Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Only the following couplet of this poem has been published in the source; the complete poem has not been published.

Zülf ü ruḫıñla siyeh ü ḫaṭṭıñ hevâsı dehre meh
Ṣad renkler geçer siyeh ü sürḫ ü sefîd ü sebz ü zerd

In English

1. Because of the love of your tresses, your cheek, your down and your moon face, a hundred colours pass through the world: black, red, white, green and yellow. (The reading of the first line is not wholly clear.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the 4th couplet of the 11th ghazal in Âkif's divan. According to Öntürk and Tunçadam, in this ghazal the colours black, red, white, green and yellow are used together as the redif (refrain word); the words "siyeh ü sürḫ ü sefîd ü sebz ü zerd" at the end of the second line are this refrain. The article did not publish the whole ghazal; the metre is not stated.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In divan poetry each element of the beloved's beauty is associated with a colour: the tresses are black, the cheek red or white, the fine down on the cheek (ḫaṭ) green, and the lover's complexion yellow. In the couplet a relation of leff ü neşr (lapping and unlapping) can be sensed between the elements of beauty listed in the first line and the colours in the second, but this matching is ours and the reading of the first line is not wholly clear. Repeating five colours as the refrain in every couplet is a bold experiment that spreads a familiar conceit across the whole structure of the poem.

Historical Context

Drawing on Recep Demir, who notes that from the seventeenth century onwards new symbolic meanings were given to colours in divan poetry, Öntürk and Tunçadam say that colours are used symbolically in Âkif's divan too. According to the authors, the use of different colours together as a refrain is later seen in Şeyh Gâlib as well. In this respect Âkif's ghazal is notable as an example earlier than Şeyh Gâlib. For the poet's life, see the article Îdîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi.

Bibliography

  • Tolga Öntürk and Özcan Tunçadam, "Amasyalı 'Îdî-zâde Âkif Mustafa ve Divanı", Hikmet-Akademik Edebiyat Dergisi, 6(12), 2020, pp. 259-281 (text: pp. 267). https://doi.org/10.28981/hikmet.683811

Online sources