Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Olur her yılda zinde mürde ‘ālem
Gidince līk artuḳ gelmez ādem
Selefden ger ṣorarsañ ḫāṣ u ‘āmı
Ya nāmıdur bilinen yā kelāmı
Bunı fikr eyleyüben eyledüm āh
Meger luṭf ide didüm saña Allāh
O kārı ḳılmadum ben kim olup yād
Du‘āyile ḳılalar rūḥumı şād
Daḫı mālum yoḳ eyleyem ‘imāret
Sebeb olup añılam tā ḳıyāmet
Çü bād üstindedür bünyād-ı evlād
Ne deñlü olur anuñla kişi yād
Sa‘ādet ol kişinüñ k’ide te’līf
Ola ḳādir kitāb eyleye taṣnīf
Degüldüm anda da monlā-yı devrān
Ḥadīs̱ idem yaḫūd tefsīr-i Ḳur’ān
Daḫı bābum degül hergiz naṣīḥat
Naṣīḥat eylesem olur fażīḥat
Benem bir ‘ācize ḫār u ḥaḳīre
Ża‘īfe vü ġarībe vü faḳīre

In English

1. Every year the world dies and comes to life again; but once a human being is gone, he does not come back. (Nature dies in winter and revives in spring; for man there is no such return.)

2. If you ask about those who lived before, high or low, what is known of them is either their names or their words.

3. Thinking on this I sighed and said to myself, "Perhaps God will be gracious to you."

4. I have not done that good work for which people would remember me and gladden my soul with their prayers.

5. Nor have I the wealth to build some charitable building that would cause me to be remembered until the day of resurrection.

6. The edifice of children is built upon the wind; how long can one be remembered through them? (Children too are transient and cannot keep a person's name alive for long.)

7. True happiness belongs to the one who composes works, who has the power to write a book.

8. In this too I was not the great scholar of the age, to write a book of hadith or a commentary on the Qur'an.

9. Nor is counsel my business at all; were I to give advice I would disgrace myself.

10. I am a helpless, lowly and humble woman, weak, a stranger and poor. (The Arabic adjectives in these lines are used in their feminine forms: ‘âcize, ḥaḳîre, ża‘îfe, ġarîbe, faḳîre.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These ten couplets are among the surviving fragments of Hubbî's mesnevi (narrative poem in rhyming couplets) Cemşîd ü Hurşîd, which is reported to have run to more than three thousand couplets. No manuscript of the mesnevi has been found to date; its couplets were quoted by Âşık Çelebi, who knew the work well, in his Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ. Âşık Çelebi introduces these couplets with the words "Evvelā ol kitābda böyle mu‘terif-i ‘acz u taḳṣīr ve ‘öẕr-ḫāh u pūziş-peẕīr itmişdür", "first, in that book, she thus confessed her helplessness and shortcomings and begged pardon". The fragment therefore comes from the opening section of the mesnevi.

The mesnevi is a verse form in which each couplet rhymes within itself, and it is used for long narratives. In this fragment too each couplet carries its own rhyme: ‘âlem / âdem, ‘âmı / kelâmı, âh / Allâh and so on. The metre is from the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre), "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün"; this pattern is frequent in love mesnevis such as Hüsrev ü Şîrîn and Leylâ vü Mecnûn. Some manuscripts of the anthology have small variants; in one, for example, the first couplet reads "merd-i" for "mürde", and the last couplet "‘āciz u ḫūr" for "‘ācize ḫār u".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In divan literature mesnevis usually open with a section on the "reason for composition" (sebeb-i telif), in which the poet explains why the work was written. Hubbî's fragment is a distinctive example of such a section. The poet first reflects on death: the world dies and revives every year, but man does not return. The antithesis between "zinde" and "mürde", living and dead, carries the first couplet. Of past generations only their names or their words remain. This thought becomes the reason for the wish to leave a lasting work.

The poet then lists one by one the ways that keep a person alive after death and says that each of them is closed to her. She has not done the good works for which people would remember her in prayer; she has no wealth to build a charitable foundation such as a mosque or soup kitchen. Children are not a lasting means of remembrance either, for "the edifice of children is built upon the wind". True happiness belongs to those who can write books; but the poet is not a scholar great enough to write on hadith or Qur'anic commentary, and were she to give counsel she would disgrace herself. The rhyme of "naṣīḥat" (counsel) and "fażīḥat" (disgrace) in the same couplet joins likeness of sound with contrast of meaning.

The last couplet is the most striking point of the fragment. The poet presents herself as "‘ācize, ḥaḳīre, ża‘īfe, ġarībe, faḳīre". These Arabic adjectives are used in their feminine forms; the speaker is plainly a woman. In classical literature the poet's self-abasement is a widespread formula of modesty; Hubbî builds this formula in a woman's voice. The succession of adjectives, all ending in the same sound, also gives the couplet a full resonance. It is also notable that, although Hubbî is known to have had sons and a daughter, she places no hope of remembrance in children in the sixth couplet; the poet seeks permanence in words.

Historical Context

Âşık Çelebi begins his entry on Hubbî with a long assessment of women poets. According to him there are many women who compose poetry, but in metre, beauty of verse and refinement of expression Hubbî has no equal. He names the women poets of Iran, Cilâyî, Âfâkî, Cihan Hatun and Dilşad Hatun, and those of Rûm, Mihrî and Zeyneb, and judges them all fit only to serve Hubbî. That Mihrî Hatun was from Amasya, and that Zeyneb Hatun is also associated with the poetic circle of Amasya, makes the biographer's comparison interesting from Amasya's point of view. Âşık Çelebi says that Hubbî's Cemşîd ü Hurşîd ran to more than three thousand couplets and contained many fine and subtle sayings. According to the entry on Cemşîd ü Hurşîd in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, Kâtib Çelebi recorded that this mesnevi, attributed to Hubbî in the anthologies, might belong to Ahmedî; but Âşık Çelebi, who saw the work, quotes its couplets explicitly from Hubbî's book, and the feminine adjectives of the last couplet also show that the speaker is a woman. When the mesnevi was written is not known.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 494-495, entry on ‘Â'işe Hâtûn (Hubbî); manuscript variants in the footnotes of the same pages. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Academic studies

Books

Online sources