Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Çü şāh-ı ṣubḥ irüp ḳodı cihāna
Ḳurıldı çetr-i zerrīn āsumāna
Ṣular şūrīde-ḥāl olmışdı ġāyet
Geçen aḥvāli eylerdi şikāyet
Ṣu raḥmet āyetin eylerdi taḥrīr
Nesīm ol āyeti eylerdi tefsīr
Anuñ gibiydi naḳş içinde üstād
Ṣu üzre naḳş iderdi ṣanasın bād
Giyüp başdan ayaġa cümle cevşen
Deñiz bir demde oldı şāha düşmen
Yüzüni çīn idüp gürler ü gümler
Lebinden ṣaçılur her dem köpükler
Ne şey’e ‘ışḳ irişse cevher eyler
Ayırur ḳalbı misden pür zer eyler

In English

1. When the king of morning, the sun, arrived and alighted upon the world, a golden canopy of state was raised over the sky. ("Çetr" is the great parasol or canopy held over a ruler's head; the sunlight is likened to a golden çetr spread over the sky.)

2. The waters were in a state of great agitation and distress; they were complaining of things past. (The murmur of the water is likened to a complaint.)

3. The water was writing out the verse of mercy, and the morning breeze was expounding that verse. (The fine lines on the surface of the water are likened to writing, and the wind that ripples them to a commentator who explains that writing. The word "mercy" also recalls rain.)

4. He was such a master of ornament that it was as if he drew designs on water like the wind. (Âşık Çelebi gives this couplet as a description of a painter; the patterns the wind makes on water are likened to the master's designs.)

5. The sea put on armour from head to foot and in a moment turned enemy to the king. (The surface of the rough sea is likened to the scaled, ringed look of armour.)

6. Wrinkling its face, it thundered and boomed; foam spattered from its lips at every moment. (The appearance of an angry man is given to the sea.)

7. Whatever love touches it turns into a jewel; it separates the heart from copper and fills it with gold. ("Ḳalb" means both heart and counterfeit coin alloyed with base metal; love, like the elixir the alchemists sought, turns copper into gold.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These seven couplets are not a single passage; the descriptive couplets from Hubbî's lost mesnevi Cemşîd ü Hurşîd that the biographical anthologies quote separately have been brought together here in sequence. The first couplet, the description of morning, is not in Âşık Çelebi; it is the couplet quoted by Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi and Gelibolulu Âlî. This is the couplet that the entry in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam says Hasan Çelebi quotes in addition to Âşık Çelebi. In Âşık Çelebi the second and third couplets appear under the heading "Der-vaṣf-ı āb-ı revān" (description of running water), the fourth under "Der-vaṣf-ı naḳḳāş" (description of a painter), the fifth and sixth under "Der-vaṣf-ı ḫurūş-ı baḥr" (description of the raging sea), and the seventh under "Der-ṣıfat-ı ‘ışḳ" (the quality of love). Âlî also gives the third and fourth couplets, but with the lines of the fourth couplet transposed and with "ḫaṭṭını" (its script) in place of "āyetin" in the third. The metre, like that of the mesnevi as a whole, is "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

These couplets show Hubbî's descriptive power. In mesnevis, scenes of morning, spring, water, sea and battle are rendered in long descriptions within the flow of the story; the biographers chose examples from such sections to show the poet's skill. In the description of morning the sun is imagined as a king; when the king of morning arrives and alights upon the world, a golden çetr, a royal canopy, is raised over the sky. The golden colour of sunrise is expressed through this image of sovereignty.

The two couplets describing water carry the finest inventions of the mesnevi. The running waters are "şûrîde-ḥâl", agitated and distressed; their murmur resembles a voice complaining of the past. In the third couplet a comparison drawn from writing is built: the water writes "the verse of mercy", and the morning breeze expounds that verse. The fine lines on the water's surface are likened to writing, and the wind's rippling of them to an explanation. There is a strong congruence of images (tenasüp) between "taḥrîr" (writing) and "tefsîr" (exposition), "âyet" (verse) and "raḥmet" (mercy). In the description of the painter the same image is turned around: the master painter's work is as fine and lively as the pattern the wind draws on water.

The description of the sea, by contrast, is the description of an angry being. The sea puts on armour from head to foot and in a moment turns enemy to the king; the scaled look of the waves is likened to the rings of armour. It wrinkles its face, thunders and spatters foam from its lips. Giving these traits of an angry man to the sea is a strong example of personification (teşhis). In the last couplet love is like an elixir: whatever it touches it turns into a jewel, separating the heart from copper and filling it with gold. Since the word "ḳalb" means both heart and counterfeit coin of debased alloy, there is a double entendre (tevriye) in the couplet.

Historical Context

Cemşîd ü Hurşîd is a love story treated as a mesnevi by many poets in Persian and Turkish literature. According to Hasan Aksoy's entry in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam, the main line of the story is as follows: Cemşîd, son of the emperor of China, falls in love with a girl he sees in a dream; this girl is Hurşîd, daughter of the Kaiser of Rûm. Cemşîd sets out with his friend, the merchant Mihrâb, and after many hardships, battles and struggles is united with his beloved, marries her, returns to China and ascends his father's throne. Aksoy notes that the mesnevis on this subject also contain rich battle scenes; the couplets in which the sea turns "enemy to the king" may belong to such a scene of voyage or conflict. The same entry also reports that Kâtib Çelebi recorded that the Cemşîd ü Hurşîd attributed in the anthologies to Hubbî Hatun of Amasya might belong to Ahmedî. Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde, however, name the work explicitly as Hubbî's book, and the pen name occurs in Âlî's text. How Hubbî's mesnevi treated the story is not known, since no manuscript has been found.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 496, entry on ‘Â'işe Hâtûn (Hubbî); manuscript variants in the footnotes of the same page. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), p. 288, entry on Hubbî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî, Künhü'l-ahbâr'ın Tezkire Kısmı, ed. Mustafa İsen, Ankara: Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, 1994, p. 302, entry on Hubbî Hatun.

Academic studies

Books

  • Mustafa İsmet Uzun, "Hubbî Hatun", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 18, Istanbul 1998, pp. 265-266. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr

Online sources