Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilâtün Fâ’ilün

Ger dilersen başuma gün togdugın
Kâkülün ruhsârun üstinden götür

In English

1. If you wish (to see) the sun rise upon my head, draw your forelock away from your cheek.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The sixth single couplet is written in the "fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün" pattern. In Kılıç's survey of metres three Turkish single couplets are counted in this short remel pattern; in the edition they are the second, sixth and eleventh. In the edition the folio mark [63b] stands beside the number; Kılıç shows the folio numbers within the text in square brackets. There is no rhyme between "togdugın" and "götür"; this is an unrhymed müfred. The second line is an imperative, and the whole couplet is built as a conditional sentence: "Ger dilersen…, … götür" (If you wish…, draw…).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet rests on the Turkish idiom "başına gün doğmak" (the sun rising on one's head), used when someone meets with an unexpected happiness or joy. The poet also uses the idiom in its literal sense: in classical poetry the beloved's cheek is the sun, and the black forelock falling over the face is the night or the cloud that covers the sun. When the forelock is drawn from the cheek the sun rises, and the sun rises on the lover's head too. The figurative sense of the idiom and the literal sense of the words thus work at the same time; this is a way of speaking close to tevriye (double entendre). There is a tenasüp (congruence of images) among sun, day, forelock and cheek. The couplet also holds an implicit tezat (antithesis) of light and dark: the forelock is darkness, the cheek is light. For the lover, seeing the beloved's face is like a festival morning; the conditional form turns this meaning into a wish. The word "dilersen" (if you wish) leaves the decision to the beloved; the lover's happiness depends on a small gesture of hers. This light tone of reproach also fits the common view of the forelock as an instrument of the beloved's coquetry. The forelock appears several times in Şâhî's single couplets: in the second each strand of the forelock the beloved dishevels looks like a snake to the lover's eye, and in the fourteenth the musk scent of the forelock wound round a finger fills the horizons. In this single couplet the forelock takes on a third aspect, as a veil that covers the light. The couplet gives no sign of whom it was written for or when.

Bibliography

  • Filiz Kılıç (ed.), Şâhî Dîvânı (Şehzâde Bâyezîd), Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Kütüphaneler ve Yayımlar Genel Müdürlüğü, 2018, e-book p. 148, single couplet no. 6 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225, fol. 63b); also p. 29 (survey of metres), p. 43 (folio marks), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources