Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Didüm görmedüm ey dilber gözüñ gibi güzel gözler
Didi ben daḫi görmedüm senüñ gibi güzel gözler

In English

1. I said, "O beauty, I have never seen eyes as lovely as yours." She said, "Nor have I ever seen one like you who eyes the lovely (one who casts his eyes on beauties)."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is built in the form of question and answer, called "suâl ü cevâb" in divan poetry: the lover speaks in the first line, the beloved replies in the second. Both lines end with the same words "güzel gözler". Latîfî gives the couplet at the end of the pasha's entry with the word "velehû", also his; no other source has it, and the poem it was taken from cannot be identified.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The wit of the couplet lies in reading the same two words at the end of each line in two different senses. In the lover's mouth "güzel gözler" is a plural noun: he has never seen eyes as lovely as the beloved's. The beloved turns the same words back, but this time "gözler" is read as a verb: "güzel gözler" is one who watches the lovely, who casts his eyes on beauties. The beloved accuses the lover who pays her a compliment of being a philanderer and says, "I too have never seen one who eyes the lovely as you do." This analysis is ours; Latîfî does not comment on the couplet. The exact repetition of a word with a change of meaning comes close to the figure of the pun (cinas).

The same words spoken back and forth give the couplet the air of the quick repartee of social gatherings. The beloved meeting the lover's praise with a tease gives the coy beloved of divan poetry an everyday voice.

Historical Context

Neither the date nor the occasion is recorded. The pasha's life and his other poems are gathered in the article Remzî (Pîrî Mehmed Pasha).

Bibliography

Online sources