Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün

Esme ey bâd-ı ṣabâ zülf-i dilârâ ṣarṣılur
Deprenirse bir teli rûyunda dünyâ ṣarṣılur

In English

1. O morning breeze, do not blow; the locks of the heart-ravishing beloved will be shaken. If a single strand of them stirs upon that face, the whole world will be shaken.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The text is the first couplet of a poem recorded under the pen name Şem‘î on page 24 of the Merzifon Cönkü. Hakverdioğlu calls the poem a divan and gives only its first couplet. In folk poetry the divan is a form sung in aruz, usually in the pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün"; nineteenth-century minstrels also composed poems in aruz forms such as the divan, the semâî and the kalenderî. Both lines share the redif "sarsılur" (is shaken); "dilârâ" and "dünyâ" make the rhyme in the sound "-â". The lines follow the pattern "fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün"; the identification of the metre is ours.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet brings together two of the best-known images of divan poetry, the morning breeze and the beloved's locks. Saba is the light wind that blows from the east at dawn; in poetry it mostly carries news between lover and beloved and spreads the beloved's scent by stirring her hair. Here the poet lays a prohibition on the breeze: he asks it not to blow, for the beloved's locks would be shaken. "Dilârâ" means one who adorns or ravishes the heart. In the second line the hyperbole reaches its height: if a single strand of the locks stirs upon the face, the world will be shaken. In divan poetry the locks are imagined as a tie on which the hearts of lovers hang; when one strand moves, it shakes all the hearts bound to it and so the world. Linking the redif "sarsılur" first to the locks and then to the world in the two lines sets up a relation between a small movement and a great consequence.

Historical Context

The poem is recorded in the Merzifon Cönkü under the pen name Şem‘î. Hakverdioğlu gives no information about this poet, and his identity has not been established in any other source; no link can be made with the known poets who used the same pen name. The poem is therefore attributed to this poet solely on the strength of the record in the cönk. Since the cönk is thought to have been compiled in Merzifon in the nineteenth century, the poem was among the words recited in the Merzifon gatherings of that period. The state of the sources is described in the article Şem‘î.

Bibliography

Online sources