Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Tīşe-i āh u fiġānım ile nerm olmadı hīç
Ṣan timürdür yüregi o güzel-i ḥaddādıñ
Elem-i sīb-i zenaḫdān-ıla öldi Vāżıḥ
Geliñ ey ehl-i ma‘ārif siz aña eyvā diñ

In English

1. It never softened under the pickaxe of my sighs and laments; the heart of that blacksmith beauty is, as it were, made of iron.

2. Vâzıh has died of grief for the apple of the chin; come, O men of learning and culture, say "alas" for him.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This two-couplet poem is the fifth piece in the Mukatta‘ât section of the Dîvânçe. Babaarslan describes it as a kıt‘a; Özçakmak, who counts most of the poems of the section as nazm, also sets this one apart as a kıt‘a. In a kıt‘a only the even lines rhyme: here "ḥaddādıñ" answers "eyvā diñ". The poem is written in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the second couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet describes a beauty who practises a trade: the beloved is a blacksmith (ḥaddād). The poet compares his sighs and laments to a pickaxe and says that even this pickaxe could not soften the beloved's heart. In divan poetry the word "tīşe" recalls the pickaxe of Farhad, who cut through the mountain for Shirin; a heart that does not soften even under the tool of the lover who could pierce a mountain must be made of iron. The link between the blacksmith and iron gives the couplet a congruence of images (tenasüp).

In the second couplet the beloved's chin is compared to an apple; "sīb-i zenaḫdān" (the apple of the chin) is one of the familiar motifs of divan poetry. The poet speaks of himself in the third person, as if announcing his own death, and calls the men of learning to mourn. The meeting in rhyme of "eyvā diñ" (say alas) with "ḥaddādıñ" (of the blacksmith) gives the couplets a playful air of sound. Babaarslan notes that Vâzıh wrote in a light, coquettish manner and carried the daily life of his time into his poetry; this kıt‘a written to a tradesman beauty belongs to that line.

Bibliography

Academic studies

  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1922-1984 (text of the poem: p. 1962; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 68b). 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). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Fatma Özçakmak, "Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi ve Dîvânçe'si", Kesit Akademi Dergisi, 7(26), 2021, pp. 255-278, p. 274.

Online sources