Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Göñül nā-dānı almaz dāneye dānāya mā’ildür
Şeh olmaz cāhile fażl ehline ḳullıġa ḳā’ildür
Elinde ṭolu ebyātıyla dil-berden diler būse
Şikārī keckül ile cerr ider gūyā ki sā’ildür

In English

1. The heart does not accept the ignorant; it inclines not to the grain but to the learned. It will not bow to the ignorant as its lord, yet it consents to be the slave of the virtuous.

2. Şikârî, his hands full of couplets, begs a kiss of the beloved; he is like a mendicant who has taken up his begging bowl (keşkül) and gone out collecting alms (cer).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The two couplets follow one another in Âşık Çelebi's biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) under the heading "Eş'âr-ı û", his poems. Both end in the rhyme "-â'il" and the refrain (redif) "-dür", and the poet's pen name (mahlas) appears in the second. It is therefore clear that both belong to the same ghazal (gazel), the first being its opening couplet (matla) and the second its closing couplet (makta); the couplets in between were not taken into the tezkire. The edition of the tezkire does not indicate the metre. The lines fit four repetitions of the foot mefâîlün, but this observation is ours. When and for whom the ghazal was written is not known. In the edition the word in the second couplet is read "keckül"; it is a spelling of keşkül, the bowl carried by dervishes and beggars.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first line of the opening couplet is built on a pun (cinas). "Dâne" means grain or bait, "dânâ" a learned person; the closeness in sound between the two words makes memorable the idea that the heart turns not to easily won bait but to knowledge. An allusion to the image of hunting and birds can also be sensed: the bird to be snared comes to the grain, while the poet's heart is not deceived by grain. This is in keeping with the pen name Şikârî, which means "of the hunt". The second line sets up an opposition between "şeh" (king) and "kul" (slave): the heart does not acknowledge the ignorant as sovereign, but agrees to be the slave of the people of virtue. The contrasts between "nâ-dân" and "dânâ", "cahil" and "fazl ehli" bring the couplet close to a maxim of wisdom.

The closing couplet balances this seriousness with wit. The poet asks the beloved for a kiss and has only one thing in his hands to offer: his couplets. He likens this state to a man who holds out his begging bowl and goes out on the cer. Cer was the name of the tours that madrasa students and dervishes made to collect donations; "sâ'il" is one who begs or asks. Poetry thus appears as an offering for which a favour is expected in return. The simile is explicit ("gûyâ ki sâ'ildür"); there is also a fine link between "beyit" and "keşkül", for the bowl evokes the alms placed in it, and the couplets in the poet's hands the kiss asked for in return.

Historical Context

A second meaning in the couplets becomes clearer once the poet's life is known. Âşık Çelebi writes that Hazînedârzâde Mustafa Çelebi was the confidant of Şehzade Mustafa (Prince Mustafa), that after the prince's death he held a zeamet and that he was again waiting for the attention of the great. The heart that consents to be the slave of the virtuous and the poet waiting for a favour with his hands full of couplets suit the world of a court servant who lived by attaching himself to a patron. This reading is an interpretation; the biographer does not say on what occasion the couplets were written. The poet's identity and his confusion with other poets of the same pen name are treated separately in the biography in this category.

Bibliography

Online sources