Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Bugün ḫurşîd-veş giymiş o mâh-ı sîm-ber üsküf
Cemâli şemʿ-i tâbından yine par par yanar üsküf

In English

1. Today that silver-bodied moon (of a beauty) has put on an üsküf like the sun; from the candle-glow of his face the üsküf again blazes and sparkles.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is the opening couplet (matla) of a ghazal (gazel). The redif (refrain word) is "üsküf", and the rhyme is the sound "-r" at the end of the words "sîm-ber" and "yanar". The rest of the ghazal is unknown. Among Zârî's couplets this is the only one found in three sources at once: Latîfî, Kınalızâde and Hüsameddin. The second line appears in different forms in the sources. Latîfî records "Cemâli şemʿ-i tâbından", Kınalızâde "Cemâlî şem'i tâbından", and Hüsameddin "Tecellî-i cemâlinden yine pâr pâr yanar üsküf". The text of Latîfî's edition has been followed here. The editions of the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) do not indicate the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The üsküf is a tall cap, half of which hangs down at the back, worn by high-ranking janissary officers; Latîfî's phrase "altun üsküf" shows that there were gold-worked ones as well. The couplet is built entirely on images of light and glitter. The beloved is called "mâh", the moon, and "sîm-ber", silver-breasted, silver-bodied; the golden üsküf on his head is "ḫurşîd-veş", like the sun. Placing the sun on the head of the moon expresses through heavenly bodies the contrast of colour between the white face and the golden cap. In the second line the beloved's beauty is likened to a candle; the brightness of the üsküf comes not from its own gold but from the light of this candle. "Par par yanmak", to blaze and sparkle, is a lively reduplication taken from everyday speech and gives the couplet a homely warmth beside its elegant Persian compounds. There is a clear congruence of images (tenasüp) among the words moon, sun, candle, light and burning.

Historical Context

Latîfî also tells the occasion of the couplet: the poet had lost the bird of his heart to "Ḳuloġullarından bir altun üsküflü balaban baḳuşlu şahbaz", a handsome youth from one of the families of the sultan's household troops, wearing a golden üsküf and with a falcon's gaze, and this matla was composed for him. The writer's own sentence, like the couplet, is built on an image of hunting birds; the royal falcon (şahbaz), the balaban hawk and the bird of the heart all come from the same field. The youth's identity and the date of the event are unknown. Kınalızâde gives the same couplet as the poet's only example; Hüsameddin, quoting Latîfî, also included it in Zârî's entry. For the poet's life, see the article Zârî Mehmed Çelebi.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Online sources