Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: eleven-syllable syllabic metre

Nazlı yâr bir derde giriftar olmuş
Hayali gönlüme gelip gidiyor
Dedim kaşı karam yâr sana noldu
Gün günü gül benzim solup gidiyor
Yâr senin derdine ortak olayım
Demir çarık giyip derman bulayım
Eğer öl dersen bu günden öleyim
Nice koç yiğitler ölüp gidiyor
Kalbimin aynası ol kaşı kara
Bulamadım senin derdine çare
Dedim dilber sarılalım bir kere
Hasret kıyamete kalıp gidiyor
Güzel olanların kalbi pak olur
İkrar veren ikrarında bek olur
Yârdan ayrılanın bağrı yok olur
Gözlerim kan ile dolup gidiyor
Sefil Kul Hüseyn’im uğradım dosta
Sen sağ ol sevdiğim ben olam hasta
Giymişsin karayı kalmışsın yasta
Eller yiyip içip gülüp gidiyor

In English

1. My coy beloved has been seized by an illness; her image comes and goes in my heart. I said, "my dark-browed one, what has befallen you"; day by day her rose complexion fades away.

2. Beloved, let me share your pain; let me wear iron sandals and find a cure. If you say "die", let me die from this very day; so many ram-like brave men die and pass away.

3. That dark brow is the mirror of my heart; I could not find a cure for your pain. I said, "beauty, let us embrace once"; the longing remains until the Day of Judgement.

4. The heart of those who are beautiful is pure; one who gives a pledge stands firm in his pledge. The breast of one parted from the beloved is lost; my eyes keep filling with blood.

5. I, poor Kul Hüseyin, called upon the friend; may you be well, my love, let me be the sick one. You have put on black, you have stayed in mourning; other people eat and drink and laugh and pass on.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In lines two and four of the quatrains the redif "gidiyor" (goes on, passes away) records a wasting away; before it come the converbs "gelip, solup, ölüp, kalıp, dolup, gülüp" (coming, fading, dying, remaining, filling, laughing). The rhymes of the odd-numbered lines are brief: "olmuş, noldu", "olayım, öleyim", "kara, kere", "pak olur, bek olur", "dosta, yasta". The five quatrains are in the eleven-syllable syllabic metre; Işık counts the text as a güzelleme. In the last stanza the poet names himself "Sefil Kul Hüseyn'im" (his pen name, or mahlas). The text was collected from Halil Sezgin.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

We hear the voice of a lover watching at the bedside of a beloved fallen ill. The rose complexion fading day by day and the question "what has befallen you" put to the dark-browed beloved give the scene an everyday and moving air. In the second quatrain the lover says, with an image known from folk tales, that he is ready to wear iron sandals and seek a cure; he is willing even to die if the beloved wishes it. The line "so many ram-like brave men die and pass away" makes this sacrifice seem an ordinary thing by recalling the inevitability of death.

The third and fourth quatrains name the mirror of the beloved's heart, its purity and its faithfulness to the pledge; the lover's pain of separation is conveyed by the eyes filling with blood. In the last quatrain the lover wishes to be sick in the beloved's place and sees her dressed in black and in mourning; the other people of the world meanwhile pass on, eating, drinking and laughing. This contrast shows in a plain scene the loneliness of the one who suffers and the world's indifference to him.

Bibliography

Online sources