Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Dil-rübâlar dilâ benüm nemdür
Nûr-ı dîdem sürûr-ı sînemdür
Dâne dâne müjemde ḳaṭre-i eşk
Sebzeler üzre ṣanki şebnemdür
Tîrüñi eksük atma sîneme kim
Zaḫmuma her birisi merhemdür
ʿÂlemüñ ġâyeti elemdür bil
Âdemüñ âḫiri de bir demdür

In English

1. O heart, if you ask what the heart-stealing beauties are to me: they are the light of my eyes, the joy of my breast.

2. The drops of tears strung grain by grain on my eyelashes are like dew upon green leaves.

3. Do not spare your arrows at my breast, for each of them is a balm to my wound.

4. Know that the end of the world is pain, and the end of man is but a single breath.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

These four couplets are the longest text left by Sânî; the ghazal (gazel) appears with all four only in Latîfî, and the text is taken from Rıdvan Canım's edition. Beyânî gives only the opening couplet (matla), Kınalızâde the first, second and fourth couplets; Hüsameddin, quoting Latîfî, leaves out the third couplet and reads "emeldir" for "elemdür" in the last. Since there is no pen-name (mahlas) couplet, whether the ghazal is whole also remains in doubt. The rhyme falls on the sound "-em" at the end of the words "nem, sînem, şebnem, merhem, dem", followed by the redif (refrain word) "-dür". The short lines and easy phrasing agree with Latîfî's remark that Sânî was "only newly enthusiastic" in poetry.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first line of the matla is built like a question and the second gives the answer: what are the heart-stealing beauties to the poet; the light of his eyes, the joy of his breast. The word "nemdür" means "what are they to me"; "nem" also carries the sense of moisture, damp. In the second couplet, the likening of tears to "şebnem", night dew on greenery, awakens this second meaning; this link between nem, şebnem and tears is our own observation. Likening eyelashes to greenery and drops of tears to dew is a common simile in divan poetry; the reduplication "dâne dâne", grain by grain, counts the drops one by one like the beads of a rosary.

The third couplet repeats the familiar image (mazmun) that counts the arrows of the beloved's glance as a balm to the wound. The last couplet changes the tone of the ghazal and passes from the lover's complaint to the transience of the world. The words "ʿâlem" (world) and "âdem" (man), "elem" (pain) and "dem" (breath) pair off in sound two by two; the world ends in pain, man in a breath. The couplet lends itself to being read with the story of the poet in mind, who is said to have been killed young at the hand of a lover, but the anthologists draw no link between the couplet and his death.

Historical Context

Latîfî gives the ghazal immediately after telling the story of Sânî's death, with the words "bu ebyât-ı pervîn-simât ol mehüñdür", these couplets strung like the Pleiades belong to that moon-faced one. Kınalızâde too quotes the same ghazal after the story. The article Sânî Yûsuf Çelebi sets out the poet's life and the ways the sources contradict one another.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources