Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Āsumān-mertebedir ḫāne-i köhnem yārān
Ṭamlayor anıñ içün ḳaṭre-be-ḳaṭre yārān

In English

1. Friends, my old house is of heavenly rank; that is why it drips drop by drop (as rain falls from the sky), friends.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The second couplet of the "Ebyât" section is also an independent couplet in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". Both lines end with the word "yārān" (friends); the poet begins by addressing his friends and closes with the same sound. This repetition gives the single couplet a rhyming effect like the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal. When it was said is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet jokes about an old house with a leaking roof. "Āsumān-mertebe" (of heavenly rank) recalls the laudatory epithets given in Ottoman prose to holders of high office. Vâzıh gives this lofty epithet to his own dilapidated house and states his reason in the second line: because the house is as exalted as the sky, it drips like the sky. The link drawn between rain falling from the sky and water seeping through the roof is a playful example of hüsn-i ta‘lîl (fanciful aetiology); the real cause is the age of the house, but the poet invents a pleasing and surprising one. There is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "āsumān" (sky) and "ḳaṭre" (drop).

The couplet is a small example of the tendency Babaarslan sees in Vâzıh's ghazals to take scenes from everyday life. Though known as a great scholar, the poet does not hesitate to make fun of his own poor circumstances. Whether the word "yārān" in the second line is "bārān" (rain) in the manuscript cannot be determined from the edition; read that way, the line would mean "the rain drips drop by drop". We have not altered the edition's reading; this possibility is only our conjecture.

Bibliography

  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1922-1984 (text of the poem: p. 1967; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 70a). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1924-1928 (life and description of the Dîvânçe; the "Ebyât" section: p. 1928). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264

Online sources