Original Persian Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

هرکسی درکشت باغی همدم جانان خویش
ما و کنج هجر و همدم درد بی درمان خویش
Her kesī der-geşt-i bāġī hem-dem-i cānān-i ḫīş
Mā vü künc-i hecr ü hem-dem derd-i bī-dermān-ı ḫīş

In English

1. Everyone is out strolling in a garden, keeping company with his own beloved; and we are in the corner of separation, keeping company with our own incurable pain. ("Hem-dem", one who shares the same breath, means a close friend and companion; in the couplet it is used twice, for two opposite states.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This is a Persian matla (opening couplet), a single couplet (beyit) whose two lines rhyme with each other, written in the metre "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" 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 couplet. The redif (refrain word) is "ḫīş" (one's own), and the rhyme is the sound "-ān" in "cānān" and "dermān". The couplet appears in all three entries on Müeyyedzâde in the biographical anthologies (tezkire). Âşık Çelebi's text has been followed here. Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi gives the couplet as "Herkesî der-geşt bâgî hem-dem-i cânân-ı hîş / Mâ vü künc-i hicr ü hem-dem-i derd-i bî-dermân-ı hîş", while Beyânî quotes the same couplet in Arabic script. In the Original Text section this Arabic-script text from the edition of Beyânî is given first; the Latin-script reading below it is the transliteration in the edition of Âşık Çelebi. Beyânî's text is word for word the same as Âşık Çelebi's. The rendering rests on the same understanding as the translation given by Filiz Kılıç in a footnote to her edition of Âşık Çelebi. To whom and when it was written is not known. Since its two lines rhyme, the couplet may be the opening couplet of a Persian ghazal now lost. Âşık Çelebi writes that Müeyyedzâde had Persian "ġazeliyyāt u ḳaṣā'id", ghazals and kasides, and Beyânî that he had "Fârisî kasâ’idi ve latîf gazelleri", Persian kasides and fine ghazals; but none of these ghazals has come down to us complete.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet consists of a contrast set up between its two lines. The first line describes the state of others: everyone is walking in a garden, spending time with his beloved. The second line is the poet's own state: instead of a garden he has withdrawn to a corner of separation, and instead of a beloved he keeps company with an incurable pain. There is a clear antithesis (tezat) between garden and corner, openness and enclosure, beloved and pain. The repetition of the word "hem-dem" in both lines sharpens the contrast: the same bond of closeness is tied on the one side to the beloved and on the other to pain.

The subtle side of the couplet is that pain is described as a friend. The lover is not alone; he too has a companion, but this companion is an incurable pain. The rhyme of "cânân" (beloved) and "dermân" (cure) also recalls the common idea that the beloved is the cure for the lover's pain: the beloved who is at the side of others is the cure that is missing at the poet's side. This contrast, built in a brief and plain expression, explains why the couplet found its way into three separate anthologies.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources