Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilâtün Fâ'ilün

Sükkerî itdi halâvetde kelâmun lutfı deng
Yâr-ı şîrînkâr imiş yâkûta la’lün virdi reng
Hatt-ı ruhsârı gamından öldüm ol sengîn-dilün
Ehl-i derd itsün gubârı cism-i zerdüm mürde-seng

In English

1. The grace of your speech, in its sweetness, has bewildered even the sugar-seller; the beloved, it seems, is one who works sweetly: your lip has given its colour to the ruby.

2. I have died of grief for the down on the cheek of that stony-hearted one; let those who suffer make the dust of my yellowed body into litharge for their salves.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The piece consists of two couplets; the first is the opening couplet (matla), both lines of which rhyme. There is no refrain word (redif); the rhyme is the sound "-eng" in the words "deng", "reng" and "seng". The rest of the ghazal (gazel) is unknown. The couplets are given in Kınalızâde's biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) as the second example in the entry on Senâyî, with the word "Velehû" (and this too is his). The edition does not indicate the metre; the lines fit the remel pattern fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilâtün fâ'ilün, and this identification is ours. To whom and when it was said is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet is built around the idea of sweetness. "Sükkerî" can be read as related to sugar, in the sense of a sugar-seller; "deng" means bewildered, dazed. The grace of the beloved's speech is so sweet that even one who sells sugar is dumbfounded. "Şîrînkâr" is one who works sweetly; the word also recalls Şirin of the story of Ferhad and Şirin. In the second line the beloved's red lip, the "la‘l", is what gives the ruby its colour: even the redness of the precious stone has been taken from the lip.

In the second couplet the tone changes. The down that has appeared on the beloved's cheek, the "hatt-ı ruhsâr", has brought about the lover's death. The poet offers the dust of his yellowed, wasted body to the sufferers as a remedy. Litharge (mürdesenk) is a yellowish lead compound used in salves in old medicine; the likening of the yellowed lover's dust to this remedy also creates a play on sound between "sengîn-dil" (stony-hearted) and "mürde-seng". That the word "mürde" means dead forms a further harmony with the word "öldüm" (I died). This observation of a play on words is ours.

Historical Context

The couplets appear only in Kınalızâde's tezkire. For Senâyî's life and the verdicts of the tezkires about him, see the article Senâyî Mehmed Efendi (of Manisa).

Bibliography

Online sources