Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün

Dilâ tecdîd-i matem ḳıl bugün mah-ı Muḥarremdir
Melâik ins ile cinnî bugün hep ehl-i mâtemdir
Velâyet şâhınıň yâ hû şehîd olduġu bu demdir
‘Adüvv-i ekberim ancaḳ benim bir iki âdemdir
Birisi Şimr-i Zülcevşen birisi İbn-i Mülcemdir
Bulara dâ’imâ la‘net dimek mü’mîne elzemdir

In English

1. O heart, renew your mourning; today is the month of Muharram. Angels, humans and jinn are all in mourning today. This is the hour, yâ Hû, when the king of sainthood was martyred. My greatest enemies are only one or two men: one is Shimr Dhu'l-Jawshan, the other is Ibn Muljam. To curse them always is a duty binding on the believer.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a müseddes built of six-line stanzas; Hakverdioğlu calls it a "gazel-i müseddes". We have only the first stanza, because the article gives the first verse unit of each poem in the cönk. The stanza is written in the hezec pattern "mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün mefâîlün"; the identification of the metre is ours. All six lines end in the suffix "-dir" and rhyme on the sound "-em" in the words "Muharrem / mâtem / dem / âdem / Mülcem / elzem". This single-rhyme scheme suits the memorable structure of elegies recited in mourning gatherings, which could be repeated together.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The stanza gathers all the elements of a Muharram elegy into a short space. The first line addresses the heart and asks for the mourning to be "tecdîd", renewed, every year in Muharram; the grief of Karbala is not a pain lived once and ended, but a commemoration observed anew each year. In the second line the mourning takes on a universal dimension: not only humans but angels and jinn are among the mourners. The "king of sainthood" (velâyet şâhı) in the third line is, in Sufi and Alevi-Bektashi usage, usually an epithet of Ali; in the context of Muharram, however, the martyrdom of Ali's son Husayn is commemorated. The pairing of two different killers in the last two lines supports this double meaning: Shimr is known as the man who cut off Husayn's head at Karbala; Ibn Muljam is the man who martyred Ali in Kufa. Cursing the enemies of the Family of the Prophet is regarded almost as a religious obligation in circles centred on love for the Ehl-i Beyt; the poet expresses this as "binding on the believer". The invocation "yâ Hû" within the line is a cry belonging to the language of dervish-lodge dhikr and brings the stanza close to a text recited and sung.

Historical Context

The stanza is on page 58 of the Merzifon Cönkü, introduced by Metin Hakverdioğlu in 2019. Hakverdioğlu gives the poem twice in his article (pp. 554 and 556); in the second text only the spelling "Şimr-i zü'l-cevşen" differs. Page 772 of Arslan and Doğan's anthology Kerbelâ Mersiyeleri is placed at the head of the poem as its source; the full text of the poem is there and in the cönk itself, but since the anthology could not be obtained it could not be given here. The identity of the poet is unknown. For Zahmî and the poets of the same pen name, see the page on Zahmî.

Bibliography

  • Metin Hakverdioğlu, "Merzifon Cönkü", idil, 8(57), 2019, p. 554, 556 (Cönk, p. 58). https://www.idildergisi.com/makale/pdf/1552911669.pdf
  • Mehmet Arslan, Mehtap Doğan, Kerbelâ Mersiyeleri, Ankara: Grafiker Yayınları, 2009, p. 772 (as cited by Hakverdioğlu 2019).

Online sources