Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Gerçi olmaz güzel ol serv-i ser-efrâz gibi
Güzel oldur ki kolunda ola şehbâz gibi

In English

1. True, no beauty is found like that cypress with its head held high; yet the real beauty is the one who rests on the arm like a falcon. (The couplet can be read in two ways; see the commentary below.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal (gazel); both its lines end in the sounds "-âz gibi". The redif (refrain word) is "gibi" (like), and the rhyme is the sound "-âz" in "ser-efrâz" and "şehbâz". The rest of the ghazal is unknown. The couplet appears in Âşık Çelebi under the heading "Maṭlaʿ", and in Kınalızâde and Beyânî together with Kâmî's ghazal fragment. There are small differences between the texts: Kınalızâde reads "kolunda", Beyânî "kolında", and Âşık Çelebi "ḳoluñda" (on your arm). The couplet is absent from manuscript F of Âşık Çelebi's edition. The editions of the tezkires do not indicate the metre. To whom it was addressed is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet begins with the commonest simile for the beloved's stature in divan poetry, the cypress. "Serv-i ser-efrâz" is the tall, upright cypress raising its head to the sky. The poet first says that this beauty has no equal, then in the second line finds the real beauty elsewhere: it is the beauty who stands as though a falcon had alighted on the arm. The falcon was the ornament of the hunting gatherings of sultans and lords, and a falcon carried on the arm expresses both nobility and a tamed wild beauty. The couplet can therefore be read in two ways. According to Kınalızâde's text, the real beauty is the one at the hunt who carries a falcon on the arm; the beloved is a hunter and the lover's heart is the prey. According to Âşık Çelebi's reading "ḳoluñda", the real beauty is the beloved who rests on your arm like a falcon, that is, never leaves your side. Both readings are ours.

The craft of the couplet lies in the contrast drawn between cypress and falcon. The cypress is a beauty admired from afar and untouchable; the falcon is a creature that perches on the arm and stays close. With the word "gerçi" (true, although) the poet first gives the cypress its due, then with "güzel oldur ki" (the beautiful one is the one who) redefines beauty according to his own preference. In this respect the couplet resembles a small statement of judgement debating what beauty is. The repetition of the word "güzel" in both lines also underlines this search for a definition.

Historical Context

Âşık Çelebi, Kınalızâde and Beyânî assign this couplet to Kâmî, whom they introduce as the nephew of Şeyh Cemâl. According to Kınalızâde and Âşık Çelebi this poet obtained his candidacy from Müftü Ali Çelebi, served as a judge and 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

Primary sources

Online sources