Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: 11-syllable syllabic metre

Göster cemâliňi köz gibi yüzüň
Dilber bu cemâliň mübtelâsıyuz
Merḥamet kânıdır alur büryâne
Göňüller şâhınıň âşinâsıyuz

In English

1. Show your beauty, (O) you whose face (glows) like embers; beloved, we are captives of this beauty. It is a mine of mercy, it takes in (those who are) burned; we are acquaintances of the sultan of hearts.

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, "yüzüň / büryâne", are free; the second and fourth rhyme in "mübtelâsıyuz / âşinâsıyuz". To whom and on what occasion the poem was composed is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The quatrain opens with the wish to see the beloved's face. "Köz gibi yüz", a face like embers, describes a face that glows and burns like a coal in the fire; the comparison is close to popular speech. The second line calls the lovers "mübtelâ", captive and addicted, and speaks in the plural "we"; the lover presents himself as the voice of a community of lovers. The meaning of the reading "alur büryâne" in the third line is not entirely clear; "büryân" means roasted, burned, and the sense "it takes in those who are burned" may be given. The "sultan of hearts" in the last line may suggest the beloved or, in a Sufi reading, a spiritual guide, even God; Yesârî's association with Bektaşî circles makes this second reading possible as well.

Historical Context

The poem is recorded under the pen name Yesârî in the Merzifon Cönkü introduced by Metin Hakverdioğlu in 2019; the cönk contains four of Yesârî's poems, one in syllabic metre and three in aruz. The article does not introduce the poet. Yesârî of Çankırı is named among the poets with whom Tokatlı Nûrî held poetic gatherings in Çankırı, and the cönk includes, alongside Nûrî, names from the same circle such as Zahmî and Bezmî; it is therefore likely that the poem belongs to the minstrel Yesârî of Çankırı, but this is our inference. For details, see the page on Yesârî. The poem is on page 43 of the cönk and page 551-552 of the article; its full text is in the cönk itself and has not been published to date.

Bibliography

Online sources