Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün (remel; identification of the metre is ours)

Dehr içinde mürşid-i dânâyı bulmaḳdır hüner
Ögrenüp dersin dil-i ma‘nâyı bulmaḳdır hüner

In English

1. The true accomplishment in this world is to find a wise spiritual guide (mürşid) who knows the way. The accomplishment is to learn his lesson and reach the heart of meaning, that is, the essential sense lying behind words and appearances.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The two lines we have are the matla (opening couplet) of a ghazal recorded under the name Feyzî on page 81 of the Merzifon Cönkü. Because Metin Hakverdioğlu gives only the first stanza or couplet of each poem in the cönk, it is not known how many couplets the ghazal has or in which couplet the pen name appears; the full poem remains unpublished in the cönk. Both lines of the matla rhyme: the sound "-nâ" in "dânâyı" and "ma‘nâyı" carries the rhyme, and the phrase "bulmaḳdır hüner" is the redif (refrain word). In the later couplets the second lines would be expected to end with the same refrain. The metre is not stated in the source; the couplet fits without fault the fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün pattern of remel, one of the commonest metres of aruz.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The central idea of the couplet is attachment to a spiritual guide, regarded as the first condition of the Sufi path. In Sufism it is held that the traveller cannot advance on his own and needs a guide who knows the way; the "mürşid-i dânâ", the wise guide, is that figure. The poet does not look for a person's true accomplishment in wealth or rank; he sees it in finding such a guide. In the second line the thought moves a step further: finding the guide is not enough, one must learn his lesson and reach the "dil-i ma‘nâ". In Persian "dil" means heart, and "dil-i ma‘nâ" is the heart of meaning, the essence behind words. Because the same word in Turkish also means tongue, the couplet allows a second reading, "to understand the language of meaning"; this double sense is a play close to tevriye (double entendre). The words "dânâ" (wise), "ders" (lesson) and "ma‘nâ" (meaning) form a congruence of images around knowledge and learning (tenasüp).

Historical Context

Who Feyzî was is not known; many poets used this pen name, and there is no evidence to identify the poet of the cönk with any of them. The ghazal's tone of Sufi counsel suggests that it may have been composed in a dervish-lodge setting or by a poet close to Sufism. That the compiler included such a ghazal of counsel among love poems shows that the notebook was not limited to love and gathering pieces; the cönk contains other Sufi pieces as well, such as Rızâ's ghazal with the refrain "Allâh hû yâ hû". What is known of the poet and of the cönk is set out in the biography of Feyzî.

Bibliography

Online sources