Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Heading: CEVĀB-I ‘ĀKİF-ZĀDE

Metre: fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilātün / fe‘ilün

Semt-i aḥbāba geçit virmese ırmaġ ne ġam
Gözlerin sevdigim ol köpri hemān var olsun

In English

1. What matter if the river gives no ford to the friends' quarter; so long as that bridge, whose eyes I love, still stands.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This single couplet is not by Vâzıh but by his friend Âkif-zâde; its heading in the manuscript is "Cevāb-ı ‘Āḳif-zāde", "Âkif-zâde's reply". In the couplet just before it in the Dîvânçe, Vâzıh apologised for being unable to visit Âkif-zâde in İçeri Şehir because the Amasya river had flooded, and asked, "do the waters give a ford for going to the beloved?" (Chronogram 28). This couplet is the answer to that question. Babaarslan states that he treats the two couplets in this section because they stand among the chronograms in the Dîvânçe, although they are not chronograms; there is no date calculation in this couplet. It is in the same metre as Vâzıh's couplet, the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The reply removes the obstacle Vâzıh raised by means of wordplay. Even if the river gives no ford, there is the bridge; in Turkish the arches of a bridge are called its "eyes" (göz). The phrase "gözlerin sevdiğim" (whose eyes I love) also recalls the idiom "gözünü sevdiğim", used when addressing someone affectionately and imploringly. The line can thus be read both as "that bridge whose eyes (arches) I love" and as "ah, my dear, that bridge". The link drawn in Vâzıh's couplet between tears (eşk) and the flood waters also echoes in this reply: the bridge's "eyes" also point to the friend's eyes. In short, Âkif-zâde does not accept the flood as an excuse and invites his friend to cross the bridge and come. This analysis is ours.

Historical Context

Âkif-zâde was a member of the Îdîzâde family, one of the well-known scholarly families of Amasya. Hüsameddin writes that Îdîzâde Âkif Mustafa Efendi gathered men of learning and letters for conversation in his house in İçerişehir, opposite the Câmi-i Kebîr. It is highly likely that the Âkif-zâde not named in the heading was Âkifzâde es-Seyyid Abdürrahîm Efendi, grandson of Âkif Mustafa Efendi, with whom Vâzıh wrote a joint ghazal; this is an inference. Hüsameddin records that he became inspector of the Haremeyn (the holy cities) in 1226 and died in 1231 (1816). The word "merhum" (the late) in the heading of Vâzıh's couplet shows that the two couplets were entered in the Dîvânçe after Âkif-zâde's death.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1922-1984 (text of the poem: p. 1983; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 76b). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1924-1930 (life and description of the Dîvânçe; poems nos. 28 and 29: p. 1929). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264

Online sources