Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ḥüsn-i Yûsuf görinelden ruḫ-ı cânânumda
Âyet-i miḥnet-i Yaʿḳûb oḳınur şânumda
Beni öldürmek içün irdügine mâyil olur
Ḥareketler görinür serv-i ḫırâmânumda
Baḥr-ı eşkümde ṭoġar oldı güneş Kâmî benüm
Çarḫ ġarḳ itdi meger fülkini ʿummânumda

In English

1. Ever since the beauty of Joseph appeared on my beloved's cheek, the verse of Jacob's suffering is recited concerning me.

2. In my gracefully swaying cypress (my beloved) movements appear that turn towards whomever they reach, in order to kill me. (The first half of the line is unclear; see the commentary below.)

3. O Kâmî, the sun has begun to rise from my sea of tears; it seems the heavens have sunk their ship in my ocean.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

After giving fragments of Kâmî's Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, Latîfî quotes these three couplets with the words "Bu şiʿr-i feṣâḥat-şiʿâr anuñ eşʿârındandur", this eloquent poem is among his verses. They are the opening couplet (matla), one middle couplet and the closing couplet (makta) of a ghazal (gazel). The redif (refrain word) is "-umda" (in my …), and the rhyme is the sound "-ân" in "cânân, şân, ḫırâmân, ʿummân". The poet's pen name (mahlas) "Kâmî" appears in the closing couplet. The other couplets of the ghazal are unknown. The fragment is found only in Latîfî. The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre. To whom it was addressed is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet alludes (telmih) to the Joseph story and recalls that the poet was the author of a Yûsuf u Züleyhâ. The beauty of Joseph has appeared on the beloved's face; the lover therefore takes the place of Jacob, who wept for years over the absence of his son. The phrase "âyet ... şânumda oḳınur" carries a double entendre (tevriye): a verse of the Qur'an is said to have been revealed "in the şân", that is, concerning a particular person. By saying that the verse describing Jacob's suffering is now recited concerning him, the poet places his own pain within a sacred story.

The phrase "irdügine mâyil olur" in the first line of the second couplet is unclear. The verb "irmek" means to reach, to attain; the line can be read as "in order to kill me, it turns towards whomever it reaches". The general sense of the couplet, however, is clear: every movement of the beloved, who walks swaying like a cypress, seems aimed at killing the lover. The cypress bending and straightening in the wind is likened to the beloved's coquettish gait. The closing couplet is the most skilful part of the poem. The lover's tears have become such a sea that the sun now rises from it. The poet explains this through poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil): the heavens must have sunk their ship, the sun, in the poet's ocean of tears. The sun's setting at evening and rising at dawn becomes a hyperbole expressing that the sea of tears stretches to the horizon. This reading is ours.

Historical Context

Latîfî introduces this Kâmî as from Karaman, a relative of Şeyh Cemâl and author of a Yûsuf u Züleyhâ translated from Jâmî. The allusion to Joseph and Jacob in the first couplet of the ghazal shows that the poet carried his closeness to this work into his ghazals as well. According to Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde this poet is Mehmed Çelebi, nephew of Şeyh Cemâl, who 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. The details are in the article Kâmî (Prince Ahmed's Circle).

Bibliography

Online sources