Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Virseler alma saňa bir aḳçeye dünyâyı hep
Köhn olur her dem giyerseň aṭlas-ı dîbâyı hep

In English

1. If they offered you the whole world for a single akçe, do not take it; if you wear satin and brocade (the finest silks) all the time, they grow old.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is recorded in the cönk as a ghazal (gazel). The ghazal is the aruz verse form whose opening couplet (matla) rhymes within itself and whose other couplets are tied to that rhyme; folk poets also used this form. Because Hakverdioğlu's article publishes only the first verse unit of each poem in the cönk, we know only the opening couplet of this poem. The refrain is "hep"; the rhyme is the "-âyı" sound in "dünyâyı / dîbâyı". The identification of the metre is ours; as is usual in the aruz poems of folk poets, some syllables may not fit the pattern exactly. To whom and on what occasion the poem was composed is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is an ascetic admonition on the worthlessness of the world. The first line makes a sharp hyperbole: even if the whole world were offered for an akçe, the smallest silver coin, it should not be taken. The second line supports this with an everyday experience: even satin and dîbâ, the most precious cloths, grow old if worn every day. The transience of worldly goods is expressed through this concrete example. All of Nazîf's aruz poems in the cönk are ghazals, and as far as their opening couplets show, most carry religious and moral admonitions of this kind. The refrain "hep" (all, always) makes a generalisation at the end of every couplet.

Historical Context

The poem is recorded under the pen name "Nazîf" in the Merzifon Cönkü introduced by Metin Hakverdioğlu in 2019. The cönk contains ten of Nazîf's poems, one in syllabic metre and nine in aruz; the aruz poems are all ghazals, and most carry religious and moral admonition. The article gives no information about the poet; the poet's identity and the century in which he lived have not been determined. Since the cönk is thought to have been compiled in Merzifon within the literary circle of Eyüb Sabrî, the poet may have been one read or living in that circle. For details, see the page on Nazîf. The poem is on page 66 of the cönk and page 550 of the article; its full text is in the cönk itself and has not been published to date.

Bibliography

Online sources