Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Bellüdür bu ‘ālemüñ işi göñül
Yeg degül mi virmese kişi göñül
Nūş-ı la‘l-i yāra meyl itdüñ ise
İḫtiyār itmek gerek nīşi göñül

In English

1. O heart, the business of this world is plain to see; is it not better if a man does not give his heart to it?

2. O heart, if you have inclined toward the honey of the beloved's ruby lip, you must choose its poison (its sting) as well.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The sixth müfred of the edition is a piece of two couplets in the metre "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". 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 refrain word (redif) is "göñül" (heart), the rhyme words "işi", "kişi" and "nīşi"; the first couplet is musarra (rhymed in both lines). The first couplet of this piece is identical with the first couplet of the 5th müfred, and in the second couplet only one phrase changes: the "nūş-ı dehr-i dūn" (honey of the base world) of the 5th müfred has here become "nūş-ı la‘l-i yār" (honey of the beloved's ruby lip). There is no record showing whether these are two versions of the same poem or two pieces deliberately set side by side. For whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The change of a single phrase changes the whole direction of the piece. In the 5th müfred the advice aimed at renouncing the world; here the same first couplet, together with the second, is tied to love. Whoever wants the sweetness of the beloved's lip must also accept the pain it brings. The Kubbealtı Lugatı explains "la‘l" as a precious stone of bright red colour; in divan poetry "la‘l-i yār" is the beloved's red lip.

The play of "nūş" and "nīş" is at the centre of the couplet here too. The Kubbealtı gives "nîş" the meanings the sharp point of a needle or thorn, and poison; "nūş" is a sweet thing that is drunk. The lip's honey and sting express the sweetness and the pain of love together. Read side by side, the two pieces show how the same pattern could serve both for the world and for love.

Bibliography

Online sources