Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Elâ ey nârven-reftâr serv-endâm u ṭûbâ-ḳad
Benefşe-zülf ü nergis-çeşm ü gül-ruḫsâr u nesrîn-ḫad

In English

1. O you who walk swaying like the nârven tree, cypress-bodied, tall as the Tûbâ tree; violet-haired, narcissus-eyed, rose-faced, with cheeks like the wild rose (beauty).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The two lines of the opening couplet (matla) consist entirely of an address; there is no verb, the couplet lists the beloved's attributes one after another and leaves where the speech is going to the lost couplets of the ghazal (gazel). Latîfî chooses it for exactly this reason: "ṣıfat-ı tensîḳu'ṣ-ṣıfâtda bu maṭlaʿ daḫî ḫûb vâḳiʿ olmışdur ve çâr-ender-çâr ṣanʿatı bi't-tamâm yerin bulmışdur", that is, in the art of ranging attributes in order this matla too has turned out well, and the art of four within four has found its full place. The rhyme words are "ḳad" and "ḫad". Hüsameddin, quoting Latîfî, gives the first line as "Elâ ey nârven-i reftâr u serv-i şâh-ı bâlâ-kad"; the edition's text is kept here.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is laid out like two gardens. In the first line there are three trees: the nârven, the cypress and the Tûbâ tree of paradise. All three describe the beloved's stature and gait; the nârven answers to the swaying walk, the cypress to the body, the Tûbâ to the height. In the second line four flowers are matched with four features: the violet with the hair, the narcissus with the eye, the rose with the face, and the nesrin, the white wild rose, with the cheek. It is likely that the art Latîfî calls "çâr-ender-çâr" is this matching of four flowers with four features; the writer does not explain the term. The dark colour and curl of the violet suit the hair, the languid look of the narcissus the eye, the red of the rose and the white of the nesrin the face. This order, reaching from trees to flowers and from stature to face, lifts the gaze from the body to the head; this reading is drawn from the arrangement of the text.

Historical Context

The person addressed in the matla is not named. That a poet whom Latîfî, Kınalızâde and Beyânî unanimously remember for his own beauty should praise the beloved with attributes one by one seems to have caught the writer's attention too; Latîfî gives the couplet straight after the ghazal and with praise. Sânî's life story is on the page Sânî Yûsuf Çelebi.

Bibliography

Online sources