Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâʿîlün mefâʿîlün mefâʿîlün mefâʿîlün (identification of the metre is ours)

İdüb azm-i sefer cânâ esîr-i mihnet oldum ben
Cüdâ düşdüm vatandan mübtelâ-yı firkat oldum ben
Kanâ'at eylemezken nazra-i dîdâr ile evvel
Değil mektûba şimdi bir selâma hasret oldum ben
Sen inkâr eyledin hem-bezm-i ağyâr olduğun ammâ
İşitdim mâcerâyı vâkıf-ı keyfiyyet oldum ben
Gülistân-ı visâlin güllerini eylemiş çîde
Nişân-ı bûse gördüm dâğ dâğ-ı hayret oldum ben
Dahî hâlî iken bend oldum ol zülf-i perîşâna
Sana ey bî-vefâ sermâye-i cem'iyyet oldum ben
Olub âsûde her âşûb-gâh-i bezm-i kesretde
Resîmâ sâkin-i künc-i amân-ı uzlet oldum ben

In English

1. O beloved, resolving to set out on a journey I became the captive of hardship; I was parted from my homeland and fell prey to separation.

2. Once I was not content even with a glimpse of your face; now, let alone a letter, I long for a single greeting.

3. You denied that you sat in company with my rivals, but I heard the story and learned how things stood.

4. Someone has gathered the roses of the garden of union with you; I saw the mark of a kiss and became wound upon wound with astonishment.

5. While my heart was still free I became bound to those dishevelled locks; O faithless one, I became the capital of your composure.

6. O Resîm, I found rest from every tumult of the crowded banquet and became a dweller in the safe corner of seclusion.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Story of a Separation

In the divan ghazal (gazel) the couplets are often independent of one another; in Resîm's ghazal, however, a small story emerges from the couplets read in sequence. The lover has set out on a journey and been parted from his homeland. In exile not even a letter or a greeting comes from the beloved. Then he learns that the beloved has sat in company with his rivals; though the beloved denies it, the news has reached him. In the fourth couplet suspicion turns into something seen: the roses of the garden of union have been gathered by another, and a kiss has left its mark on the beloved's face. In the fifth couplet the lover looks back and considers how this attachment began, and in the last he withdraws from the crowd and takes refuge in seclusion. Exile, news, jealousy and renunciation are told in this order.

The story may be considered together with Resîm's years of travel from town to town as a pasha's divan secretary. This connection is our own conjecture; the years in which the ghazal was written are unknown, and exile is a theme treated in divan poetry without any real journey behind it.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Two couplets of the ghazal are built on contrasts. In the fifth couplet the beloved's locks are "perîşân", dishevelled; when the lover's heart becomes bound to them, it becomes a capital that gives this disorder "cem'iyyet", the state of being gathered and composed. This play between dishevelment and composure carries the lover's reproach that he has given away his own peace to bring peace to the beloved. In the last couplet "bezm-i kesret", the banquet of multitude and crowds, stands against "künc-i uzlet", the corner of solitude. In Sufism the word kesret also denotes the world of multiplicity; it may be said that the couplet evokes this meaning too, but the rest of the poem does not use an openly mystical language.

The phrase "dâğ dâğ-ı hayret" in the fourth couplet lays the meanings "wound upon wound" and "the brand of astonishment" over each other: the lover has been wounded by the kiss mark he saw, and his astonishment has stayed on him like the scar of a branding iron.

Structure of the Poem and Its Source

The six couplets turn on the refrain word (redif) "oldum ben"; "mihnet", "firkat", "hasret", "keyfiyyet", "hayret", "cem'iyyet" and "uzlet" meet in the sound "-et" to form the rhyme. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the vocative "Resîmâ". Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar quotes the ghazal, saying that he saw it in the anthology of Amasya poets compiled by Resîm's teacher Abdî Efendi. The anthology is lost today, and the ghazal is known only through Hüsameddin's book. The same ghazal also appears in the article on Abdî Efendi's tezkire; Resîm's years as a secretary are described in the article Resîm Ahmed Efendi.

Bibliography

Online sources