Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Dilberâ cân içre buldum sen cihân-ârâyı ben
Yoksa kim bulur seni cânâ cihân-ârâyı ben

In English

1. O beauty, I found you, the adorner of the world, within my soul; otherwise, O beloved, could I have found you by searching the world? The couplet can be read in two ways: if the phrase in the second line is read as "adorner of the world", the sense becomes "otherwise, O beloved, who could have found you, the adorner of the world".

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal, and Hüsameddin cites it briefly among Edâyî's poems with the words "Bu da" (this too). Both lines end with the same phrase "cihân-ârâyı ben". Although the phrase is written the same way, it can be read with different meanings in the two lines; the rhyme is thus formed by two different words of identical spelling, that is, by a pun (cinas). The rest of the ghazal and the person to whom the couplet was addressed are unknown. The source does not indicate the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

"Cihân-ârâ" in the first line means adorner of the world and is an epithet of the beloved. The same spelling in the second line, however, can be read as "cihân arayı", that is, "searching the world"; in old Turkish the suffix "-u/-ı" forms a converb. On this reading the couplet says that it is vain to seek the beloved by roaming the world, and that he can only be found within one's own soul. Since Hüsameddin's text gives the same spelling in both lines, this distinction is our own reading; it is also possible to read the second line as "adorner of the world", but then the rhyme is repeated in meaning.

The thought of the couplet rests on the idea that what is sought lies within oneself; this idea can be directed both at the beloved and, in a mystical reading, at divine beauty. The closeness in sound between the words "cân" (soul) and "cânâ" (O beloved) also binds the two lines together: the beloved is both the one addressed as "soul" and the one found "within the soul". The emphatic repetition of the word "ben" (I) at the end of both lines brings the lover's own search to the fore.

Bibliography

Online sources