Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün

Ne fitnedür beñüñ zülfün biri zengî biri Hindû
Ne sihr olur gözün gamzeñ biri 'ayyâr biri câdû
Kimüñ vardur senüñ gibi cihânda bir dahı dilber
Ṣanavber-kad münevver-had lebi hokka dişi incû
Boyı 'ar'ar semenber bir melek-manzar hatı 'anber
Saçı sünbül beni fülfül mu'attar zülf ü müşgîn bû
Sa'âdet ahteri togdı başıma dün gice cânâ
Ne tâli'dür bu tâli' kim tulü' itdükde sen meh-rü
Harîmî cân virem dirken işigüñ yaṣdanup cânâ
Nice gavgâ nice sevdâ getürdi başuma bu hû

In English

1. What mischief is this: your mole and your locks, one a Zanzibari, the other an Indian; what magic is this: your eye and your glance, one a trickster, the other a sorcerer.

2. Who else in the world has a beloved like you: pine-tall, bright-cheeked, lips a tiny casket, teeth pearls.

3. Stature a juniper, breast jasmine, face of an angel, down of ambergris; hair hyacinth, mole black pepper, locks fragrant and scented with musk.

4. Last night the star of happiness rose over my head, O soul; what a fortune is this fortune, that when it rose it was you, the moon-faced one.

5. While Harîmî was saying "let me lay my head at your threshold and give up my life", this cry of "Hû" brought so many quarrels and so many passions upon his head.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a ghazal of five couplets. The metre is the long hezec pattern of four Mefâ'îlün feet. There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the "-û" of "Hindû, câdû, incû, bû, meh-rü, hû". The prayer in the heading is "Revvahallâhü rûhahû". In the digital text the word "münevver" in the second couplet came out as "münewer" and "hû" in the last couplet as "hü"; both have been corrected. Kılıç also placed this ghazal in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü as one of the four examples she chose from the Dîvânçe; the text there is given in a plain spelling ("benün zülfün", "Sanavber-kad", "dişi incü", "yasdanup"). The letters ṣ (sad) and s̱ (se), which came out as ş in the digital text, have been restored according to the original spelling of the words. The poet's life, works and the state of the Dîvânçe are discussed in Şehzade Korkut (Harîmî): Literary Persona, Works and Poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal lists the catalogue of beauty of divan poetry one item after another. The first couplet contains a leff ü neşr (enumeration and matching): first mole and locks, eye and glance are named, then their counterparts are given in the same order. The black mole and locks are likened to a Zanzibari and an Indian, the eye and glance to a trickster and a sorcerer. In the second and third couplets the stature is likened to pine and juniper, the teeth to pearls, the mouth for its smallness to a casket, the hair to hyacinth and the mole to black pepper. The string of compounds gives the couplets a quick, full sound. In the fourth couplet the word "tâli'" is used both for fortune and for a rising star, and since it comes from the same root as "tulû'" (rising) it forms an iştikak (play on words of the same root). The word "hû" in the last couplet can also be understood as the cry "Hû" that dervishes utter in their remembrance of God; this reading ties the wish to lay one's head at the threshold and die to a Sufi love. Which is meant is not certain.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Harîmî (Şehzade Korkut), Dîvânçe, Millet Library, Ali Emîrî, Manzum Eserler nr. 104.

Academic studies

  • Filiz Kılıç, "Osmanlı Hanedanında Bir Şair: Şehzade Korkut", Bilig (Ahmet Yesevi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi), 2, Summer 1996, pp. 203–219 (Dîvânçe text pp. 209–218; ghazal 30, p. 214). teis.yesevi.edu.tr

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