Original Persian Text

Gerd-i reh geştem ü ber-dâmen-i tu üftâdem
Dâmen ez men me-feşân tâ ne-dehî ber-bâdem
Üftâdem be-kef-i pây-i seget ḫâk şudem
Rû be-ḫâk-i der-i tu der ḳademeş be-nihâdem

In English

1. I became the dust of your road and fell upon your skirt; do not shake your skirt free of me, lest you scatter me to the wind.

2. I fell beneath the paw of your dog and became earth; I laid my face on the dust of your door, at its feet.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These two couplets are in Persian; Âşık Çelebi gives them after Hayâtî's Turkish ghazal with the words "Ve lehu" (and also his). Both lines of the first couplet rhyme on the sound "-âdem" in "üftâdem" and "ber-bâdem," while in the second couplet only the last line is bound to that sound. From this arrangement it follows that the fragment consists of the opening couplet (matla) and one further couplet of a Persian ghazal (gazel); the whole ghazal has not been found. The source does not name the metre, and by our reading the couplets are in the remel pattern fâilâtün feilâtün feilâtün fa'lün. The edition does not print the text in Arabic script, only a transliteration. The rendering given here is based on the Turkish translation in the edition's footnote; because that translation leaves out the phrase "der ḳademeş" (at its feet) in the last half of the second couplet, we have rendered that part ourselves. The same footnote also records that the fragment is missing from one manuscript.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Dust and earth carry every image in the fragment: abasing himself before the beloved, the lover is reduced to them step by step. In the first couplet the lover has become the dust of the beloved's road and clings to her skirt. For her to shake her skirt would mean to give him to the wind and scatter him, that is, to drive him from her door. The repetition of "dâmen" (skirt) in both lines and the harmony between "gerd" (dust) and "bâd" (wind) create a congruence of images (tenasüp) in the couplet. In the second couplet the abasement goes a step further: the lover has fallen beneath the paw of the beloved's dog, become earth, and rubbed his face in the dust of her door. In divan poetry the dog at the beloved's door is a creature the lover envies, for it is more worthy than he of standing near the beloved. The lover's lowering himself to the earth beneath that dog's paw is the most extreme expression of the effacement of self in love. The repetition of the word "üftâdem" (I fell) in both couplets also underlines this fall.

Historical Context

Âşık Çelebi relates that for a time Hayâtî entered the Naqshbandi and Mevlevi paths and composed his ghazals in the mystical manner. Images of becoming dust and earth and of rubbing one's face on the threshold belong to the shared language of human love and of Sufism; when the fragment was composed is unknown. Âşık Çelebi attributes the fragment to Mehmed Çelebi Hayâtî, brother of Memâtî; the link with Merzifon comes from Kınalızâde and Hüsameddin counting this poet as one with Latîfî's Hayâtî of Merzifon. The grounds for that identification are discussed in the article Hayâtî Çelebi of Merzifon.

Bibliography

Online sources