Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çeşm-i ‘āşıḳ gibi cūş eyledi enhār-ı Amasya
Ḫum-ı mey gibi ḫurūş eyledi enhār-ı Amasya
Ḥamdü lillāh bugün geldi bahār-ı vuṣlat
Serv-ḳadlerle ḳucuş eyledi enhār-ı Amasya
Ġażabından ḳudurup aġzına yıġıldı köpük
Cūşiş-i eşkimi gūş eyledi enhār-ı Amasya
Vāżıḥā ṣanma ḥabāb serv-i ḫırāmānlara
Göz idüp ‘arż-ı ġurūş eyledi enhār-ı [Amasya]

In English

1. Like the lover's eye the rivers of Amasya surged; like a vat of wine the rivers of Amasya roared.

2. Praise be to God, today the spring of union has come; the rivers of Amasya embraced the cypress-statured ones.

3. Raging with anger, foam heaped up at its mouth; the rivers of Amasya heard the surging of my tears.

4. O Vâzıh, do not take these for bubbles; the rivers of Amasya made eyes at the swaying cypresses and offered them coins (kuruş).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This poem is the fifteenth of the eighteen pieces in the section of the Dîvânçe headed "Mukatta‘ât". Babaarslan argues that some of these pieces, described in earlier studies as kıt‘a or nazm, are in fact incomplete (nâ-tamâm) ghazals with an opening couplet, and he counts this poem among them. It has four couplets in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "eyledi enhār-ı Amasya" (the rivers of Amasya did); the rhyme rests on the "-ūş" of "cūş, ḫurūş, ḳucuş, gūş, ġurūş". The word "[Amasya]" in the last line was completed by the editor in square brackets. The pen name appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the poem is the flooding of the rivers of Amasya. The poet compares the surging water first to the weeping eye of the lover and then to a seething vat of wine. In the second couplet the "spring of union" is joined with spring as the season of floods; the river that overflows its banks embraces the cypresses on the shore, or the cypress-statured beauties. In the third couplet the river is described as a creature mad with rage, foam gathering at its mouth, and the cause of the flood is said to be that it heard the surging of the poet's tears. This is hüsn-i ta‘lil, the poetic invention of a fanciful cause in place of the real one. The conceit of the last couplet compares the bubbles (ḥabāb) on the surface of the water to round silver kuruş coins: the river winks at the swaying beauties and offers them money. The closeness of "ḫurūş" (roaring) and "ġurūş" (coins) in the rhyme closes the poem with a play on words; this observation is ours.

Historical Context

This is one of the few poems by Vâzıh that name Amasya, and it treats the flooding of the river as an event of the city's daily life. Another piece in the Dîvânçe shows how the same event touched the poet's life: according to the heading of Chronogram 28, Vâzıh could not go to visit the house of "the late Âkif-zâde" in İçeri Şehir because the river of Amasya was in heavy flood, and he sent his apology in a couplet. İçeri Şehir is the bank of the river on the side of the citadel. Hüsameddin's descriptions of the quarters also show neighbourhoods on the river; for example the Saraçhane quarter, south-east of the Alçak Köprü (Low Bridge), was bounded on the north by the Yeşilırmak. The two banks of the city were linked by such bridges. It is not known which year's flood this poem was written for.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources