Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefâʿîlün mefâʿîlün feʿûlün (identification of the metre is ours)

Selâmı çün nesîm-i sünbül ü gül
Peyâmı çün nevâ-yı sâz-ı bülbül
Ḳad-i ḫûbân gibi mevzûn duʿâlar
Ḫad-i cânân gibi rengîn s̱enâlar
Daḫî mihri gibi envâʿ-ı eşvâḳ
Dil ü cândan nitekim ḥubb-ı ʿuşşâḳ

In English

1. (The letter's) greeting like the dawn breeze smelling of hyacinth and rose, its message like the melody of the nightingale's lute.

2. Prayers well-measured like the stature of the fair, praises richly coloured like the cheek of the beloved.

3. And longings of every kind, like its affection; from heart and soul, just as the love of lovers is.

Literary and Historical Commentary

The Opening of a Book of Letters

Latîfî says that he took these three couplets from the verse introduction at the head of Zekâî's "cerîde-i belâgat-encâm", his notebook full of eloquence, called Suver-i Mekâtib. The title means copies of letters, that is, model letters; Hüsameddin names the same work Sûr-ı Mekâtib and calls it a "münşeât", a collection of letters. It is not surprising that the introduction to such a book should speak of the letter itself, and the couplets do just that: the greeting, the message, the prayer, the praise and the expression of longing in a letter are named one by one, each accompanied by a simile. The subject of the couplets is not stated explicitly; that the possessive suffix in "selâmı", "peyâmı" and "mihri" refers to the letter or to its writer is a meaning drawn from this part of the preface. Since what came before and after in the preface is unknown, this reading is not certain.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every line rests on a simile (teşbih), and the things compared are chosen from the most familiar images (mazmun) of divan poetry. The greeting resembles the dawn breeze carrying the scent of hyacinth and rose; in this poetry the dawn breeze is a messenger that carries news, so it pairs easily with "peyâm", the message, in the second line. The message in turn is likened to the nightingale's melody; rose and nightingale are thus divided between the two lines.

In the second couplet two words carry double meanings. "Mevzûn" means both measured, metrical, and well-proportioned in figure; the prayers are shapely like the stature of the fair, but they are also lines in metre. "Rengîn" means both colourful and ornate, artful in speech; the praises are red like the beloved's cheek and at the same time full of embroidered expressions. These double entendres (tevriye) tie the art of letter-writing to the portrait of a beauty. In the third couplet "mihr" carries the meanings of affection and of the sun together; the countless longings are measured against the heartfelt love of lovers.

Textual Differences

In Hüsameddin's Amasya Tarihi the same couplets appear with a few differences: in his text the second line of the second couplet reads "Had-i cânân-sıfat rengîn senâlar", and the third couplet reads "Dahî mihrî gibi envâ'-ı eşvâk / Dil ü candan nitekim aşk-ı uşşâk". The meaning does not change; the difference between the words "ḥubb" and "aşk" may be one of the small changes the text underwent as it circulated in manuscript. The variant readings of the book's title and what else is known of the lost collection are discussed in Zekâî Ahmed Çelebi.

Bibliography

Online sources