Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Çīn olaldan zülfüñüñ her bir ḫamı
Ḳıldı göñlüm gibi der-hem ‘ālemi
Bir ḳıl ile baġlar ol her bir dili
Buña ṭāḳat mı getürür ādemī

In English

1. Ever since every curl of your lock became twisted and coiled, it has thrown the world into confusion like my heart. With a single hair it binds every heart; can a human being bear this?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a four-line tuyugh; in the edition it is the nineteenth of the tuyughs (tyğ 19). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The rhyme words are "ḫamı", "‘ālemi" and "ādemī"; the third line ("dili") is unrhymed. The quatrain has no redif. It is found in all three manuscripts (VT 179a, VY 150b, Ü 63a). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The Kubbealtı gives "çîn" the sense of curl, coil, and cites Fuzûlî's phrase "Kemend-i çîn-i zülfün" (the lasso of the curl of your lock) as an example. In the first line the curls of the hair have become twisted and coiled; in the second these curls have thrown the world into confusion like the lover's heart. The likeness between the disorder of the hair and the disorder of the lover's heart is common in divan poetry; here this disorder spreads over the whole world.

The second line begins with the verb "Ḳıldı" (made), and the third continues "Bir ḳıl ile" (with a single hair). The likeness of sound between "kıldı" (made) and "kıl" (a strand of hair) gives the impression of a pun (our reading). The beloved binds every heart with a single hair; the contrast between the slenderness of this bond and its strength leads to the question in the last line. "Ādemī", human being, rhymes with "‘ālemi", the world; the world and the human being stand side by side as two scales that bear the effect of the hair.

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