Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Kaşlarun virür emân tugra-yı şâhîler gibi
Saçlarun niçün kemend atar sipâhîler gibi
Leblerün vasfın işidüp gonçe dürdi defterin
Lâle tâcın yile virdi kaçdı şâhîler gibi
Eşküm içinde tuş oldum zülfünün kullâbına
Aga düşdüm gûyiyâ deryâda mâhîler gibi
Gül gibi bulmak dilersen reng ü bû ile şeref
Hırka-pûş ol bih sıfat merd-i ilâhîler gibi
Leblerinden bûseler arz itdi sâkî germ olup
Şeyh perhîz itdi Seyfî imdi kâhîler gibi

In English

1. Your eyebrows grant safety like the monograms (tuğra) of sultans; why then do your locks cast lassos like sipahis.

2. Hearing the praise of your lips, the rosebud rolled up its ledger and closed it; the tulip gave its crown to the wind and fled like dethroned shahs.

3. In the sea of my tears I came upon the hook of your lock; I fell into the net like fish in the sea.

4. If you wish, like the rose, to find honour through colour and scent, put on the cloak (hırka) like the men of God; that is the better quality.

5. Warming up, the cupbearer offered kisses from his lips; O Seyfî, the sheikh now abstained like the slack and idle. The word "kâhî" has been understood here as idle, slack; the reading is not certain.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

It is not certain that this ghazal belongs to Seyfî of Sinop: it is the article in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü that assigns it to this poet, while the source anthology gives only the pen name "Seyfî". The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets; its refrain (redif) is "gibi" (like) and its rhyme the sounds "-âhîler" (şâhîler, sipâhîler, mâhîler, ilâhîler, kâhîler). The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The metre fits the pattern fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilâtün fâilün; this observation is ours. The text is given in the form quoted in the "Seyfî" article of the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü from M. Fatih Köksal's edition of Edirneli Nazmî's Mecma'u'n-nezâ'ir (p. 2721). That the rhyme and refrain rest on a long and difficult sound group such as "-âhîler gibi" is in keeping with the poem's inclusion in an anthology of response poems (nazire); whether other poems on the same pattern are found in the anthology is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet of the ghazal sets against each other two images taken from the world of state and army. The beloved's eyebrows resemble the curved monograms (tuğra) drawn at the head of the sultan's decrees; a decree bearing the tuğra grants safety, a guarantee. The locks, however, capture the lover like the lasso cast by sipahis in battle. The poet expresses this contradiction as a question: why do the locks take captive while the eyebrow grants safety. In the second couplet the rosebud, hearing the praise of the beloved's lips, "rolls up its ledger", that is, withdraws from the contest; the tulip, too, gives its crown to the wind and scatters like shahs fleeing their thrones. The likening of the tulip to a crown and the rosebud to a rolled-up ledger are familiar conceits (mazmun) based on the shapes of the flowers.

In the third couplet the lover, swimming in a sea of his own tears, is caught on the hook of the lock and falls into the net like fish in the sea; there is a strong congruence of images (tenasüp) between "zülf" (lock) and "kullâb" (hook), and among "deryâ" (sea), "mâhî" (fish) and "ag" (net). The fourth couplet gives advice: whoever seeks honour, as the rose finds honour through colour and scent, should put on the cloak of the men of God. An implicit likeness can be sensed between the layered petals of the rose and the patched dervish cloak; this interpretation is ours. The last couplet returns to the criticism of the ascetic and the sheikh common in divan poetry: the sheikh's abstinence when the cupbearer, warming up, offers kisses is in the eyes of the poet, who addresses himself by his pen name, not a virtue but slackness. Each rhyme word calls up a different group of people or creatures: shahs, sipahis, fish, men of God and the idle; the verbal richness of the ghazal comes largely from this sequence.

Historical Context

The ghazal is given in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü as an example of the poetry of Seyfî of Sinop. In nazire anthologies such as the Mecma'u'n-nezâ'ir, however, poets are often named only by their pen names; in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there were other poets bearing the same pen name, among them Seyfî Çelebi of Istanbul and Seyfî the treasurer. According to the article in the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, Latîfî says that Edirneli Nazmî collected in this anthology the response poems written up to the year 940 (1533-34); the presence in the anthology of a poem by a poet who died in Bayezid's reign fits this date, but it is not certain that the "Seyfî" of the anthology is the judge of Sinop. The ghazal is therefore given in this category with the note that its attribution rests on the identification of the İsimler Sözlüğü.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Official sources

  • Edirneli Nazmî, Mecma'u'n-nezâ'ir, ed. M. Fatih Köksal, Ankara: T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, 2012 (e-book), p. 2721 (as cited in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü). ekitap.ktb.gov.tr

Books

Online sources