Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef'ûlü mefâîlü mefâîlü feûlün

İtdi beni bir yâr-i perî şân iki yüzden
Kâkülleriň itdigi perîşân iki yüzden

In English

1. A fairy-like beloved has left me distraught on two counts (from two sides); the dishevelment that her locks have caused is also on two counts.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kalenderî. The kalenderî is one of the forms minstrels composed in aruz and is generally written in the pattern "mef'ûlü mefâîlü mefâîlü feûlün". Because Hakverdioğlu's article publishes only the first verse unit of each poem in the cönk, we know only the opening couplet of this poem. The refrain is "iki yüzden"; the rhyme is "perî şân / perîşân", and the rhyme is at the same time a pun. The identification of the metre is ours; as is usual in the aruz poems of folk poets, some syllables may not fit the pattern exactly. To whom and on what occasion the poem was composed is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is built on a pun (cinas). "Perî-şân" (fairy-like, of fairy splendour) in the first line and "perîşân" (dishevelled, distraught) in the second are almost identical in spelling and sound but differ in meaning. In the first line the word is both an epithet of the beloved and, joined with the verb "itdi beni", carries the sense "left me distraught". The second line ties this distress to the locks of hair: dishevelled hair is in divan poetry the mirror of the lover's scattered state. The refrain "iki yüzden" can also be read in two ways: "on two counts, from two sides", or the beloved's two cheeks, "iki yüz". The locks falling over both cheeks supports the second reading.

Historical Context

The poem is recorded under the name of Erzurumlu Emrah in the Merzifon Cönkü, a manuscript miscellany held in Metin Hakverdioğlu's own library and introduced by him in 2019. The cönk contains eleven of Emrah's poems, three in syllabic metre and eight in aruz. In cönks and miscellanies Emrah's poems have become mixed with those of Ercişli Emrah and of his apprentice Tokatlı Nûrî; the record in the cönk is therefore not by itself conclusive proof of authorship. For the poet's connection with Merzifon and his other poems in the cönk, see the page on Erzurumlu Emrah. The poem is on page 107 of the cönk and page 547 of the article; its full text is in the cönk itself and has not been published to date.

Bibliography

Online sources