Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Yola ʿazm itse her biri sebük-ḫîz
Dürerlerdi yoluñ menşûrını tîz
Şinâver yemde hemçû murġ-ı âbî
Devende yerde âhû-veş şitâbı
Ururlar yâra ṣadr-ı senge sümden
Şikeste-bâl iderler murġı dümden

In English

1. When these horses, each of them light of step, set out on the road, they would swiftly roll up the unrolled decree of the road like a scroll.

2. At sea they swam like water birds; on land they ran swift as gazelles.

3. With their hooves they wound the breast of the rock; with their tails they break the wings of the bird.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Latîfî quotes these three couplets from Kâmî's lost Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, from a section on "ṣıfât-ı esb-i ṣabâ-şitâb", the description of horses swift as the morning breeze. They are mesnevi couplets, and the two lines of each couplet rhyme with each other: "sebük-ḫîz / tîz", "âbî / şitâbı", "sümden / dümden". The fragment is found only in Latîfî. A description of camels from the same work follows immediately, and that fragment is given on a separate page in this category. In which scene of the story the horses are described is unknown. The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In mesnevis the description of horses is a familiar section in which the poet displays his skill at conveying speed and power through exaggerated similes. In the first couplet the road is imagined as an unrolled decree or scroll. The word "menşûr" means both an imperial decree and "spread out, unrolled". When the horses take the road they roll up this open scroll in an instant; that is, they fold and shorten the road. Rolling up distance like paper is an elegant metaphor for speed. The second couplet shows the horses as superior both at sea and on land. Their crossing water like water birds and running like gazelles on land is a simile drawn from the most agile creatures of two different realms.

In the third couplet the two lines are built in parallel: the words "sümden" (with the hoof) and "dümden" (with the tail) differ only in their first letter and carry the rhyme. The hooves are hard enough to wound the breast of the rock, the tails swift enough to break a bird's wing. A bird's wing broken by the flick of a tail is a hyperbolic way of saying that the horses run fast enough to leave birds behind. This interpretation is ours. The picture drawn between stone, bird, sea and land presents a scene in which the horses conquer the whole of nature.

Historical Context

Latîfî says that in Kâmî's mesnevi art and imagination reached the limit the human mind can attain, and gives this fragment among the examples of that judgement. In the same place he adds that the poet's verse was natural and abundant but remained far from fame. According to Âşık Çelebi and Kınalızâde the work was lost after the poet's death. 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