Zenanname
Zenanname
Erotic Ottoman long poem
The Zennanname (pronounced [zeˈnan.naːme], Ottoman Turkish: زناننامه, lit. 'Book of Women')[1] is a long form poem by Enderûnlu Fâzıl, completed in 1793. It categorizes and describes the positive and negative attributes of women from across the Ottoman Empire and the world according to their places of origin, in a masnavi form long poem in the Ottoman Dîvân tradition.[2] The Zenanname is a sequel to the Hubanname (1792-3), an equivalent work on young men by the same author. Both works are in the şehrengiz (lit. 'city-mover' or 'city-exciter') style of the masnavi, a typology of poems describing the beauties of a city.[3][4]
The work was translated into various European languages in the late 19th century, beginning with Jean-Adolphe Decourdemanche's 1879 French translation as the Livre des Femmes.[5][6] E. J. W. Gibb, among the first and most notable translators of Ottoman poetry into English, included verses from the Zennanname in his extensive six-volume survey, A History of Ottoman Poetry. One such translation is as follows:[7]
O thou, whose dusky mole is Hindustan,
Whose tresses are the realms of Frankistan!
The English woman is most sweet of face,
Sweet-voiced, sweet-fashioned, and fulfilled of grace.
Her red cheek to the rose doth colour bring,
Her mouth doth teach the nightingale to sing.
They all are pure of spirit and of heart;
And prone are they unto adornment’s art.
What all this pomp of splendor of array!
What all this pageantry their heads display!
Her hidden treasure’s talisman is broke,
Undone, or ever it receiveth stroke.