MESHKI (MESKI) OF KUTAHYA AND HIS NAZIRE TO THE TERKIB-I BENT OF RUHI OF BAGHDAD

Abstract

Terkib-i bent (which might be translated into English as, the combination of strophes.) is a poem structure consisting of strophes with distinct rhymes, each of which ends with a couplet bearing the same rhyme of it. Complaints about life and luck, sociological criticism, philosophical ideas, and religious and sufi subjects are considered mostly in these poems. Especially the terkib-i bent written by Ruhi of Baghdad, one of 16th Century poets, in which he narrates, in a critical manner, the hindered aspects of the era he lived through, and the unfavourable effects of them on the sociological structure, has been appreciated by other poets, and many 'nazire's (a poem modeled after another poem in respect to both content and form) has been written by these poets in 16th Century and after, in response to this poem. Meshki (Meski) of Kutahya, whose life there is not much information about in any resource, is one of many poets to have written a nazire to the Ruhi of Baghdad. In this work, form and content characteristics of the terkib-i bent of Meshki of Kutahya has been dwelled on, and the translation of this poem has been presented.