Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ûlü Mefâ‘îlü Mefâ‘îlü Fe‘ûlün (identification ours)

Ey dil sana kendin gibi bir yâr bulunmaz
Senden sana bir gayrisi dil-dâr bulunmaz
Meyl eyleme aldanma bu nevreslere şimdi
Hûbân-ı cihân içre vefâ-kâr bulunmaz

In English

1. O heart, no friend can be found for you like yourself; no beloved can be found for you other than you.

2. Do not incline now towards these fresh young ones, do not be deceived; among the beauties of the world no faithful one is to be found.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is a kıt‘a (short poem) of two couplets; three of the four lines end with the rhyme "yâr, dil-dâr, vefâ-kâr" and the refrain "bulunmaz" ("cannot be found"), while the third line is free. Because both lines of the first couplet rhyme, the piece looks like a quatrain or a kıt‘a opening with a matla; Hüsameddin calls it a "kıt‘a". The metre is the hezec pattern "mef‘ûlü mefâ‘îlü mefâ‘îlü fe‘ûlün" of aruz (quantitative metre); it fits fully once overlong syllables such as "yâr" and "dil-dâr" are counted as a syllable and a half. The identification is ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The kıt‘a is advice addressed to the heart. In the first couplet the poet says that the friend the heart seeks is not outside but within: there is no other beloved "from you to you". The phrasing recalls the Sufi idea "whoever knows himself knows his Lord"; but no explicit Sufi term appears in the kıt‘a, and this association is our interpretation. The second couplet turns the advice towards worldly love: "nevres" means a freshly grown young beauty; the poet tells his heart not to be deceived by such, since among the world's beauties there is no faithfulness.

"Yâr" and "dil-dâr" (both "beloved") are close in meaning, and there is congruence of images (tenasüp) between them. "Kendin" ("yourself") and "senden sana" ("from you to you") express the same thought twice; the repetition reinforces the advice. The plain Turkish of the kıt‘a, close to spoken language, sets it apart from Nelmî's other poems.

Historical Context

Hüsameddin gives this kıt‘a immediately after the ghazal Nelmî wrote for Ârif Efendi, saying "this kıt‘a too is his"; he does not say when it was written. The advice not to be deceived by "these fresh young ones" can be read as a voice of regret following the passions Hüsameddin describes; this interpretation is ours. For the poet's life see Nelmî (Tahsîn Hasan Efendi).

Bibliography

Online sources