Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü / mefā‘īlü / mefā‘īlü / fe‘ūlün

Ey āfet-i devrān yeter oldı döneklik
Bu deñlü a sengīn-dilā eyleme beglik
Açmış ġam-ı ebrūsı ile dāġ-ı pür-envā‘
Bir ṭāḳda gūyā ten-i pür-ḫāk çiçeklik
Ruḫsārına ḫāl-i siyeh üşmüş megesāsā
Ol zülf-i perīşānı daḫi aña siñeklik
Düşvār olan dīde-i giryānımı ṭutmaḳ
Bu murġ-ı dili dirseñ eger çantada keklik

In English

1. O calamity of the age, enough of this fickleness; O stone-hearted one, do not play the lord so much.

2. Grief for his eyebrow has opened brand-wounds of every kind; it is as if a body full of earth beneath an arch were a flower pot.

3. Black beauty spots have swarmed over his cheek like flies; that dishevelled lock has become a fly whisk for it.

4. What is hard is to hold back my weeping eye; as for this bird of the heart, if you ask, it is a partridge already in the bag.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is the sixth piece in the Mukatta‘ât section of the Dîvânçe. Babaarslan describes it as a nazm. Nazm is the name used for short poems whose rules are not fixed like those of the ghazal or the kıt‘a and which need not carry a pen name; this poem too has no pen name (mahlas). It has four couplets and is written in the hezec pattern "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün". The rhyme rests on the "-eklik" of "döneklik, beglik, çiçeklik, siñeklik, keklik".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The piece stands out for its comparisons drawn from household objects and everyday speech. In the second couplet the brand-scars (dāġ) opened by grief for the eyebrow are compared to flowers, and the body full of earth to a flower pot. The word "ṭāḳ" suggests both an arched niche in a wall and the arch of the eyebrow; a flower pot set beneath an arch becomes a body blooming with wounds beneath the eyebrow. In the third couplet the black beauty spots on the cheek are compared to flies, and the dishevelled lock to the whisk used to drive flies away; "megesāsā" means "like flies".

The last couplet ends with an idiom. In Turkish "a partridge in the bag" is said of something certain to be obtained. The poet says that it is hard to hold back his weeping eye, while the bird of his heart is already in the beloved's hands. Özçakmak cites this couplet among the examples of Vâzıh's use of proverbs and idioms. Making rhymes of everyday words such as "döneklik, beylik, çiçeklik, sineklik, keklik" (fickleness, lordliness, flower pot, fly whisk, partridge) also gives the poem the plain, local colour that Babaarslan links to the trend of localisation (mahallîleşme).

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. 1963; 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, pp. 270-271.

Online sources