Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Sîm-berler çü zelle-bend oldı
Müflîs olsa ʿacep mi ʿuşşâḳ

In English

1. When the silver-bodied beauties have become zelle-bends, those who carry off everything left on the table, is it any wonder if the lovers go bankrupt? (The reading and meaning of "zelle-bend" are ours.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This couplet, which Latîfî gives with the word "velehu", is a single couplet. There is no rhyme between the two lines; this suggests that the couplet is an inner couplet of a ghazal (gazel) or kıta, but the rest of the poem is unknown. The couplet is found only in Latîfî. The edition of the biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) does not indicate the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The key to the couplet is the word "zelle-bend". In Persian "zelle" denotes the portion of food left over from a banquet that a guest set aside to take home; a "zelle-bend" is one who ties up these leftovers in a bundle and carries them off. This reading and meaning are ours; the edition of the tezkire does not explain the word. With this meaning the couplet becomes a witticism teasing the relation in divan poetry between the beauties and the lovers who spend their fortunes in pursuit of them: the beauties, like people who gather up even the leftovers of a table, carry off whatever the lovers possess; in that case it is no wonder that the lovers are left bankrupt.

The wordplay of the couplet rests on the word "sîm". "Sîm-ber" means a silver-breasted, silver-bodied beauty; but "sîm" also means silver coin, that is, wealth. The silver-bodied take the lovers' silver. A congruence of images (tenasüp) is thus built between "sîm" and "müflis" (bankrupt). "ʿUşşâḳ" is the plural of "âşık" (lover) and in the couplet denotes a whole company of lovers. Like Zârî's other couplets, this one rests less on feeling than on an observation taken from everyday life and its wit.

Historical Context

When and for whom the couplet was said is unknown. Latîfî gives it after the matla "Bugün ḫurşîd-veş giymiş", composed for the youth in the golden üsküf. For the poet's life, see the article Zârî Mehmed Çelebi.

Bibliography

Online sources