Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sûsenî bir câme giymiş yine ol gül-pîrehen
Ter gül ile sûseni cemʿ eylemişdür her gören

In English

1. That beauty in the rose-hued shirt has again put on an iris-coloured robe; everyone who sees him has gathered fresh rose and iris together. ("Gül-pîrehen" means one whose shirt is like a rose, a beauty with a body like a rose. "Sûsenî" is the colour of the iris (sûsen), between violet and blue. The beloved's rosy face and skin and his iris-coloured robe stand side by side in the onlooker's eyes like a bunch of roses and irises.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Rose-coloured skin and an iris-coloured robe: these two colours are the whole material of the couplet. The beloved is already "gül-pîrehen", his skin and face bearing the colour of the rose; when he puts on an iris-coloured robe, the two flowers meet. Whoever sees him has seen, even gathered, a rose and an iris together without going to the garden. The verb "cem' eylemek" suggests both bringing together and picking flowers; looking thus turns into gathering flowers.

The figures of speech are gathered from the same garden. As two flowers of spring, "rose" and "iris" stand side by side in an open congruence (tenasüp). "Sûsenî" and "sûsen" come from the same root and form a derivation (iştikak) that ties the two lines together. "Gül-pîrehen" and "ter gül" (fresh rose) echo each other in the same way. The word "yine" (again) in the first line suggests that the beloved has worn these colours before and that the lover watches him each time with the same admiration. The beloved neither speaks nor stirs in the couplet; he is only seen, and all the meaning springs from the colours of what is seen.

Structure of the Poem

Since the rhyme of "pîrehen" and "gören" binds the two lines together, the couplet must be the matla' of a ghazal whose remaining couplets are unknown. The metre is the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün"; Latîfî does not record it, and it is read off the sequence of syllables in the lines.

Historical Context

Latîfî closes his entry on Sürûrî with this couplet, under the heading "Velehû" (And also his); no other source records it. The opening couplet just before it he had expressly counted among the poet's own verse with the words "anuñ eş'ârındandur", so the couplet that follows under the same heading is likewise offered as Sürûrî's own. In the same entry Latîfî says that this scholar, accomplished in so many sciences, did not give poetry enough labour or time; poetry, in his view, calls for a mastery of its own, and learning does not make a good poet. Even so, the couplet he chose brings the play of colours and flowers together with skill.

Bibliography

Online sources