Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Görinmez nokta-i hâl-i lebün cânâna hâl oldı
Perîşân hâtırum zülfün gibi âşüfte hâl oldı

In English

1. The invisible dot of the beauty spot on your lip has become a beauty spot on the beloved's face; and my distracted heart, like your locks, has fallen into a dishevelled state.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal (gazel). Both lines end with the words "hâl oldı"; the refrain word (redif) is "oldı" (became), and the rhyme is formed by two words "hâl", identical in spelling and pronunciation but different in meaning. The rest of the ghazal is unknown. Kınalızâde gives the couplet as the third example in the entry on Senâyî, with the word "Velehû". 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 whole art of the couplet rests on the word "hâl". In the first line the word occurs twice and with two different meanings: "hâl-i leb" is the beauty spot above the lip, while "cânâna hâl oldı" is a beauty spot on the beloved's face or a state that has befallen the beloved. The "âşüfte hâl" of the second line describes a dishevelled, distracted state. Rhyming the same written word in different meanings is an example of what divan poetry calls "cinas-ı tâm", the perfect pun. In divan poetry the beloved's mouth is imagined as so small that it is likened to an invisible dot; the beauty spot too is a black dot on the face. By confusing these two dots, the poet seems to see the beloved's beauty spot in place of the mouth. The first line can be read in two ways: the invisible dot on the lip has become a beauty spot on the beloved's face, or because of this invisible dot something has befallen the beloved. The reading given here is ours.

The second line likens the heart to the beloved's locks. The locks are loose and curling; the lover's heart, like them, is distracted and in disorder. The words "perîşân" and "âşüfte" express both the dishevelment of the hair and the distress of the heart at once.

Historical Context

The couplet appears only in Kınalızâde's biographical anthology of poets (tezkire). For Senâyî's life and the verdicts of the tezkires about him, see the article Senâyî Mehmed Efendi (of Manisa).

Bibliography

Online sources