Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün

Müneccim cevher-i nâ-yâb-ı la’lin bî-nişân söyler
Ne dem kim nokta-i reml ile gâ’ibden nişân söyler
Degül ‘ışk ehli güftâr-ı lebünden bir zemân hâlî
Ne mümkin başını kessekde cânân bir zemân söyler

In English

1. Whenever the astrologer, with the dots of geomancy, gives tidings of the unseen, he speaks of the matchless jewel of your lip as "traceless, not to be found".

2. The people of love are never for a moment free of the words of your lip, of speaking of it; how could they fall silent: even if we cut off one's head, he will go on saying "beloved" for a while.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The piece consists of two couplets and is taken from the beginning of a ghazal (gazel): the first couplet is the opening couplet (matla), both lines of which end with the same rhyme and refrain word (redif). The redif is "söyler" (says, speaks), and the rhyme is the sound "-ân" in the words "nişân" and "zemân". The rest of the ghazal is unknown. The couplets appear in Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi's biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) as the first example in the entry on Senâyî, under the heading "Şi'r". The edition does not indicate the metre; the lines fit the hezec pattern of four mefâ'îlün, and this identification is ours. To whom and when it was said is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet rests on a widespread conceit describing the smallness of the beloved's mouth. In divan poetry the beauty's mouth is so small that it cannot be seen and exists only as a dot. The poet combines this dot with the science of geomancy (remil): geomancy is a kind of divination in which judgements about hidden things are drawn from dots made in sand or on paper. Even the astrologer who gives tidings of hidden things says, when it comes to the beloved's red lip, that "matchless jewel", that it is "traceless", that no sign of it can be found. The repetition of the word "nişân" in both lines in the senses of trace, sign and tidings, and the harmony between "nokta" (dot) and "remil" and between "müneccim" (astrologer) and "gâ’ib" (the unseen), give the couplet a web of congruent images (tenasüp). "La‘l" denotes both the red precious stone and the lip.

The meaning of the second couplet is not entirely clear; the reading given here is ours. The people of love cannot go a moment without speaking of the beloved's lip and words. The phrase "even if we cut off his head" can be understood as a hyperbole saying that the beheaded lover would go on uttering the beloved's name for some time longer. The pen that keeps writing as its head is trimmed and the candle that keeps burning as its wick is cut are also comparisons often used in divan poetry; the couplet may evoke one of these images as well. It is worth noting that the phrase "bir zemân" is used in the two lines with different meanings, in the first "for a moment", in the second "for a while".

Historical Context

Kınalızâde gives these couplets after writing that the poet's townsmen praised him greatly and that some friends he trusted said he was a poet of fluent tongue. For Senâyî's life, his coming from Manisa to Amasya with Şehzade Mustafa and his judgeship in Amasya, see the article Senâyî Mehmed Efendi (of Manisa).

Bibliography

Online sources