Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Çün emr olındı yâr işiginde kıyâmımuz
‘Uşşâk içinde bir dahı bildük makâmımuz

In English

1. Since we were commanded to stand (in service) at the beloved's threshold, we came to know once more our place among the lovers.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The words "kıyâm" and "makâm" hold the two ends of the couplet. Kıyam is standing; the name is given to the standing part of the ritual prayer as well as to waiting at a great man's door with hands folded. Makam means place and rank, and in Sufism the spiritual station a traveller on the path has reached. The poet receives his appointment to stand waiting at the beloved's threshold as a rank and not as a humiliation: standing at the threshold is a dignity that fixes his place among the lovers.

A play on music can also be sensed in the second line. "Uşşâk" means lovers, but it is also the name of a mode (makam) in classical Turkish music; the phrase "a place within uşşâk" therefore also strikes the ear as the name of a mode. Whether the poet intended this association is not certain, but the presence of the word "makâm" in the same line strengthens it.

After giving the couplet Kınalızâde says "Bu beyt bir kasîdesindendür" (this couplet is from one of his kasides). The sentence can be attached to this couplet just before it, or read as the introduction to the couplet "İder âb-ı zülâl" that follows. In rhyme, "kıyâmımuz / makâmımuz" and the "-âyı" rhyme of the other couplet do not match; the two couplets cannot belong to the same kaside. Read as a kaside couplet, the "yâr" here is a patron and the threshold his door, and the couplet tells of the poet's acceptance into his service. The patron's identity is not recorded. According to Kınalızâde, this couplet heads the poems the poet himself chose for the anthology; the Tayyibzâde family and Şeyhî's short life are covered in Şeyhî (Tayyibzâde).

Bibliography

Online sources