Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Her ne geldi yâ gelür aḥvâlini Allâh bilür
‘Abdiniň her ḳıldıġın ef‘âlini Allâh bilür

In English

1. Whatever has come or will come, God knows its state; God knows every deed His servant does.

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 "Allâh bilür"; the rhyme is the "-âlini" sound in "ahvâlini / ef'âlini". 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 states in simple language the belief that God knows all things. The first line embraces time: God knows the "ahvâl", the state and condition, of all that has come and will come. The second line embraces man: every "ef'âl", deed and act, that the servant performs lies within God's knowledge. These two lines echo, in folk poetry, the idea often found in the Qur'an that "God knows and you do not know". The expression "Allâh bilür" (God knows) in the refrain is also very common in everyday speech and gives the couplet both the force of a creed and a tone of submission.

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 68 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