Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Eşküm içre rûy-ı zerdüm ey gül-i raʿnâ hemân
Ṣuya düşmiş bir ḫazân berkine beñzer bî-gümân

In English

1. O lovely rose (beloved), my yellowed face amid my tears is, without a doubt, just like an autumn leaf fallen into water.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Because both of its lines rhyme, this couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal (gazel); the rest of the ghazal is not known today. The rhyme falls on the sound "-mân" in "hemân" and "gümân", and there is no redif (refrain word). The source does not give the metre; the couplet fits the pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün" of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), and this scansion is ours. The couplet has come down through Latîfî. The anthologist places Hızrî in "the lower rank" of the poetic art and says there was little imagination in his words, but of this couplet he says that "the cream of his speech and the mainstay of his well-ordered verse is this opening couplet". Hüseyin Hüsameddin Yasar repeats Latîfî's record in his Amasya Tarihi; in his text the couplet appears as "Eşkim içre rûy-i zerdim ey gül-i ra'nâ hemân / Suya düşmüş bir hazan berkine benzer bî-gümân", with the same words in a plainer spelling. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In divan poetry the lover's face is described as yellowed by the pain of separation and by illness, while his tears are often as abundant as a flood or a sea. Hızrî brings these two established images together in a single scene: the yellow face lies within the water of the tears and looks like a yellow autumn leaf fallen into water. The simile rests both on colour and on situation; the leaf has been torn from its branch and drifts on the water, and the lover, parted from the beloved, is tossed about in his own tears. The words "hemân" (just like) and "bî-gümân" (without a doubt) are intensifiers that strengthen the simile.

The finer point of the couplet lies in addressing the beloved as "gül-i raʿnâ". The rose is the flower of spring, whereas the lover's face resembles an autumn leaf. Spring and autumn, freshness and withering, are thus set against each other: the beloved remains a fresh rose while the lover has turned into a leaf that yellows and falls. The word "raʿnâ" means lovely; the name "gül-i raʿnâ" is also known to have been given to a two-coloured kind of rose. On this reading a link is also made between the colour of the beloved's rose and the lover's yellow face; it is possible that the poet intended this second meaning, but this is an interpretation. That Latîfî chose this opening couplet despite his verdict of "no imagination" shows that, in his eyes, a clear and well-rounded simile resting on a single concrete image was Hızrî's most successful saying.

Bibliography

Online sources