Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün

‘Aceb bir ben miyim dûçâr olan efġâna bilmem ki
Veyâ ‘âlemde rûzî mi bu her insâna bilmem ki

In English

1. I wonder, am I the only one stricken with lament, I do not know; or is this a portion allotted to every human being in the world, I do not know.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the first of a semai written in aruz and fits the pattern "mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün"; the identification of the metre is ours. The redif is "-a bilmem ki" ("I do not know"), and the rhyme is the sound "-ân" in the words "efġân" and "insân". The long redif spreads a tone of questioning and hesitation over the whole poem.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poet asks himself whether the pain he suffers is his alone or the common lot of all human beings. "Dûçâr olmak" means to be stricken by or caught in something; "efġân" is lament and moaning. "Rûzî" in the second line, daily bread, is used in the sense of one's allotted portion and presents grief as a share that God sets aside for every servant. A personal complaint thus opens onto a reflection on the shared condition of humanity. The redif "bilmem ki", close to everyday speech, shows well the style of Sabrî, who joined the patterns of divan poetry with the plainness of folk diction.

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 36 of Orhan Bilgin's 1992 edition of the divan; its place in the cönk is page 93. 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