Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef'ûlü mefâîlü mefâîlü feûlün

Yandım o perî peykere ḥayfâ ele geçmez
Eyler se de baḳışları îmâ ele geçmez

In English

1. I burned for that fairy-faced beauty; alas, she cannot be won. Even though her glances make signs and hints, she cannot be won.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the opening of a kalenderî. The kalenderî is a verse type written in aruz and popular among minstrels as well, usually sung in the pattern "mef'ûlü mefâîlü mefâîlü feûlün"; this couplet fits that pattern. The identification of the metre is ours. The redif is "ele geçmez" ("cannot be won"), and the rhyme is the sound "-â" in the words "ḥayfâ" and "îmâ".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

"Perî peyker", fairy-faced, is a common epithet for the beloved's superhuman beauty, and it also evokes a being who slips out of sight like a fairy and cannot be caught. The redif reinforces this association: the beauty cannot be won even if she gives signs. "Îmâ" in the second line is the silent language of the glance; the beloved's glances give hope, but the hope is not fulfilled. The opening "Yandım" ("I burned") and the exclamation "ḥayfâ" ("alas") give the couplet a sincere tone close to folk poetry.

Historical Context

The couplet is taken from the Merzifon Cönkü published by Metin Hakverdioğlu in 2019. Hakverdioğlu acquired this manuscript miscellany from Merzifon for his own library and found that a separate ghazal section of the cönk is devoted to Sabrî's poems. Since the article gives only the first stanza of each poem in the cönk, we cannot see the poem beyond this couplet. Hakverdioğlu notes that the poem appears on page 47 of Orhan Bilgin's 1992 edition of the divan; its place in the cönk is page 74. Because Bilgin's book could not be consulted, the full text cannot be given here. The cönk is thought to have been compiled by a Merzifon poet from Sabrî's circle, most probably Fethî; the inclusion of the poem in this compilation shows that Sabrî's verses were still read in Merzifon after his death. For the poet's life and his other poems see the article Eyüb Sabrî.

Bibliography

Online sources