Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Fürḳat-i yāra nihāyet bulmadum
Derd-i bī-pāyāna ġāyet bulmadum
Küfr-i zülfine ṭolaşmayınca dil
Yüzi nūrından hidāyet bulmadum

In English

1. I found no end to separation from the beloved; I found no limit to the boundless pain. Until the heart became entangled in the unbelief (the darkness) of her hair, I found no guidance (the right path) from the light of her face.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a four-line tuyugh; in the edition it is the sixth of the tuyughs (tyğ 6). The metre is "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif is "bulmadum" (I did not find) and the rhyme is the sound "-āyet": nihāyet, ġāyet, hidāyet; the third line ("dil") is unrhymed. The quatrain is found in all three manuscripts (VT 177b, VY 149a, Ü 61b). It is not known for whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two lines say the same thought twice: separation has no end and pain has no limit. "Nihāyet" and "ġāyet" (end, limit) are words of near meaning, and the adjective "bī-pāyān" (endless) reinforces this sense. The third and fourth lines arrive at an unexpected conclusion: the lover has found guidance, the right path, only after becoming entangled in the unbelief of the hair.

The art of the quatrain is the antithesis between "küfr" (unbelief) and "hidāyet" (guidance), between the darkness of the hair and the light of the face. The Kubbealtı records that the Arabic root of "küfür" means "to cover; to deny". The hair is likened to unbelief because it covers the face; the face is the source of light and guidance. The lover's reaching the right path by way of unbelief looks like a paradox; the poem says that reaching the beloved's face passes through being caught by her hair (our reading). That the last line closes like a verdict fits the pattern the TDV notes for the tuyugh.

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