Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün

Özüñi Ḥaḳḳa teslīm it de ṭınma
Emīn olmaḳ dilerseñ nīk ü bedden
Cehennem āteşinden ḳurtuluş yoḳ
Ḫalāṣ olmaz iseñ ḥıḳd u ḥasedden

In English

1. If you wish to be safe from good and bad alike, surrender yourself to God (Hak) and pay no heed (to what happens).

2. There is no escape from the fire of hell if you do not free yourself from rancour and envy.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The fourth müfred of the edition is a piece of two couplets in the metre "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün". The edition prints these two couplets under the heading "Müfredler", with a space between them. Since the Kubbealtı Lugatı defines the müfred as a single couplet not bound to other couplets, the piece here has two couplets despite its name; the genre name is kept as in the edition. Ersoy writes in his introduction that the nine müfreds of the divan are found only in the Vatican manuscript (VT) and that all of them are in Turkish; they stand on folios 180b-181b of that manuscript.

The lines of the first couplet do not rhyme ("ṭınma", "bedden"); the rhyme is formed only in the last lines of the two couplets, on "bedden" and "ḥasedden". The TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi defines the kıta as a poem whose first couplet is not rhymed in both lines; in form these two couplets resemble a kıta (our observation). For whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

This is a piece of religious and moral advice, and the two couplets complete each other: in the first the way to peace is surrender, in the second the condition of salvation is to be cleansed of rancour and envy. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains the verb "tınmak" as to make a sound, to say something, and the form "tınmamak" as to pay no heed, to take no notice; "ṭınma" is used in this everyday Turkish sense. The same dictionary explains "hıkd" as hidden enmity, rancour, and gives the pair "hıkd ü hased" with examples from Şeyhî and Aziz Mahmud Hüdâyî.

The pairs "nīk ü bed" (good and bad) and "ḥıḳd u ḥased" (rancour and envy) create a symmetrical balance at the end of the two couplets. There is also a closeness of meaning among "emīn olmak" (to be safe), "ḫalāṣ" (deliverance) and "ḳurtuluş" (escape); the piece describes salvation in two steps, from security in this world to deliverance in the next.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

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