Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ’îlün Mefâ’îlün Fe’ûlün

Der-âgûş itmeden ol mû-miyânı
Sana bir kılca yok ‘ömrüm ziyânı

In English

1. Until I embrace that one whose waist is a hair, the waste of my life does not matter a hair to you. (The couplet can be read in two ways: it can also be understood as "until I embrace her, spending my life for your sake is not a hair's worth of loss to me".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The seventh single couplet is written in the "mefâ'îlün mefâ'îlün fe'ûlün" pattern. In the Şâhî Dîvânı this pattern is shared by single couplets, the Persian single couplets and the three mesnevis. The couplet is musarra' (both lines rhyme): "miyânı" and "ziyânı" rhyme, and both lines end in the same "-ânı" sound. In the edition there is no folio mark beside this couplet; it comes after the [63b] mark of the sixth single couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The key word of the couplet is "hair". "Mû-miyân" is an adjective made from the Persian words "mû" (hair) and "miyân" (waist), used of a beloved whose waist is as thin as a hair. In the second line "bir kılca" also means "as much as a hair, not at all". The Persian "mû" and the Turkish "kıl" (hair) thus meet in the same couplet and form a fine tenasüp (congruence of images). In divan poetry the beloved's waist is so thin that it cannot be seen and its very existence is debated; the poet uses this thinness as a unit for measuring the worthlessness of his own life. The couplet can be read in two ways. In the first reading the word "sana" means "to you, in your eyes": as long as the lover cannot embrace that slender waist his life is wasted, but this loss does not touch the beloved by a hair; the couplet is a reproach. In the second reading "sana" means "for your sake": until the day he embraces that waist, the lover does not count spending his life for the beloved as any loss at all; the couplet is a declaration of devotion. Understanding the adverb "itmeden" as "as long as … not" or as "before" also feeds these two readings. Which reading the poet intended cannot be settled from the text; both readings are our own. "Der-âgûş itmek" (to embrace) is a Persian expression used with a Turkish auxiliary verb and is common in the poetic language of the period. In classical poetry the beloved's waist is often called "yok" (non-existent); it is so thin that its existence can be granted only through imagination. That the word "yok" in the couplet binds the thin waist to the loss of a life in the same line also recalls this image; this association is our own reading. The couplet contains no historical indication.

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. 7 (Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Efendi, Manzum Eserler 225); also p. 29 (survey of metres), https://ekitap.ktb.gov.tr/Eklenti/59394,sahi-divanipdf.pdf.

Online sources