Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fa‘lün

Çâk olan dest-i cefâ ile girîbânumdur
İlişen ḫâr-ı ġam u miḥnete dâmânumdur
Eşk-i çeşmiyle ḫadengini ṣuvarsam n’ola kim
Bâġ-ı sînemde biten serv-i ḫırâmânumdur
Tîġ-ı mûjgânına cân virmesi sehl idi eger
Ol cefâ-pîşe bir aġız dise ḳurbânumdur

In English

1. The collar torn by the hand of cruelty is my collar; the hem caught on the thorn of grief and trouble is my hem. (Tearing one's collar is a familiar sign of losing oneself in the pain of love; a hem caught on a thorn stands for being seized by a sorrow one cannot escape.)

2. No wonder if I water his arrow with the tears of my eye, for that arrow is my swaying cypress growing in the garden of my breast. (The arrow shot by the beloved has lodged in the lover's breast and risen there like a cypress sapling, which the lover waters with his tears.)

3. To give my life to the sword of his eyelashes would have been an easy thing, if only that lover of cruelty would say once, "he is my sacrifice". (The eyelashes are compared to a sword that wounds the lover; "bir aġız demek", to say with one mouth, means to say just once.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In the form in which it has come down to us the poem has three couplets (beyit) and is written in the metre "fā‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fa‘lün" of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The metre is not stated in the biographical anthologies; it has been deduced from the scansion of the couplets. The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-umdur", and the rhyme is built on the sound "-ân" in girîbân, dâmân, ḫırâmân and ḳurbân. Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi calls the poem a "gazel", but none of the biographical anthologies (tezkire) gives the final couplet containing the pen name (mahlas). The three couplets we have are the parts of the ghazal selected for the anthologies; the whole poem is not known.

The poem is among the Turkish couplets of Müeyyedzâde most often cited in the anthologies. The text followed here is that of Latîfî, who gives all three couplets. Beyânî and Kınalızâde give the first and third couplets; in the third couplet Beyânî reads "Zahm-ı müjgânına" (to the wound of his eyelashes), while Kınalızâde reads "Tîg-i müjgânına". Âşık Çelebi quotes only the matla. Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar also cites this matla in his Amasya Tarihi as an example of Müeyyedzâde's poetry.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The matla describes the pain of love through the state of a garment. In divan poetry tearing one's collar is the sign of the madness and unbearable pain that love brings, while a hem caught on a thorn describes a person seized by a sorrow from which he cannot free himself. The poet claims both states for himself: the torn collar and the hem caught on the thorn are both his. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between collar and hem, and a closeness of meaning between cruelty, grief and trouble. The stress on "is mine" at the end of each line shows the lover laying claim to these pains as if they were a kind of property.

In the second couplet the beloved's arrow has lodged in the lover's breast and risen there like a cypress. In divan poetry the cypress is the tree to which the beloved's tall, swaying stature is compared, so the likeness between arrow and cypress ties the arrow to the beloved himself. Once the breast becomes a garden, the lover's tears become the water that irrigates it. The comparisons are added one to another to build a small picture of a garden. The third couplet rests on the common metaphor (istiare) that likens the beloved's eyelashes to a sword wounding the lover. The lover finds it easy to give his life to that sword; his only wish is that the beloved, whose habit is cruelty, should once call him "my sacrifice". There is a congruence of images between "giving one's life" and "sacrifice".

Historical Context

After quoting the couplets, Kınalızâde says, "Bu gazeli Sultân Bâyezîd zemânında dimişdür", "he composed this ghazal in the time of Sultan Bayezid". This note tells us that the ghazal was written in the time of Bayezid II, but it does not say whether it means Bayezid's years as prince in Amasya or his years as sultan. Müeyyedzâde was in Bayezid's close circle during the years when Bayezid was sanjak governor (sanjak-bey) of Amasya, and during his reign served as kadı (judge) and kadıasker (chief military judge); it is therefore not known to which period the ghazal belongs.

Âşık Çelebi tells a small family story about this matla. Müeyyedzâde was his grandfather on his mother's side. Âşık Çelebi writes that before he had seen his grandfather's matla he himself had composed a similar one, and he attributes this to a state of mind inherited from his grandfather: Fiġān kim dest-i miḥnetden alınmadı giribānum / Dırīġā kim ilişdi ḳaldı ḫār-ı hecre dāmānum (Alas that my collar could not be rescued from the hand of trouble; pity that my hem caught on the thorn of separation and stayed there). That the two matlas meet in the image of collar and hem shows that the couplet was remembered even within the family. Âşık Çelebi calls his grandfather's matla "ġāyet ‘āşıḳānedür", that is, full of the lover's feeling.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources