Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Dehr içinde bir perî ṣûret ki gördüm nâzenîn
Bârekallah ḥüsnüne ḳıldım besendi âferîn

In English

1. In this world I saw a fairy-faced, delicate beauty; I said "bârekallah", and admiring her beauty I praised her.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is recorded in the cönk as a "dîvân" or "dîvânî". In minstrel literature this name is given to poems composed in aruz, in couplets like the ghazal, and sung to the saz. Because Hakverdioğlu's article publishes only the first verse unit of each poem in the cönk, we know only the opening couplet of this poem. The rhyme is the "-în" sound in "nâzenîn / âferîn". The identification of the metre is ours; as is usual in the aruz poems of folk poets, some syllables may not fit the pattern exactly. To whom and on what occasion the poem was composed is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet describes a moment of encounter: "dehr içinde", in the world, the lover has seen a fairy-faced beauty, "nâzenîn", delicate and proud. In the second line two responses to beauty are given: "bârekallah", meaning "may God bless", a prayer said on seeing something beautiful to protect it from the evil eye; and "âferîn", a word of approval and praise. The word "besendi" is given as read in the article; it seems related to "pesendîde" (approved), from the Persian "pesend" (approval). The couplet suits the minstrel tradition that combines praising the beloved with praising God's creation.

Historical Context

The poem is recorded under the pen name "Himmetî" in the Merzifon Cönkü introduced by Metin Hakverdioğlu in 2019. The cönk contains three of Himmetî's poems, one in syllabic metre and two in aruz. The article gives no information about the poet; the poet's identity and the century in which he lived have not been determined. Since the cönk is thought to have been compiled in Merzifon within the literary circle of Eyüb Sabrî, the poet may have been one read or living in that circle. For details, see the page on Himmetî. The poem is on page 8 of the cönk and page 550 of the article; its full text is in the cönk itself and has not been published to date.

Bibliography

Online sources