the soul

Persian/Ottoman calligraphy with a contemporary tint of Chinese Sini style, vertical: "cân" that is: جان

cân is a very special word in Persian and Turkish; it is one of those words extremely difficult to translate, so even though for it not to be understood as "can" I translated the title as "the soul", let me give you its full "semantic cluster", cân can mean: soul, life, lifeblood, vitality, spirit, beloved, darling, heart, precious, breath, ghost... though Persian is its root, there is a word with the exact spelling in Arabic with the meaning "guilty"; even though they're most probably unrelated, I just love to add that meaning to the semantic cluster of "cân"... it is the heart guilty of loving and beloved; it is the breath of life that one acquires when falling in love...

the Latin text near the calligraphy is a piece of poetry from Şeyh Galip, may be the most important and talented poet in the history of Turkish literature. A quick translation that surely does not do justice to the beauty of the poem would be: "O the sapling of tease, you are but a novel blossom of mine / since the very first day I have descried - you are constantly in my mind / What is the need for saying that you are my soul ("ruh") / for regardless if I hide or reveal, you are my soul ("cân")."

Happy St. Valentine's all

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Çin tarzı Sini stilinden modern bir tarzda etkilenmiş, dikey çizilmiş, "cân" yani جان

cân sözcüğünün ne harika bir sözcük olduğunu sanırım anlatmama gerek yok; kanımca Şeyh Galip'in eserin hemen yanında bulunan Latin harfleriyle yazılmış olan beyiti pek güzel betimliyor bu muhteşem kelimenin mânâsındaki güzellikleri... yine de Galip'in dili zordur, Abdülbaki Gölpınarlı tarafından çağdaş Türkçeye çevrilmiş hâlini de yazalım: "Ey işve fidanı, sen yeni yetişmiş bir fidanımsın; gördüğüm günden beri benim hatırımdasın. Benim rûhumsun dememe ne hâcet? Gizlesem de açıklasam da benim canımsın sen."

Sevgililer Gününüz sevgili olsun, cânlı olsun