Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Halk ile bilmem nedir beyhûde ülfetden garaz
Rûha aslı yok yere böyle eziyyetden garaz
Bir iki günlük misâfirken cihânda bu ne hâl
Kim bilir kimler içün binlerce zahmetden garaz
Söyle kim bir çeşme ya bir köprü yapmazsan nedir
Hayr u nef'i olmayan ihvâna servetden garaz
Geç bu da'vâdan hemen bâkî değil, mülk-i cihân
Âkıbet ölmek değil mi böyle sıhhatden garaz
Çıkmadan ver cânını cânâna şimdi Hilmiyâ
Vermedir cânâna cân aşk u muhabetden garaz

In English

1. I do not know what is the purpose of vain intimacy with people. What is the purpose of tormenting the soul thus, for no real reason.

2. What state is this, while we are guests in the world for a day or two. Who knows for whom the purpose of a thousand toils is meant.

3. Tell me, if you do not build a fountain or a bridge, what is the purpose of wealth that brings no charity or benefit to your brethren.

4. Give up this claim at once; the possessions of the world do not last. Is not the end of such good health, after all, death.

5. O Hilmî, give your soul to the beloved now, before it leaves the body; the purpose of love and affection is to give one's soul to the beloved.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal of five couplets, and the pen name appears in the last couplet in the form "Hilmiyâ". The redif (refrain word) is "-den garaz" ("the purpose of"), and the rhyme is the sound "-et" in the words "ülfet, eziyyet, zahmet, servet, sıhhat, muhabet". The metre fits the pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün"; the source does not state the metre, and the identification is ours. The text is quoted in Mehtap Erdoğan's entry in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü from page 61 of Vehbi Cem Aşkun's Merzifon Şairleri of 1937. The spelling "muhabet" in the last couplet is left as in the source; the word is "muhabbet" (affection).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Through the word "garaz" in the redif, each couplet of the ghazal questions a purpose: what is the purpose of empty intimacy with people, of wearying the soul, of toil, of wealth and of health. This questioning fits Aşkun's judgement that Hilmî "produced mostly didactic works". In the second couplet the world is pictured as a guesthouse and man as a guest who stays there a day or two; this is among the most established images of Sufi and didactic poetry. The words "bâkî değil", not lasting, in the fourth couplet recall the transience of the world and say that even health ends at last in death.

The most striking couplet of the ghazal is the third. The poet ties the value of wealth to the charity done with it and names charity through two concrete structures, the fountain and the bridge. These two structures are the best-known examples of service to travellers and the community in the Ottoman waqf (pious endowment) tradition. In the last couplet the advice is turned into the language of love: since death will take the soul in any case, the lover should give it to the beloved now. The closeness in sound and sense between "cân" (soul) and "cânân" (beloved) is a pun much loved by divan poets; in a Sufi reading the beloved is God and the couplet opens onto the idea of dying before death.

Historical Context

When the ghazal was written is not known. The emphasis on the fountain and the bridge in the third couplet can be read together with the charitable tradition of the poet's family: according to Hüsameddin, his uncle Ebûbekir Efendi, steward of the Imperial Treasury, had a mosque and a school built in Merzifon and Hasankale, and his father a madrasa in the town of Hacıhamza. This link is an interpretation, and the family name does not appear in the poem. Hilmî's poems were gathered in the collected edition published by Orhan Bilgin in 1984; this ghazal is his only complete ghazal that can be read online today, through Aşkun's book. For the poet's life and his other poems see the article Dedezâde Mehmed Hilmî Efendi.

Bibliography

Online sources