Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Daḫî bin ḫâṣ üştür kûh-ı kûhân
Bülendân püşte püştân pür-şükûhân
Bedenler kûh ammâ yoḳ sütûnı
Sütûn ile çekerler Bî-sütûnı
Hem aṣḥâb-ı ḳanâʿat gibi kem-ḫˇâr
Hem erbâb-ı kerem gibi kem-âzâr

In English

1. There were also a thousand choice camels with humps like mountains; their backs were high, their backs majestic.

2. Their bodies were mountains but they had no pillars; yet with their pillars (their legs) they would haul Mount Bîsütun.

3. Like the people of contentment they ate little, and like the generous they seldom hurt anyone.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

Immediately after the description of horses he quotes from Kâmî's lost Yûsuf u Züleyhâ, Latîfî gives these three couplets under the heading "ṣıfat-ı üştür", the description of the camel. They are mesnevi couplets, and the two lines of each couplet rhyme with each other: "kûhân / pür-şükûhân", "sütûnı / Bî-sütûnı", "kem-ḫˇâr / kem-âzâr". The fragment is found only in Latîfî. In which scene of the story the camels are described is unknown; together with the description of horses they may belong to a scene of a great caravan or procession, but this is a guess. The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Each couplet of the fragment rests on the repetition of sounds. In the first couplet "kûh" (mountain) and "kûhân" (hump), and in the second line "püşte" (hill, high back) and "püştân" (backs), are set side by side. These sound resemblances make the camel's huge, mountain-like body felt through the weight of the words as well. The second couplet is the most skilful part of the fragment. The camels' bodies are like mountains, but unlike mountains they have no "sütun", no pillars beneath them. Yet with "sütun", that is, with their four slender legs, they haul "Bî-sütûn". Bîsütun is the name of the famous mountain in Iran that figures in the story of Ferhad and Shirin, and its literal meaning is "without pillars". The couplet thus creates both an antithesis and a pun: the camels, themselves like pillarless mountains, are strong enough to carry the pillarless mountain on their pillars. Hauling Mount Bîsütun is a hyperbole expressing the size of the load the camels bear.

The last couplet gives the camels moral qualities. The camel's ability to travel far on little water and fodder is likened to the frugality of the contented. Its docility and harmlessness are likewise equated with the generous, who hurt no one. The sound resemblance between "kem-ḫˇâr" (eating little) and "kem-âzâr" (hurting little) carries the music of the couplet. The turning of an animal description into a moral lesson shows how in the mesnevi tradition description is often joined with counsel.

Historical Context

Right after this fragment Latîfî says that Kâmî's verse was natural and abundant but remained far from fame. Stating that the Yûsuf u Züleyhâ was a translation from Jâmî and that Kâmî also drew on other mesnevis, Latîfî holds that the work was outstanding in subtlety and art. 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