Original Persian Text

Metre: Mefâ‘îlün Mefâ‘îlün Fe‘ûlün

بهارستان نکارستان ما نیست
و لیکن چون نکارستان ما نیست
Bahâristân Nigâristân-ı mâ nîst
Ve-lîken çün Nigâristân-ı mâ nîst
کلستان کتاب مانه هر باب
به از کلهای رنکین معانیست
Gülistân kitâb-ı mâ ne her bâb
Beh ez gülhâ-yı rengîn-i me‘ânî'st

In English

1. The Bahâristân is not our Nigâristân; fine as it may be, it is not like our Nigâristân.

2. Nor is the Gülistân our book; every bâb, that is, every chapter of our book is lovelier than many-coloured roses of meaning. If the word "مانه" (mâ ne) in the printed text is read as "ما به" (mâ be), the couplet can also be understood thus: "The rose garden of our book, in every chapter, is lovelier than many-coloured roses of meaning." Both readings say the same thing: the Nigâristân surpasses the two famous works it took as its models.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In this four-line Persian kıt‘a (short poem) the first, second and fourth lines rhyme on the sound "nîst", and the third line is free. This rhyme scheme recalls the rubâî (quatrain), but the metre is not one of the rubâî patterns; it is the hezec pattern "mefâ‘îlün mefâ‘îlün fe‘ûlün" of aruz (quantitative metre), and so the piece counts as a kıt‘a. The metre is not stated in the source; the Latin-script reading, the identification of the metre and the meaning are ours, since Hüsameddin gives the kıt‘a only in Arabic script and does not explain it. In the printed text the first two lines are identical apart from the words "ve-lîken çün"; this repetition suggests that the first line may have been corrupted when it was copied from a manuscript or typeset. The third line, as printed, does not fit the metre exactly either; the reading "Gülistân-ı kitâb-ı mâ be-her bâb" corrects both metre and meaning, but it is a conjecture. It has not been possible to compare the kıt‘a with its text in the manuscripts of the Nigâristân or in studies of that work.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The kıt‘a is a boasting poem in which an author compares his own work with the works he took as models and ranks it above them; in divan literature this is called fahriye (self-praise). Kemalpaşazâde's Nigâristân was written as a nazire (response work) to Sa‘dî's Gulistan and Jami's Baharistan; all three titles are names of gardens or places of beauty. Gülistân means rose garden, Bahâristân place of spring, and Nigâristân a place full of pictures and beautiful faces. The poet uses all these names together in the kıt‘a and makes the word "gül" (rose) echo three times in the second couplet: Gülistân, "gülhâ" (roses), and their transformation into a garden of meaning as "many-coloured roses of meaning". Using the titles of books as though they were the names of real gardens is tevriye (double entendre), and keeping together the images of rose, spring and picture is tenasüp (congruence of images). The word "bâb" has two senses as well: both door and chapter of a book. In classical works chapters are often called "bâb"; with this word the poet names at once the gates of a garden and the chapters of his book.

Historical Context

According to Hüsameddin the kıt‘a stands in the preface (mukaddime) of the Nigâristân, which Kemalpaşazâde wrote as a nazire to the Gülistân and the Bahâristân. The historian adds that two copies of the work, written in a fine ta‘lik hand, are in the Nuruosmaniye Library. The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam likewise mentions the Nigâristân as a Persian work written as a nazire to the Gülistân. Hüsameddin wished that Kemalpaşazâde had devoted some of the service he gave to Persian to Turkish; this kıt‘a shows that in Persian too he saw himself as an author able to compete with Sa‘dî and Jami.

Bibliography

Online sources