Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: 11-syllable syllabic metre

Göreli çeşmiňi ey ḳaşı kemân
Beňzetdim rûyıňı güle sevdiğim
Zerrece göğsünde yoḳ mıdır îmân
‘Âşıḳı güldürdün ele sevdiğim

In English

1. O bow-browed one, ever since I saw your eye I have likened your face to a rose, my beloved. Is there not a grain of faith in your breast? You have made your lover the laughing-stock of strangers, made him ridiculous to everyone, my beloved.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The quatrain is the first stanza of a koşma recorded under the name Mahsûnî on page 97 of the Merzifon Cönkü. Because Metin Hakverdioğlu gives only the first unit of each poem, the number of stanzas and the pen-name stanza are not known; the whole poem is in the cönk. The lines have eleven syllables each; the syllable count is ours. The first and third lines rhyme in "kemân" and "îmân", the second and fourth in "güle" and "ele", and these end with the refrain "sevdiğim". The opening word "Göreli" means "ever since I saw" and is a verbal adverb form often used in folk poetry.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The quatrain begins in praise and ends in reproach. In the first two lines the beloved's brow is likened to a bow and her face to a rose; since the bow is a weapon that shoots arrows, the image also implies that her glance wounds the lover. In the third line the tone suddenly changes: the question "is there not a grain of faith in your breast?" rests on the common hyperbole of folk and divan poetry that equates the beloved's cruelty with unbelief. Calling the beloved an "infidel" or "faithless" is a familiar way of expressing her lack of mercy. In the last line the lover complains that the beloved has made him laughable to "el", to strangers; being disgraced by love is a theme often treated in folk poetry. The rhyme of "güle" (to a rose) and "ele" (to strangers) sets the beauty of the face against the ridiculous state into which the lover has fallen.

Historical Context

Who Mahsûnî was is not known; his name appears only in this cönk. That the article spells the name in two ways, "Mahsunî" and "Mahsûnî", and that the pen name common in Ottoman poetry is "Mahzûnî", suggests that the name in the cönk may be a reading of this pen name; this is our own observation. What is known of the poet is set out in the biography of Mahsûnî.

Bibliography

Online sources