ʿuşşâḳdan rûşen yaḳam
Şuʿle-i âhum şeb-i fürḳatde şemʿümdür benüm
Himmet eyleñ dostlar Mecnûn çerâġın ben yaḳam
Hem-dem-i ḫâr olduġın yâruñ ḫaber virmek baña
Ḳorḳaram kim ḫâr içün âh eyleyem gülşen yaḳam

In English

1. I hope to burn on myself the brand of love (the love-wound burned into the breast) of that candle of beauty; I shall kindle the fire of sighs brighter than all the lovers.

2. On the night of separation the flame of my sigh is my candle; friends, lend your help, let me be the one to light Mecnun's lamp.

3. Do not tell me that my beloved keeps company with the thorn; I fear that I shall sigh because of the thorn and burn the whole rose garden. (The text has "virmek"; the meaning is complete if the line is read "virmeñ", do not tell. This reading is not certain.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Every line of this three-couplet Turkish piece has the redif (refrain word) "yaḳam" (let me burn, I shall burn), and all the images of the poem turn around this verb. The rhyme rests on "-en" in "ben, rûşen, gülşen"; in the second couplet the rhyme word "ben" of the opening couplet is repeated. There is no couplet with the pen name. Âşık Çelebi gives the piece with the words "Türkîde daḫı bu ebyâtı raʿnâdur", in Turkish too these couplets of his are fine; they are probably couplets chosen from a complete ghazal (gazel).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In each couplet the verb "to burn" sets something else alight. In the first couplet the lover wishes to burn on himself the wound branded on his breast by love of the beloved, the "dâġ" of divan poetry, and says he will kindle the fire of his sighs brighter than the other lovers. That the beloved is called "şemʿ-i ḥüsn", the candle of beauty, sets up the image of burning in the very first line. In the second couplet the flame of the sigh is the poet's candle on the night of separation; with this flame he undertakes to light Mecnun's lamp. To keep alight the lamp of Mecnun, the great exemplar of love, is for the poet to count himself Mecnun's heir.

The third couplet turns the image of burning into a threat. The beloved keeps company with the "ḫâr", the thorn; in divan poetry the thorn stands for the rival who never leaves the rose's side. The poet does not want to hear this news, because if his sigh rises to burn the thorn it will burn the rose and the whole rose garden too. The congruence of images (tenasüp) among rose, rose garden and thorn, together with the fire of the sigh, turns the candle and lamp of the first two couplets into a conflagration.

Historical Context

Âşık Çelebi notes that Dervîş Çelebi used Persian more in his poetry and wrote in Turkish only now and then; these couplets are what remains of that occasional Turkish verse. Their date is not known; the poet's life, which ran from Merzifon to Kefe, is told in Dervîş Mehmed Çelebi.

Bibliography

Online sources