Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün

Bir iki Türki beyt ile ġurūr itmek revā mıdur
Sen inṣāf eylemezseñ bāri bir ehl-i suḫandan ṣor

In English

1. Is it fitting to grow proud over one or two Turkish couplets? If you will not be fair, then at least ask some master of words. (The couplet answers the challenge at the end of Gubârî's ghazal: "can a response be found to this poem? Ask any sweet-tongued poet".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This couplet (beyit) is the last couplet of a nazire (response poem) that Sürûrî wrote to a ghazal of Gubârî. A nazire is a reply to another poet's poem written in the same metre, rhyme and redif (refrain word); the couplet is therefore written, like Gubârî's ghazal, in the metre "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün" of the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre), and takes over his redif "ṣor" (ask) and his rhyme in "-en" (suḫan). The metre is not stated in the biographical anthologies; it has been taken as the metre of the ghazal being answered. The other couplets of the response poem are not in the anthologies. Âşık Çelebi and Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî give the couplet in the same form; according to a manuscript variant recorded by Filiz Kılıç, in the P manuscript of the anthology the first line reads "bir iki beytle çaḳ böyle lāf urmaḳ revā mıdur" (is it fitting to boast like this over one or two couplets).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet answers directly the challenge in the last couplet of Gubârî's ghazal. Gubârî had said, "Görelüm ey ṣabā bu şi‘r-i siḥr-āmīze ‘ālemde / Naẓīr olur mı her bir şā‘ir-i şīrīn suḫandan ṣor": O morning breeze, let us see whether this enchanting poem has an equal in the world; ask every sweet-tongued poet. Sürûrî turns the same redif and the same command "ask" back on Gubârî. Gubârî had told the breeze to "ask the poets"; Sürûrî tells him, "if you have no fairness, ask a master of words". A play of words is thus set up between the two couplets, and the poet who threw down the challenge receives his answer in his own words. The phrase "one or two Turkish couplets" belittles the worth of the ghazal; the poem Gubârî called "enchanting" is in Sürûrî's eyes no more than a few Turkish couplets. The contrast between the words "fairness" and "pride" also sharpens the reproach of the couplet.

Historical Context

Âşık Çelebi tells the story thus: while Süleyman the Magnificent was on the campaign of the Two Iraqs in 941 (1534-35), Gubârî wrote a ghazal beginning "Ne bilür ‘ışḳı her Mecnūn sen ol aḥvāli benden ṣor" and at its end challenged the poets. Sürûrî too composed a response poem and answered with this couplet in its makta (final couplet). According to Âşık Çelebi, Gubârî could not swallow "ol loḳma", this reproach, and waited for a chance to take his revenge. Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî tells the same story and says that Gubârî could not digest this "ta‘n-āmīz", taunting, morsel.

The chance came years later. When Gubârî, then living in Mecca, heard that Sürûrî had agreed to become tutor to Prince Mustafa, he sent him a reproachful letter in verse; Sürûrî again wrote a reply in verse to the letter. That reply is the kıt‘a in which Sürûrî tells in his own words how he was called to teach the prince in Amasya, and it appears as a separate article in this section. İsmail Güleç notes that because both poets were Nakşibendî they came in the end to get on well and became friends.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

  • İsmail Güleç, "Gelibolulu Musluhiddin Sürûrî, Hayatı, Kişiliği, Eserleri ve Bahrü'l-Ma'ârif İsimli Eseri", Osmanlı Araştırmaları 21 (2001), pp. 211-236.

Online sources