Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Kelâm-ı rûh-bahşun şimdi söyletmez Mesîhâyı
Olan rûh-ı kelâma vâkıf anlar hep bu ma‘nâyı

In English

1. Your life-giving speech now leaves even the Messiah (Jesus) without a word; all who know the spirit of speech understand this meaning.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The belief that the prophet Jesus raised the dead with his breath is often used in divan poetry through the image (mazmun) of "dem-i Îsâ" and "Mesîhâ": the beloved's lip or a great man's word is likened to that breath which gives life to the dead. Şeyhî carries the comparison one step further. The speech of the man he praises is so life-giving that even the Messiah falls silent before it. The phrase "rûh-ı kelâm" (the spirit of speech) in the second line uses the word "rûh" a second time, recalling "Rûhullah", the epithet given to Jesus in Islamic tradition; a web of meaning is woven among "rûh-bahş", "Mesîhâ" and "rûh".

Kınalızâde introduces this couplet as "kasîde-i mezbûrede bu matla‘ı dimişdür", that is, in the said kaside he composed this opening couplet. That the two lines rhyme on "Mesîhâyı" and "ma‘nâyı", and that the preceding couplet "İder âb-ı zülâl" also ends in "-âyı", show that both belong to the same kaside. Since the opening couplet puts forward the speech, and perhaps the pen, of the man praised, he may have been a scholar or a master of words; the anthology does not give his name. Beyond these two couplets nothing of the kaside survives. What is known of Şeyhî's life is collected in Şeyhî (Tayyibzâde).

Bibliography

Online sources