Edîb, Couplet 2: Teshîr iden ol yâri duâ-yı

Couplet 2 — Teshîr iden ol yâri duâ-yı sihirimdir

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 13 October 2026 • 2 min reading

Edîb of Lâdik's opening couplet setting a dawn prayer beside a wine-filled conversation, read between "sihir" (spell) and "seher" (dawn), written with the same letters.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Teshîr iden ol yâri duâ-yı sihirimdir
Germ ülfet eden sohbet-i sahbâ eserimdir

In English

1. What has won that beloved over is my dawn prayer (or my spell-like prayer); what has drawn her into warm intimacy is the effect of my wine-filled conversation.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Dawn or Spell

The key to the couplet is the last word of the first line. In Hüsameddin's edition it is read "sihirimdir", "is my spell", but the couplet is an opening couplet (matla) and the second line ends in "eserimdir". For the rhyme to hold, the word must be read "seherimdir", "is my dawn". In Arabic script "sihr" (magic) and "seher" (dawn) are written with the same letters, and the difference in the transcription must have arisen from this. The edition makes no such correction; the suggestion is reflected only in the rendering, and the text has been left as it stands.

What makes the case interesting is that both readings suit the couplet. "Teshîr" means to capture or subdue someone, and it is also used of binding a person to oneself by magic; so the word "sihir" fits the line very well in meaning. "Duâ-yı seher", on the other hand, is the prayer the lover makes at dawn in divan poetry, believed to be granted. The poet probably wanted both to be heard: what won the beloved was a dawn prayer as powerful as a spell. Read this way, the couplet contains a double entendre (tevriye).

Prayer and Wine

The second line sets wine against the prayer. "Germ ülfet" is warm intimacy; "sohbet-i sahbâ" is conversation over wine. First the prayer softened the beloved, then the drinking party drew her close. Prayer and wine standing side by side in one couplet suits the libertine (rind) stance of divan poetry. Hüsameddin gives the couplet with the words "these too are among his poems" and then quotes another opening couplet with the same rhyme and redif; whether the two belong to the same ghazal is not known. Edîb's identity and his other pieces are brought together on the page Edîb Mehmed Efendi of Lâdik.