Himmetî, Koşma 1: Ġarib bülbül gibi artmaḳda zârım

Koşma 1 — Ġarib bülbül gibi artmaḳda zârım

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 13 October 2026 • 3 min reading

The first quatrain of Himmetî's koşma in the Merzifon Cönkü: a lover moaning like a forlorn nightingale for an absent beloved; original text, English prose and commentary.

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: 11-syllable syllabic metre

Ġarib bülbül gibi artmaḳda zârım
Ḳonca gül-ruḥsârım nerdedir şimdi
Giceler ḳan döker çeşm-i giryânım
Nazlı şive-kârım nerdedir şimdi

In English

1. Like a forlorn nightingale my lament grows; where is my rosebud-cheeked one now? My weeping eyes shed blood through the nights; where is my proud, coquettish beloved now?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a koşma. The koşma is the most common verse form of minstrel poetry; it is built of quatrains and usually sung in an eleven-syllable metre. The lines have a caesura after 6+5 or 4+4+3 syllables; the syllable count is ours. Because Hakverdioğlu's article publishes only the first verse unit of each poem in the cönk, we know only the first quatrain of this poem. The first and third lines rhyme in "zârım / giryânım", the second and fourth in "gül-ruhsârım / şîve-kârım"; "nerdedir şimdi" is the refrain. To whom and on what occasion the poem was composed is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The quatrain carries the question of separation and longing into its refrain: "nerdedir şimdi" (where is (s)he now). The lover likens himself to a "forlorn nightingale"; like a nightingale cut off from its rose, his lament is growing. The beloved is "gonca gül-ruhsâr", one whose cheeks are like a rosebud; the rosebud, a rose not yet open, also suggests youth. The third line describes the eye that weeps blood through the night; bloody tears are a hyperbole that passed from divan poetry into folk poetry. "Şîve-kâr" in the last line is the coquettish, proud beloved. The question form of the refrain gives the quatrain an air of searching and longing.

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 50 of the cönk and page 550 of the article; its full text is in the cönk itself and has not been published to date.