Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Ben elif kâmetine serv-i dilârâ diyemem
Lebine dil uzadıp gonca-i ra’nâ diyemem
Maraz-ı aşka leb-i la’lini em’dir dediler
Râzımı yâre açıp sırrımı ammâ diyemem
Her sınık sırça şehâ câm-ı Sikender mi olur
Her hazef-pâreye mir’ât-ı mücellâ diyemem
Ayağının tozuyuz hâsılı sâhib-nazarın
Şahs-ı nâdâna varıp merdüm-i dânâ diyemem
Ey Siyâmî oturup künc-i kanâatde müdâm
Fakrım izhâr edüben kimseye salâ diyemem

In English

1. I cannot call your stature, straight as the letter elif, "a heart-adorning cypress"; I cannot wag my tongue at your lip and call it "a lovely bud".

2. They said your ruby lip is the cure for the sickness of love; but I cannot open my heart to the beloved and tell my secret.

3. My king, does every broken piece of glass become Alexander's cup? I cannot call every potsherd "a polished mirror".

4. In short, we are the dust beneath the feet of those whose inner eye is open; I cannot go to an ignorant man and call him "a learned person".

5. O Siyâmî, sitting ever in the corner of contentment, I cannot display my poverty and say "come and share" to anyone.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The refrain "diyemem" (I cannot call, I cannot say) turns every couplet of the ghazal into a sentence of refusal. In the first couplet what is refused are the best-known comparisons of divan poetry: the stature is not likened to a cypress, nor the lip to a bud. The reason is not said outright, but the idiom "dil uzatmak" gives a clue. It means both to speak and to speak disrespectfully against someone; for the poet, likening the beloved's lip to a bud would belittle it. "Elif kâmet", on the other hand, likens the stature to the perfectly straight elif, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and is the image the poet chooses in place of the cypress he refuses.

From the third couplet on, the ghazal changes direction, and the language of love and the language of morals interweave. Not every broken glass is Alexander's cup, not every potsherd a polished mirror; in the fourth couplet this measure is applied to people: the poet accepts being the dust beneath the feet of men of insight, but he cannot call the ignorant "learned". These couplets, from the pen of a teacher and judge whom Hüsameddin calls "learned, accomplished", carry a line of honesty that refuses to present the worthless as precious. The last couplet ties this stance to contentment. "Salâ demek" is to call someone to a meal or to a task. The last line can be drawn in two directions: the poet cannot invite anyone to his own table lest his poverty show; or he does not reveal his poverty and call on anyone for help. In both readings there is the voice of a man sitting in the corner of contentment and keeping his dignity.

According to Hüsameddin's note the ghazal is a nazire, that is, a reply written in the same metre, rhyme and refrain, to a ghazal by Hızır Efendizâde Mehmed Efendi of Amasya. Since the entry where he says the original ghazal appears could not be found in the published volumes of Amasya Tarihi, the two poems could not be set side by side. Siyâmî's other poems burned along with Abdî Efendi's anthology; this response poem survived thanks to an anthology Kilisli Ahmed Rif'at Bey gave to Hüsameddin. Siyâmî's life, as far as Hüsameddin's memory preserved it, is told in Siyâmî Ali Efendi.

Bibliography

Online sources