Original Ottoman Turkish Text

The text in Kınalızâde's anthology (five couplets):

Ham olmış râ kaşun yâ gibi zerrîn-efser altında
San ol radur ki yazmış kâtib-i kudret zer altında
Gelürdi raksa hâkim gird-bâd-ı şevk ile dâ’im
Gubâr olsa tenüm pây-ı semender dil-ber altında
Nesîm-i subh gül-rîz olmasun gülşende dildâra
Olur nâzik teni âzürde gül-berg-i ter altında
Güneşdür ‘ârızun cânâ ki ‘aks-i tâb-ı rûyundan
Olur la’lin kef-i sîmîn-i sâkî sâgar altında
Sakın aldanma lu’bet bâz-ı dehrün mekrine Şeyhî
Neler peydâ ider ol bu kebûdî çâdur altında

Hüsameddin does not give the fourth couplet; in the other couplets his text differs at these points: in couplet 1 "Ham olmuş yâ kaşın râ gibi zerrîn efser altında" and "râdur"; in couplet 2 "gird-i bâd-ı" and "pây-ı semend-i dilber"; in couplet 3 "dildâre" and "gülberg-i ter"; in couplet 5 "lu'bet-bâz-ı dehrin".

In English

1. Beneath the golden crown your brow, shaped like the letter râ, has curved like the letter yâ; it is as if it were a râ that the scribe of divine power (God) had written beneath the gold.

2. Were my body to become dust beneath the hoof of the beloved's horse, my dust (hâkim) would forever rise to dance in the whirlwind of longing.

3. Let not the morning breeze scatter roses over the beloved in the garden; her delicate body is hurt even beneath a fresh rose petal.

4. My soul, your cheek is a sun; from the reflection of your face's radiance, the cupbearer's silver palm beneath the cup turns to ruby.

5. Şeyhî, beware of being deceived by the tricks of time the juggler; what things he brings forth beneath this blue tent (the sky).

Literary and Historical Commentary

A Game of Response Poems

Kınalızâde tells how the ghazal was written. The anthologist proposed his own ghazal with the refrain "altında", the poem beginning "Olaldan yâr dest-i düşmen-i bed gevher altında", to his friends, and they each wrote a response poem on this ground. Şeyhî too, "tetebbu‘ idüp", following the model, composed a ghazal and sent it to Kınalızâde to enter the anthology. The poem is the product of a writing game carried on in the anthologist's circle. Refrain and rhyme are as in the model: every couplet ends in "altında" (beneath), and the words before it, "efser, zer, dil-ber, ter, sâgar, çâdur", meet in the sound "-r".

Images

The opening couplet begins with an image of writing. The curved brow is likened to the slanting stroke of the Arabic letters "râ" (ر) and "yâ" (ى); the golden crown on the beloved's head stands above this letter. In the second line the one who wrote the brow there is the "kâtib-i kudret", the pen of God's power. The brow beneath the golden crown looks like a letter written in gold ink or beneath a golden ground. Kınalızâde's text reads "râ kaşun yâ gibi", Hüsameddin's "yâ kaşın râ gibi". Since the second line plainly calls the brow "ol râdur" (it is that râ), Hüsameddin's order appears more straightforward in sense, but both wordings rest on the curve of the two letters.

In the second couplet the word "hâkim" does not mean judge but "hâk-im", my dust. The lover wishes to become dust beneath the hoof of the beloved's horse; then his dust will whirl and dance without rest in the whirlwind of longing. The word "semender" (the salamander believed to live in fire) in Kınalızâde's edition does not fit this context; Hüsameddin's reading "semend" (horse) seems more correct, since it agrees with "pây" (foot) and "gubâr" (dust). The third couplet exaggerates the beloved's delicacy with a body that even a rose petal hurts. The fourth couplet is found only in Kınalızâde: the beloved's face shines like the sun, its light strikes the cup and dyes the cupbearer's silver-white palm ruby red.

The closing couplet (makta) leaves the praise of the beloved and turns to time. "Lu‘bet-bâz" is a player, a juggler, a puppeteer; "kebûdî çâdur" (the blue tent) is the dome of the sky. Fate is likened to a juggler staging tricks beneath a blue tent, and the poet counsels himself not to be deceived by his wiles. It is possible that the images of tent and player evoke the stage of a shadow play; the text does not build this explicitly.

Two Texts

Hüsameddin gives the ghazal on the authority of Atâyî's Zeyl-i Şakâyık, and the fourth couplet is not in his text. Whether this omission goes back to Atâyî or to Hüsameddin's transcription could not be determined. Kınalızâde's text has been taken as the basis here because it rests on the copy the poet himself sent. Şeyhî's short life and the five other pieces left in the anthology are introduced in Şeyhî (Tayyibzâde).

Bibliography

Online sources