Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

ʿİẕâr âyînesin jeng itmesün diñ ḫaṭṭ-ı fersâya
Barışmaz mihr ile sâye yaraşmaz aya pîrâya

In English

1. Tell that wearing down not to rust the mirror of the cheek; the sun and shadow do not make peace, and ornament does not become the moon.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal (gazel); both lines end with the sound "-âya". The rhyme is the long "â" at the end of the words "fersâ" and "pîrâ"; the dative suffix "-ya" that follows serves as the refrain (redif). The rest of the ghazal is unknown. The couplet appears only in Âşık Çelebi's biographical anthology of poets (tezkire), at the end of the entry on Senâyî, under the heading "Maṭlaʿ"; Kınalızâde and Beyânî do not give it. According to the edition's footnote, manuscript B writes "şems", a word of the same meaning, instead of "mihr" (sun). 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 couplet takes as its subject the appearance of down on the beloved's cheek. In divan poetry the bright cheek is likened to a mirror, to the sun or to the moon; the dark down appearing on the cheek, the "hat", is like a shadow covering this brightness, a rust darkening the mirror. The poet asks that the hat be warned not to rust the mirror of the cheek. "Fersâ" means wearing, wearing down; the hat is seen as something that slowly wears away beauty.

The second line justifies this request with two judgements that have the air of proverbs. Sun and shadow cannot stand together: the cheek shining like the sun and the down dark as shadow do not make peace. Ornament does not become the moon: a face as beautiful as the moon needs no ornament, and the hat is like a needless ornament added to it. The words "âyîne" (mirror), "jeng" (rust), "mihr" (sun), "sâye" (shadow) and "ay" (moon) build a web of congruent images (tenasüp) around light and darkness; between "mihr" and "sâye" there is also an antithesis (tezat).

Historical Context

Âşık Çelebi gives this matla immediately after his mixed verdict on the poet: first he says that he met him at a gathering and that he is at least a poet, then he overshadows this praise with an Arabic couplet meaning "I am a weigher of verse, not a poet", and quotes the matla. The couplet the writer chose as an example is, despite this judgement, a well-made matla. For Senâyî's life, see the article Senâyî Mehmed Efendi (of Manisa).

Bibliography

Online sources