Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: 11-syllable syllabic metre

Ey ḫublarıň şâhı serv-i bülendim
Nedir bu sendeki divâne gözler
Ey lebleri şirin nâzik efendim
Eyledi bendesin şâhâne gözler

In English

1. O sultan of the fair, my tall cypress; what are these mad eyes of yours? O my gentle lord with sweet lips; those regal eyes have brought your servant to this state.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a koşma. The koşma is the most common verse form of minstrel poetry; it is built of quatrains and usually sung in an eleven-syllable metre. The lines have a caesura after 6+5 or 4+4+3 syllables; the syllable count is ours. Because Hakverdioğlu's article publishes only the first verse unit of each poem in the cönk, we know only the first quatrain of this poem. The first and third lines rhyme in "bülendim / efendim", the second and fourth in "divâne / şâhâne"; "gözler" is the refrain. To whom and on what occasion the poem was composed is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The quatrain opens with a series of addresses to the beloved: "hûbların şâhı" (sultan of the fair), "serv-i bülend" (tall cypress), "lebleri şîrîn nâzik efendi" (gentle lord with sweet lips). In divan poetry the cypress is the image for the beloved's tall, straight stature. The real subject of the quatrain is the eyes, and the refrain "gözler" (eyes) repeats with two different epithets: in the first closing line "divâne gözler", eyes that madden or look mad; in the second "şâhâne gözler", regal eyes. The two epithets give two faces of the beloved's gaze: a madness that robs one of reason, and a sovereignty that commands. The lover calls himself "bende", servant, and says these eyes have taken him captive.

Historical Context

The poem is recorded under the name of Tokatlı Nûrî in the Merzifon Cönkü introduced by Metin Hakverdioğlu in 2019; with thirty-six poems, Nûrî is the poet the cönk gives most space to. Drawing on Orhan Bilgin, Hakverdioğlu relates that Eyüb Sabrî of Merzifon often invited Nûrî to Merzifon; Nûrî's weight in the cönk can be explained by this friendship. Since other minstrels also used the pen name Nûrî, it is not certain that every Nûrî poem in the cönk belongs to Tokatlı Nûrî; the article attributes these poems to Tokatlı Nûrî. For the poet's life and his connection with Amasya, see the page on Tokatlı Nûrî. The poem is on page 31 of the cönk and page 548 of the article; its full text is in the cönk itself and has not been published to date.

Bibliography

Online sources