Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün

İşitmiş k’ol gül-i nev-ḥîz ‘azm-i gülsitân itmiş
Hezâr-ı dil ḳafesgâh-ı bedenden çoḳ fiġân itmiş
Seni pâmâl-i nâz itdim diyü ol şehlevend-i şûḫ
Nişân-ı nîze-i ḫâra şikâf-ı imtinân itmiş
Ḳabâ-yı şemse-dâr-ı sürḫle gör rûy u gerdânın
Şafaḳda ferḳadândır mihr ṣubḥile ḳırân itmiş
Hirâs-ı mâr-ı zülfinden ḳaçup çeşmine kebk-i dil
Varup serpençe-i bâz-ı cefâda âşiyân itmiş
O ḫûnî ‘Âkife tîġ-i müjedir kef-i çeşm-i mest
Teraḥḥümkâr olup dün bir nigâh-ı cân-sitân itmiş

In English

1. (The heart) has heard that the newly blossomed rose intends to go to the rose garden; the nightingale of the heart has cried out loudly in the cage of the body.

2. That flirtatious beauty, saying "I have trampled you under the foot of disdain", has counted the wound opened by the hard spear as a cleft of gratitude. (The couplet is not wholly clear.)

3. See her face and neck with her red kaftan patterned with suns: they are the stars of Ferkadan shining at dawn; the sun has met with the morning.

4. The partridge of the heart, afraid of the snake of her tresses, fled to her eye; it went and built its nest in the talons of the falcon of cruelty.

5. That bloodthirsty drunken eye, whose lashes are swords for Âkif, yesterday took pity and gave him a soul-taking look.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets written in the hezec pattern "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün" of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is the verb "itmiş" (has done, is said to have done); the rhyme rests on the sound "-ân" in the words "gülsitân, fiġân, imtinân, ḳırân, âşiyân, cân-sitân". Building the refrain on the suffix "-miş", which reports what was heard from others or noticed afterwards, gives the ghazal the air of a story. The number is the order of the sample poem in the article by Öntürk and Tunçadam; the poem's number among the ghazals of the divan is not given in the article.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Bird imagery dominates the ghazal. In the opening couplet the beloved is a rose about to go to the rose garden, and the lover's heart a nightingale crying in the cage of the body. In the fourth couplet the heart becomes a partridge: it flees from the beloved's tresses, likened to a snake, but the eye in which it takes refuge is the talons of the falcon of cruelty. Thus the place taken for safety becomes a greater danger. In the third couplet the beloved's face and neck, seen within her red kaftan, are likened to stars shining in the red of dawn and to the sun meeting the morning; the word "ḳırân" is an astrologer's term for the conjunction of two heavenly bodies in one sign. The pen-name couplet ends in a contrast: the drunken eye takes pity and casts a look, but the look is deadly. The meaning of the second couplet is given approximately.

Historical Context

To whom and when the ghazal was written is unknown; the poem contains no reference to a historical person or event. 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. 278). https://doi.org/10.28981/hikmet.683811

Online sources