Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Güle gûş itdüremez yok yire bülbül inler
‘Işk destânını şimdi kim okur kim dinler
Bende-i halka be-gûşum diyü yâd itdi meger
Beni ol verd-i letâfet ki kulagum çınlar

In English

1. The nightingale cannot make the rose listen; it laments in vain. Who now recites the epic of love, who listens to it.

2. That rose of grace must have remembered me as "my slave with the ring in his ear", for my ear is ringing.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These two couplets are the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal (gazel) and the couplet that follows it. The redif (refrain word) is "-ler", and the rhyme is the sound "-nler" in the verbs "inle-, dinle-, çınla-". The rest of the ghazal and its pen-name couplet are unknown. The fragment is Kâmî's most frequently quoted poem in the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire). Kınalızâde and Beyânî give the two couplets together. Âşık Çelebi also records both couplets, with the differences "itdürimez ... iñler / ʿIşḳ destânını şimdi kim oḳır kim diñler"; in manuscript P of his edition the word "meger" in the second couplet reads "gibi". Latîfî gives only the opening couplet, in the form "ʿAşḳ destânını şimdi oḳur kim diñler", at the end of his entry on Kâmî-i Karamânî. The editions of the tezkires do not indicate the metre. To whom it was addressed is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet takes as its subject the best-known pair of divan poetry, the rose and the nightingale. The nightingale laments till morning before the beauty of the rose, but the rose does not listen to it. The poet turns this familiar scene into a complaint: the nightingale's cry is in vain, for there is no longer anyone left to recite or to listen to the epic of love. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between the word "gûş" (ear) and the verb "dinlemek" (to listen), and the second couplet continues this image of the ear. The second line of the opening couplet can be read as a general judgement lamenting an age's indifference to love and poetry. This reading adds to the couplet a criticism of the times beyond the rose and the nightingale.

The second couplet rests on a widespread popular belief: when someone mentions you, your ear rings. The poet interprets the ringing of his ear as the beloved having mentioned him as "bende-i ḥalḳa-be-gûş", that is, my slave with the ring in his ear. In former times a ring worn in the ear was a sign of servitude and loyalty. Thus the ringing of the ear, the ring in the ear and the beloved's remembrance merge into a single image. Calling the beloved "verd-i leṭâfet" (rose of grace) turns the rose of the opening couplet into the beloved in the second. The implicit likeness between nightingale and lover, rose and beloved, thus arrives at an open equation. This last observation is our interpretation.

Historical Context

That four tezkires assign these couplets to the same person, Kâmî the relative of Şeyh Cemâl, makes the fragment's attribution to Kâmî strong. Latîfî introduces this poet as Kâmî of Karaman, while Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde and Beyânî introduce him as Şeyh Cemâl's nephew. According to Âşık Çelebi his name was Mehmed Çelebi and he died in 952 (1545-46). Whether he is the same person as the Kâmî mentioned by Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar in Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle is not certain. This fragment is also mentioned, with the same reservation, in the site's article on Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle. The question of identity is discussed in detail in the article Kâmî (Prince Ahmed's Circle).

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources