Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dil anuñçün dūd-ı āhından cihānı tar ider
Yārini aġyār ile gördüklerinden ‘ār ider
Düşde daḫı görmesün kimse benüm mis̱lüm diyü
Ġuṣṣa-i ḥicrān ile ḫalḳı o meh bī-dār ider

In English

1. Because the heart is ashamed to see its beloved together with rivals, it darkens the world with the smoke of its sigh. (The lover burns within and his sigh rises like smoke; the poet attributes the darkening of the world by this smoke to the heart's unwillingness to see that shameful sight.)

2. That moon-faced beloved keeps people awake with the grief of separation, saying, "Let no one see my like even in a dream." (Whoever does not sleep cannot dream; by keeping people sleepless the beloved prevents them from seeing anyone like him even in their dreams.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

In the form in which it has come down to us the poem has two 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 anthologies; it has been deduced from the scansion of the couplets. The redif (refrain word) is "ider"; the rhyme is built on the sound "-ār" in tar, ‘ār and bī-dār. As the two lines of the first couplet rhyme with each other, this couplet is the matla of a ghazal, and the second couplet is an inner couplet of the same ghazal. The rest of the ghazal is not in the biographical anthologies (tezkire).

These couplets are among Sürûrî's poems most often cited in the anthologies. The text followed here is Âşık Çelebi's. Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi and Beyânî give the two couplets together, with small differences of spelling ("Yârını", "bîdâr"). Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî quotes only the first couplet in the Künhü'l-ahbâr. That four anthologies chose these couplets shows that they were counted among the most admired of Sürûrî's poems.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Both couplets are built on the device of hüsn-i talil (poetic aetiology), the giving of a poetic, pleasing cause for an event in place of its real cause. In the first couplet the smoke rising from the lover's sigh and darkening the world is a familiar image of divan poetry. Sürûrî finds a cause for it: the heart is ashamed to see its beloved together with rivals and so plunges the world into darkness so as not to see the sight. There is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among smoke, sigh and darkening, and between "yâr" (beloved) and "ağyâr" (rivals) there is both a likeness of sound and an opposition of meaning.

The second couplet applies the same line of thought to the beloved. The grief of separation keeps people sleepless; Sürûrî puts this down to the beloved's jealousy. The beloved does not want anyone to see his like even in a dream; since people cannot dream if they do not sleep, keeping them sleepless is the way to this end. An antithesis (tezat) is set up between "düş" (dream) and "bî-dâr" (awake). Calling the beloved "meh", the moon, adds a further touch: the moon can also be thought of as a light that keeps people awake at night. The couplets carry, in plain language, a skilfully built piece of wit.

Historical Context

When and on what occasion the couplets were written is not known. The biographers' verdicts on Sürûrî as a poet, however, should be read around these couplets. Kınalızâde says that Sürûrî's Turkish poems were beyond count and that he had three divans. Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî writes that not even three ghazals from his teacher's three divans became famous, and, following the path of the biographers, quotes only a few couplets; the first of these couplets is among them. Beyânî records that his works were popular among the common people but not much esteemed among men of learning; Kınalızâde too says that those who knew Persian well saw the shortcomings of his commentaries. Sürûrî's Turkish divan has been published by Niyazi Ünver from its single manuscript; as that edition could not be accessed during this work, the place of these couplets in the divan could not be compared.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Online sources