Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gül-i ʿanber-nesîm-i gülbün-i nâz
Nihâl-i gülsitân-ı nâz u aġrâz
Ayaġı tozı tâc-ı farḳ-ı şâhân
Ṣaçınuñ küfri dîn-i ehl-i îmân
Mücessed nûr ol nûr-ı İlâhî
Özi esnâm-ı Çînüñ secdegâhı
İki ġarrâ hilâli ʿanber-âgîn
Elifdür mâh içinde medd-i sîmîn
Ḳamer-âsâ yüzinde câ-be-câ ḫâl
Ḳamer ʿaşḳında geymişdür ḳara şâl

In English

1. She is the amber-scented rose of the rosebush of coquetry, the sapling of the rose garden of coquetry and desires.

2. The dust of her feet is the crown on the heads of kings; the unbelief (the jet-black covering) of her hair is the religion of the faithful.

3. She is light made flesh, a divine light; she herself is the place before which the idols of China bow down.

4. She has two bright crescents (eyebrows) filled with amber; within the moon (her face) she is an elif with a silver madda sign (her nose). (The couplet can be read in two ways; see the commentary below.)

5. On her moon-like face there are moles here and there; and the moon, for love of her, has put on a black shawl.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Latîfî quotes these five couplets from Kâmî's lost Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, from the section "evṣâf-ı Züleyḫâda", describing Zuleikha's beauty, and says they are "ḫûb vâḳiʿ olmışdur", well expressed. They are mesnevi couplets; the two lines of each couplet rhyme with each other: "nâz / aġrâz", "şâhân / îmân", "İlâhî / secdegâhı", "ʿanber-âgîn / sîmîn", "ḫâl / şâl". The fragment is found only in Latîfî. The word "aġrâz" at the end of the first couplet is read thus in the edition; it means "aims, purposes", and we have rendered it as "coquetry and desires". The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The fragment applies to Zuleikha the divan tradition of describing the beloved from head to foot. The first couplet makes her the finest rose and sapling of a garden. The second couplet is built on antithesis: the dust of her feet is as precious as the crown of kings, while the "unbelief" of her hair has become the religion of the faithful. The root meaning of "küfür" (unbelief) is to cover, and this is why in divan poetry the beloved's black hair is likened to unbelief. That even believers should adopt this unbelief as their faith is a daring hyperbole expressing that beauty cannot be resisted. In the third couplet Zuleikha is called "light made flesh", and the idols of China are said to bow down before her. The beauties of China and Turkestan are likened to idols in divan poetry; here even the idols bow before her.

The fourth couplet draws the face with letters. The eyebrows are two bright crescents, amber-scented or amber-coloured. The face is the moon, and the upright line within the moon, the nose, is elif, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet. The phrase "medd-i sîmîn" (silver madda) refers to the wavy madda sign placed above the elif. The couplet can be read in two ways: the madda sign may be the arch of the eyebrows over the elif-nose, or it may describe the brightness of the face with its silver gleam. The reading is ours. In the last couplet there is poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil): the spots on the moon's face are explained as a black shawl the moon has put on out of love for Zuleikha. This link between the moles on Zuleikha's face and the spots of the moon builds the couplet like a mirror, through the repetition of the word "ḳamer" (moon).

Historical Context

According to Latîfî, in these descriptions Kâmî drew ideas not only from Jâmî but from the Yûsuf u Züleyhâ poems of Hamdî and Selâmî, from Nizâmî and from other mesnevis, but gave them his own expression. Latîfî says that Kâmî created "nâzük ü rengîn ʿacîb ü ġarîb ṣanʿatlar", delicate, colourful and surprising artistry, in his Joseph story; this fragment is an example of that judgement. Âşık Çelebi introduces this Kâmî as Mehmed Çelebi, nephew of Şeyh Cemâl. 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