Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Ey Amasya ḫalḳı kim ṣanmañ ziyânım var size
Bir du‘âcı ṣâf-ı dil ṭâhir dehânım var size
Seng-i ḫarâsına ger nazm etmege me’mûr olup
Saḫt-ı dilde kilk-i ‘ışḳ-ile nişânım var size
Dâr-ı miḫnetden geçip bilmek gerekdir raġbetim
Gel ṭutuñ kim dâmenim dârü’l-emânım var size
Ey ḫarîdâr-ı mücevher genc-i esrârım gözet
Bir hediye cevheri genc-i nihânım var size
Ṭûṭî-veş şi‘rî şükr-i güftâr olup Mir’at-nümâ
‘Andelîb âsâ şükr-i güftâr zebânım var size

In English

1. O people of Amasya, do not think I bring you any harm; I am to you a man of prayer, pure of heart and clean of mouth.

2. Charged with setting verse into the stone of your hard hearts, I have a mark for you, written with the pen of love on hearts grown hard.

3. One must pass beyond the house of sorrow to know my longing; come, hold my hem, I have a house of safety for you.

4. O buyer of jewels, look to my treasury of secrets; I have for you a jewel as a gift, a hidden treasure.

5. Mir'ât-nümâ, like a parrot my verse speaks thanks; like a nightingale I have for you a tongue that gives thanks.

Literary and Historical Commentary

An Address to the City

The tone is softer and more inviting than before: this is the book's second ghazal to speak directly to the people of Amasya. The opening couplet openly takes up the city's suspicion of the sheikh: “Ey Amasya ḫalḳı kim ṣanmañ ziyânım var size”, O people of Amasya, do not think I bring you harm. The poet presents himself not as a source of harm but as “ṣâf-ı dil ṭâhir dehân”, a man of prayer pure of heart and clean of mouth. Tied to the refrain “var size”, I have for you, every couplet, in the remel pattern most often found in the book's ghazals, names something the poet brings to the city: prayer, the mark of the pen of love, a house of safety, a hidden treasure, a tongue of thanks.

The second couplet carries the ghazal's harshest image: the hearts of the people of Amasya are like “seng-i ḫârâ”, hard granite, and the poet is “me'mûr”, charged, to leave a mark on this stone with the pen of love. The pen writing on stone is an image that recalls the work of an inscription carver; at the same time it expresses the sheikh's task in the city, the softening of hard hearts. In the third and fourth couplets the poet invites the people to hold his hem and to value his treasury of secrets.

Hüsameddin records that Süleyman Efendi came to Amasya in 1292 at the wish of certain people, opposed the attitude of Nigârî's circle in the city and in time won the hearts of the people. This ghazal may be thought of as the voice of a stranger facing the city's suspicion before that trust was won; the date of the poem is unknown. In the closing couplet, which bears the pen name, the comparisons with the parrot and the nightingale bind the poet's words to gratitude.

Bibliography

Online sources