Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün Mefâ'îlün

Nigâruñ ḫâṭırı ḫaṭṭı ucından pür-ġubâr ancaḳ
Yine âyîne-i ʿâlem-nümâda jeng var ancaḳ

In English

1. The beloved's heart is full of dust, aggrieved, only because of the down on the cheek; and on the world-showing mirror, too, there is only rust.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal (gazel); both its lines end with the refrain word (redif) "ancaḳ" (only), and the rhyme is the sound "-âr" in the words "ġubâr" and "var". The rest of the ghazal is unknown. Âşık Çelebi gives the matla at the end of the entry on Zemânî, after the two-couplet ghazal fragment, under the heading "Maṭlaʿ". Kınalızâde and Beyânî quote the same matla as the first example in their entries and read the end of the second line as "zeng-bâr ancak"; in the first line Kınalızâde has "ucında" instead of "ucından". The edition does not indicate the metre; the lines fit the hezec pattern of four mefâ'îlün, and this identification is ours. To whom and when it was said is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The subject of the couplet is a situation often treated in divan poetry: the appearance of down, the "hat", on the beloved's cheek. The hat is considered a sign that shades the beauty's face and announces that the beloved's youth is nearing its end. The poet expresses this with two separate images. In the first line the beloved's heart has filled with dust because of the hat; the closeness in sound between "ḫâṭır" (heart) and "ḫaṭṭ" (down) gives the line the air of a pun (cinas). The phrase "ḫaṭṭı ucından" suggests both the idiom meaning "because of the hat" and the tips of the hairs themselves; this second reading is ours. The word "pür-ġubâr" expresses being full of dust and being aggrieved at the same time.

In the second line the beloved's bright face is likened to a mirror that shows the world within it. Since old mirrors were made of metal they rusted with time; the dark down appearing on the cheek is like rust falling on this mirror. The phrase "âyîne-i ʿâlem-nümâ" is a compound that recalls the world-showing cup of the legendary Jamshid (Cem) and the mirror of Alexander. Dust and rust complement each other as two things that cover brightness. The reading "zeng-bâr" in Kınalızâde and Beyânî, meaning "raining rust", gives the same image a little more strongly.

Historical Context

The matla is one of the three couplets of the poet that have come down to us, and it appears in all three tezkires that introduce him. For Zamânî's life and his place in Şehzade Mustafa's household in Amasya, see the article Zamânî Mahmud Çelebi.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources