Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Müşerref etse bezmi dilberân-ı dilrübâ yer yer
Eliflerle tenin zeyn eyler erbâb-ı safâ yer yer

In English

1. If heart-stealing beauties grace the gathering here and there, the men of pleasure adorn their bodies here and there with alifs, that is, with wound marks cut in the shape of the letter alif.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal. The redif (refrain word) is "yer yer" (here and there), and the rhyme is the sound "-â" in the words "dilrübâ" and "safâ". Hüsameddin gives it briefly among Edâyî's poems with the words "Bu da" (this too). The rest of the ghazal, and to whom and for which gathering it was composed, are unknown. The source does not indicate the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet describes the arrival of beauties at a gathering of pleasure and its effect on those present. "Bezm" is a drinking party, "dilberân-ı dilrübâ" heart-stealing beauties, and "erbâb-ı safâ" the men of pleasure and mirth, the regulars of the gathering. The "elif" in the second line is the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, shaped as a straight, thin stroke. Divan poetry tells of lovers cutting alif-shaped marks on their breasts or arms with a knife to show their love; these wounds are called "elif". Edâyî presents these marks as an ornament: as the beauties come to the gathering, the lovers' bodies too are "adorned" with these wounds.

The redif "yer yer" points to different places in the two lines. In the first it describes the corners of the gathering, the places where the beauties sit; in the second the wounds on the lovers' bodies. Attaching the same phrase to two separate scenes turns the couplet into a vivid picture. Counting the wound as an ornament with the word "zeyn" (adornment) also fits the attitude of divan poetry that makes pain beautiful. This analysis is our own.

Bibliography

Online sources