Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Tîrüñ gözedür merhem-i râḥat diyü ey yâr
Zaḫmum gibi ʿâlemde nice aġzı ḳızıl var

In English

1. O beloved, in this world there are many red-mouthed (bleeding) wounds like mine that watch for your arrow as a soothing balm.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The couplet is an opening couplet (matla) whose two lines rhyme on the words "yâr" and "var". The rest of the ghazal is unknown. Latîfî gives the couplet with the word "velehu"; Hüsameddin, quoting Latîfî, records it in the form "Tîrin gözedir merhem-i râhat diyu ey yâr / Zahmım gibi âlemde nice ağzı kızıl var". The edition of the biographical anthology of poets (tezkire) does not indicate the metre. When and to whom it was said is unknown.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In divan poetry the beloved's glances and eyelashes are arrows that pierce the lover's heart; the lover does not flee these arrows but waits for them. Zârî carries this image (mazmun) a step further. The wound opened by the arrow watches for arrows as if they were a balm, as though a new arrow would heal it. That the thing that causes pain should be counted as a cure is the basic antithesis of the couplet. In the second line the poet says that his wound is not alone: in this world there are many "aġzı ḳızıl", red-mouthed, wounds like his. The mouth of the wound is red because it is open and bleeding; so the poet is not the only lover who is a candidate for the beloved's arrows. A congruence of images (tenasüp) is built among the words arrow, wound, balm and ease. The verb "gözetmek" evokes both waiting and taking aim, watching; this association is our observation.

Historical Context

Latîfî gives this couplet as the last example in Zârî's entry and immediately adds a couplet of his own with the words "li-müʾellifihi", by the author of these lines: "Umarsın ola göñlüñ aça laʿl-i leb-i yâr / Ey ġonca nice sencileyin aġzı ḳızıl var." The writer now turns the same phrase "aġzı ḳızıl var" to the rosebud: O rosebud, you hope that the beloved's ruby lip will open your heart, yet there are many red-mouthed ones like you. Latîfî thus composed a response poem (nazire) to Zârî's couplet and carried the phrase "red-mouthed" over from the wound to the rosebud and the lip. This reply shows that Zârî's couplet caught the writer's attention. For the poet's life, see the article Zârî Mehmed Çelebi.

Bibliography

Online sources