Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef'ûlü mefâîlü mefâîlü feûlün

Misliň bulamam ey güzelim dehrde teksin
Sen ṣûret-i âdemde velî şûḫ-ı meleksin

In English

1. My beauty, I cannot find your like in the world; you are unique. You are in human form, but in truth you are a playful, flirtatious angel.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the opening of a kalenderî and fits the pattern "mef'ûlü mefâîlü mefâîlü feûlün"; the identification of the metre is ours. The redif is "-sin" ("you are"), and the rhyme words are "tek" and "melek".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet states the beloved's uniqueness in two steps. The first line says she has no like in the world, and the second explains why: the beloved is not a human being but an angel who has taken human form. The contrast between "ṣûret-i âdem", human form, and "melek", angel, rests on the distinction between appearance and essence. The adjective "şûḫ" adds an unexpected quality to the angel: this angel is not solemn but playful and flirtatious. This small shift gives the couplet a warmth close to folk poetry and suits the light, lively air of the kalenderî.

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 29 of Orhan Bilgin's 1992 edition of the divan; its place in the cönk is page 90. 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