Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

Yād ider misin göñül kūyında mihmān olduġuñ
İşüginde ol şehüñ bī-çāre derbān olduġuñ
Geh beşer dirüm saña gāhī melek gāhī perī
Gördügümce gāh peydā gāh pinhān olduġuñ
Didiler te’s̱īr ider ismi müsemmāda velī
Ey Sürūrī görmedüm ‘ālemde ḫandān olduġuñ

In English

1. O heart, do you remember being a guest in his quarter, being a helpless doorkeeper at that king's threshold?

2. At times I call you human, at times angel, at times fairy, because whenever I see you, you now appear and now are hidden. (Angels and fairies are beings invisible to the eye; the beloved's appearing and vanishing leads the poet to liken him to them.)

3. They said that a name works its influence on the one who bears it; yet, O Sürûrî, I never saw you smiling in this world. ("Sürûrî" means joyful, cheerful; the poet says that the meaning of his name and his condition do not match.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In the form in which it has come down to us the poem has three couplets (beyit) and is written in the metre "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The metre is not stated in the biographical anthology; it has been deduced from the scansion of the couplets. The redif (refrain word) is "olduġuñ", and the rhyme is built on the sound "-ān" in mihmān, derbān, pinhān and ḫandān. Âşık Çelebi gives these couplets under the heading "ġazel": the matla, one inner couplet and the final couplet with the pen name (mahlas). The other couplets of the ghazal are not known. Sürûrî's Turkish divan has been published by Niyazi Ünver from its single manuscript, but as that edition could not be accessed during this work, the ghazal's place in the divan and its full text could not be compared.

The last couplet of the ghazal is the couplet of Sürûrî most often cited in the biographical anthologies (tezkire). Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi gives the second line as "Ey Sürûrî görmedüm ‘âlemde handân oldugum" (I never saw myself smiling in the world), and Beyânî as "Didiler te’sîri var ismün müsemmâda velî / Ey Sürûrî görmedüm âlemde sürûr oldugum". Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî also quotes the couplet in the Künhü'l-ahbâr. İsmail Güleç recalls this couplet when discussing the meaning of the pen name in his article on Sürûrî's life.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The redif of the ghazal turns to a different person in each couplet. In the matla the poet addresses his heart and reminds it of the days when it was a guest in the beloved's quarter and a doorkeeper at his threshold. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among quarter, threshold and doorkeeper; calling the beloved a "king" makes the lover a servant waiting at his door. In the second couplet the words turn to the beloved. The poet calls him now human, now angel, now fairy; the reason is that the beloved appears and then disappears. There is a congruence of images among human, angel and fairy, and an antithesis (tezat) between "peydâ" (visible) and "pinhân" (hidden). The couplet also contains a poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil): the giving of different names to the beloved is put down to his behaving like beings unseen by the eye.

The makta (final couplet) is the best-known couplet of the ghazal, and in it the poet addresses his own pen name. According to an old belief, a name influences the condition of the one who bears it. The name "Sürûrî" means joy and cheerfulness, yet the poet has never seen himself smiling in the world. An antithesis is thus set up between pen name and condition; the semantic link between "Sürûrî" and "ḫandân" (smiling) forms the wit of the couplet. In Beyânî's version the contrast is plainer still: though named Sürûrî, the poet has never seen himself in "sürûr", in joy.

Historical Context

Âşık Çelebi says of the makta: "Bu ġazelüñ maḫlaṣı kendünüñ ḥasb-i ḥālidür ve nā-şād u nā-murādlıġına itdügi fālidür." That is, the pen-name couplet of this ghazal is an account of the poet's own state and an augury he drew for his joyless life of unfulfilled hopes. Âşık Çelebi was Sürûrî's pupil and knew his teacher's life closely. In his account, after becoming tutor to Prince Mustafa, Sürûrî lost all his hopes with the prince's execution in 1553 and spent the last nine years of his life in poverty and hardship. Âşık Çelebi's word "augury" suggests that the couplet can be read as if it had foretold this end. When the ghazal was written, however, is not known; İsmail Güleç mentions the couplet in a discussion of whether the pen name may have been given to the son of a wealthy family.

The biographers' verdict on Sürûrî as a poet also deserves to be recalled with this couplet. Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî writes that not even three ghazals from his teacher's three divans became famous, and that having gone through one of his divans from beginning to end he could not find a single ghazal sound in all five couplets; yet among the couplets chosen by the biographers he too quotes this makta. It is striking that the most remembered of Sürûrî's poems should be this couplet describing his own unhappiness.

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.
  • Serpil Gürdap, Gelibolulu Sürûrî Divanı'nda Sosyal Hayat, MA thesis, Muş Alparslan University Institute of Social Sciences, 2023, p. 5 (on Niyazi Ünver's 2020 edition and the single manuscript of the divan), https://akademikarsiv.alparslan.edu.tr/bitstreams/0a95c6d3-75a1-425d-a892-fe37317ba40f/download.

Online sources