Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Degüldür er çü merdî ey civân-merd
Hemîn kesbidür anuñ belki cömerd

In English

1. O young man of valour, manliness is not merely being a man; perhaps the gain of manliness is generosity. (The reading and meaning are ours; the couplet can also be understood otherwise.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The two lines rhyme on the words "merd" and "cömerd"; this shows that the couplet may be from a mesnevi or the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal (gazel). Latîfî gives it with the word "velehu". That Latîfî straight afterwards gives, with the words "bu birkaç beyt daḫî", these few couplets too, a four-couplet piece in praise of income may suggest that the couplet was spoken around the same subject, but the anthologist keeps the two apart. In the version given in the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü the first line is misprinted.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet is a short, compressed utterance; its meaning comes from the play of sound among its words. The same sound "er" and "merd" turns in all the words "er", "merd", "civân-merd" and "cömerd". Persian "merd" means man, brave man; "civân-merd" a young brave man, a generous man; and "cömerd" is the shortened form of Persian "civân-merd", which passed into Turkish as cömert, generous. The poet seems to draw a lesson from this kinship: being "er", a male, is not enough to be manly; the real gain of manliness is generosity. That the word "çü" can be read as "like" or as "because" leaves the construction of the first line uncertain. Since the edition does not explain the couplet, the reading above is not certain.

"Kesb", gain, is what is earned by labour and is a word of the craftsmen's ethic. Read together with the piece saying that income makes a man generous, the couplet carries the voice of a master who can be generous with his earnings; this connection is drawn from the order in which Latîfî places them.

Historical Context

Its occasion, too, is unknown. His biography page weighs the conflicting evidence on Siyâbî's name and date of death.

Bibliography

Online sources