Original Ottoman Turkish Text

İlâhî nâmuñ ile ḫâme-i ʿışḳ
Yazar her nâmeye ser-nâme-i ʿışḳ

In English

1. O God, with Your name the pen of love writes the heading of love at the top of every letter (every book).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This couplet is the first couplet of Kâmî's lost mesnevi (narrative poem in rhyming couplets) Yûsuf u Züleyhâ. Âşık Çelebi gives it after relating that the poet put the story of Joseph into verse, with the words "Evveli budur", that is, this is the beginning of the work. In the mesnevi form the two lines of each couplet rhyme with each other; here the rhyme is the sound "-âme" in "ḫâme" and "nâme", and the redif (refrain word) is the phrase "-i ʿışḳ" (of love). In manuscript F of Âşık Çelebi's edition the second line reads "Yazaram nâmeye", that is, "I write"; in this reading it is the poet himself, not the pen, who writes. The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre. Since the work has not come down to us, which section of the mesnevi the couplet opened can only be guessed from the tradition.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In divan literature mesnevis usually begin with an introduction invoking the name of God, with sections in praise of His unity and in supplication. Kâmî too opens his work with the address "İlâhî" (O God) and ties the writing of the book to God's name. The word play in the couplet is striking: "nâm" (name), "nâme" (letter, book) and "ser-nâme" (the heading of a letter) turn around the same root. The pen of love writes God's name and the heading of love at the top of every letter. This alludes to the old tradition in which every letter and book opened with the basmala or the name of God. The parallel between "ḫâme-i ʿışḳ" (the pen of love) and "ser-nâme-i ʿışḳ" (the heading of love) announces that the subject of the writing will also be love. Since the story of Joseph and Zuleikha is read in mystical interpretation as the story of a passage from human to divine love, the mention of love together with God's name in the very first couplet agrees with this reading.

Historical Context

According to Âşık Çelebi, Kâmî used to say that he had seen the prophet Jacob in a dream, and he put the story of Joseph into verse. He completed the work, but after his death its leaves scattered like a bird's feathers and were lost. This couplet is one of two fragments surviving from the beginning of the work; the other is the five-couplet supplication passage quoted by Latîfî. Âşık Çelebi introduces this Kâmî as Mehmed Çelebi, nephew of Şeyh Cemâl. Whether the Kâmî mentioned by Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar in Prince Ahmed's Amasya circle is this person is not certain. The question of identity is discussed in detail in the article Kâmî (Prince Ahmed's Circle).

Bibliography

Online sources