Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ey ḥâkim-i fermânda mülk-i muṭlaḳ
Eyle beni ṣınf-i ḫafâya mülḥaḳ
Ḳıl ṭîġ-i zebânımla virüp şer‘le âb
Teşrîḥ-i ‘urûḳ-ı beden da‘vî-yi Ḥaḳ

In English

1. O sovereign whose decree prevails in the absolute realm (God), join me to the company of the hidden servants.

2. Temper the sword of my tongue with the law and let me lay open (dissect) with it the veins of the body of God's cause. (The couplet is not wholly clear.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a rubai (rubâî, quatrain) of four lines; the first, second and fourth lines rhyme with the words "muṭlaḳ, mülḥaḳ, Ḥaḳ". The edition does not give the metre. It is the second example from the quatrains section of the divan given in the article. Since the letter "ṭ" appears as "š" in the PDF of the edition, the word "ṭîġ" has been corrected.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The quatrain is a prayer. In the first two lines the poet asks God, whom he names as owner of the absolute realm, to join him to "ṣınf-ı ḫafâ", the company of servants who remain hidden. The last two lines speak with a scholar's tongue: "giving water to a sword" means hardening steel by plunging it into water; the poet likens his own tongue to a sword and the sacred law to the water that tempers it. "Teşrîḥ-i ‘urûḳ", opening and examining the veins, is a medical term; with this sword the veins of God's cause, that is, of the truth of religion, are to be laid open and shown. The reading of the couplet is not wholly clear and the rendering is approximate. This prayer from a mufti's tongue likens the task of explaining the truth through legal opinions and teaching to a surgeon's work.

Historical Context

According to Âkif's grandson, the poet was knowledgeable in medicine and had treated many patients; the image of dissection in the quatrain fits this interest, but the connection is our interpretation. The date of the quatrain is unknown. 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. 280). https://doi.org/10.28981/hikmet.683811

Online sources