Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Mâh-rûlar leblerine diş bilerdüm dem-be-dem
Ol ḳadar ṭaş urdılar aġzumda dendân ḳalmadı

In English

1. I was forever whetting my teeth for the lips of the moon-faced; they threw so many stones at me that not a tooth was left in my mouth.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The two lines of this single couplet, given in Latîfî's biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) under the heading "Beyt", do not rhyme; it may be an inner couplet of a ghazal (gazel) or a single couplet composed on its own (müfret). There is no repeated refrain word either. The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre. The other biographers do not quote this couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The wit of the couplet rests on the use of the idiom "diş bilemek" (to whet one's teeth) in both its figurative and its literal sense. The idiom describes craving something and setting one's sights on it. The poet says he "whetted his teeth" for the lips of the moon-faced beauties, that is, he longed to kiss those lips. The second line turns the idiom back to its literal meaning: the whetted teeth have been knocked out by the stones the beauties threw. In divan poetry the throwing of stones at a lover who has lost his reason through love, as at Mecnun (Majnun), is a familiar conceit. Melîhî turns this conceit into an explanation for a real lack in his own mouth, his toothlessness. Setting aside the real cause and inventing a pleasing one is the figure of hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology). "Dendân" (tooth) in the second line and "diş" in the first repeat the same idea in two languages; the words "leb" (lip), "diş" (tooth) and "aġız" (mouth) also form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

Historical Context

Latîfî relates the occasion of the couplet. Not a tooth was left in Melîhî's mouth. One day Mehmed II (the Conqueror) asked him what had happened to his teeth and why they had fallen out, since he was not very old, and the poet answered with this couplet. According to this account the couplet is a jest offered in answer to the sultan's question, and it shows Melîhî's character as a quick-witted boon companion at Mehmed II's gatherings. For the poet's life, see the article Melîhî of Tokat.

Bibliography

Online sources