Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Rûm ilin, yüzüŋ göreli göŋlüm yurd eyledi,
Göreli gözüŋi lîkin rây-ı Türkistân ider.

In English

1. Since seeing your face, my heart has made the land of Rum (Anatolia) its home; but since seeing your eye, it longs for Turkestan.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is quoted in Nevzat Özkan's article with the reference KBD 183/6 and comes from the ghazal section of the divan. From the line before on the same page Özkan also gives the couplet "Ħâlüŋi göreli cânum ‘azm-i Hindustân ider, / Göŋlümi acebleme ger ķasd-ı Erzincân ider" (KBD 183/5). Since the two couplets share the rhyme "-ân" (Hindustân, Erzincân, Türkistân) and the redif (refrain word) "ider" and stand one after the other in the divan, they must be consecutive couplets of the same ghazal (gazel); this is an inference the source does not state. As Ergin's edition could not be consulted, the whole ghazal cannot be given, and the source does not give the metre. The poet's divan, its editions and his other poems are discussed in Kadı Burhaneddin: Literary Persona, Divan and Poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet pairs two features of the beloved's beauty with two lands. As Özkan explains, in divan poetry the land of Rum, that is Anatolia, is regarded as the home of fair-skinned people and so stands for whiteness, brightness and beauty, and is likened to the beloved's fair face. Turkestan is the encampment of gazelles, that is, of beautiful-eyed deer, and calls up the beloved's eye. The face is thus bound to Anatolia and the eye to Turkestan; the poet's heart seems caught between these two beauties as between two lands.

In the couplet the word "göreli" (since seeing) is repeated in both lines and marks two separate starting points: seeing the face has settled the heart in Anatolia, seeing the eye has drawn it towards Turkestan. In the first line the face is named first and in the second the eye; the two lands correspond to them in that order. The repetition and this orderly pairing are our own observations. In the preceding couplet (KBD 183/5) the beloved's beauty spot is bound in the same way to India, and the poet asks not to be blamed if he sets out for Erzincan; this part of the ghazal proceeds like a series naming the beloved's beauties one by one after lands.

Historical Context

According to Özkan, Kadı Burhaneddin, like his other kinsmen who had made Anatolia their home, never forgot that his roots lay in Turkestan, and this couplet is an expression of that feeling. As Özkan relates, the poet's family belonged to the Salur tribe of the Oghuz who had migrated from Khwarazm to Anatolia. The name Erzincan in the preceding couplet Özkan connects with the conflict Kadı Burhaneddin entered into in 1385 with Mutahharten, lord of Erzincan. The date of the ghazal is not known.

Bibliography

Online sources