Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Ḳanā‘at k’olmaya ṭoyulmaz aṣlā
Ḳızıl altundan olursa virāküñ

In English

1. Where there is no contentment, one is never satisfied, even if your gear (equipment) is of red gold. (For the meaning of the word "virāk", see the commentary.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The third müfred of the edition is a single couplet in the metre "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün"; the lines end on "aṣlā" and "virāküñ" and do not rhyme. This is the form of the müfred that the Kubbealtı Lugatı defines as a single couplet with unrhymed lines. Ersoy writes in his introduction that the nine müfreds are found only in the Vatican manuscript and that all of them are in Turkish. For whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet states the idea of contentment from the 1st müfred from another side: one who lacks contentment is never satisfied, however rich he may be. The verb "ṭoyulmaz" (one is not sated) comes from everyday speech and lends the judgement a concrete weight. "Red gold" is the name of pure, precious gold; even the brightest show of wealth is not enough for a heart that is never sated.

The word "virāk" is not explained in the edition, and we have not found it in this form in the dictionaries. It may be a reading of the word "yarak", which the Kubbealtı Lugatı explains as weapon of war, arms, and preparation, material, equipment; the rendering "gear, equipment" in the translation rests on this guess (our reading). Even if the word means something else, the main idea of the couplet does not change: however precious the outward finery, without contentment there is no satisfaction.

Bibliography

Online sources