Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün

Sünbülüñ her dem gül üzre tārmār olmaḳ neden
Nergisüñ her kūşede mest ü ḫumār olmaḳ neden
Ḫūn-ı dildür dem-be-dem derd ü ġamuñla yidügüm
Ol daḫı zülfüñ ucından zehr-i mār olmaḳ neden
Geh cefāsı ḥükm ider mülk-i dile gāhī ġamı
Bir ḫarāb-ābāda iki şehryār olmaḳ neden
Çünki mir’āt-ı cemālinden görindi kā’ināt
Der-be-der mihr ile māh āyīnedār olmaḳ neden
Ḫaṭṭ-ı dil-ber gibi āḫir çün gelürmiş yazılan
Ṣāfiyā āyīne-i dilde ġubār olmaḳ neden

In English

1. Why is your hyacinth hair forever scattered over the rose of your cheek; why is the narcissus of your eye drunk and languid in every corner?

2. What I eat moment by moment, through grief and sorrow for you, is my heart's blood; why should even that turn into snake's venom because of the tip of your locks? ("To eat blood" means to suffer greatly; the locks are likened to a snake for their curls and blackness.)

3. Now the beloved's cruelty, now her sorrow rules over the realm of the heart; why should one ruined place have two kings?

4. Since the whole universe appeared in the mirror of her beauty, why should the sun and the moon be mirror-bearers going from door to door? (The sun and the moon are likened to people holding mirrors because they reflect light; but the universe is already reflected in the beloved's beauty.)

5. Since what is written on the brow comes in the end like the down on the beloved's face, why, Sâfî, should there be dust on the mirror of the heart? ("Ḫaṭ" means both writing and the down that appears on a youth's face; its appearance is called "ḫaṭ gelmek", the coming of the down. "Ġubār" is both dust and the name of a very fine script.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets in the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre), in the pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "olmaḳ neden", why should it be, and the rhyme is the sound "-âr": tārmār, ḫumār, mār, şehryār, āyīnedār, ġubār. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Ṣāfiyā". The five-couplet text of the ghazal is found in the entry on Sâfî in Âşık Çelebi's Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ. Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi and Beyânî give only its opening couplet, third couplet and closing couplet. The ghazal should also be in Sevgi and Sevindik's edition of Sâfî's divan, but the text of that edition could not be used here. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Introducing Sâfî, Âşık Çelebi writes that he laboured at poetry and "tested his talent by writing nazires (response poems) to the ghazals of Ahmed Paşa". Kınalızâde gives a similar judgement and says that in his poetry Sâfî mostly followed Ahmed Paşa. The sources do not say whether this ghazal too is a nazire to a ghazal of Ahmed Paşa.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built from beginning to end on questions; each couplet questions the beloved's state, the lover's pain or the order of the world with a question ending in "olmaḳ neden". None of these questions expects an answer; through them the poet brings forward the beloved's beauty and the lover's suffering. In the opening couplet the familiar flower comparisons of divan poetry follow one another: the hyacinth is hair, the rose is cheek, the narcissus is eye. The hair scattered over the cheek and the languid eye describe a beauty at once dishevelled and swooning.

In the second couplet the lover's food is his heart's blood. "To eat blood" is a Turkish idiom for great suffering. The poet says that even this blood turns into snake's venom because of the beloved's locks; curling and black, the locks are often likened to a snake in divan poetry. The third couplet, which Kınalızâde and Beyânî also quote, rests on a comparison drawn from the life of the state. The heart is a realm; now the beloved's cruelty, now her sorrow rules it. The poet asks what need a ruined place has of two kings. Behind the couplet stands the idea that "two kings cannot fit in one land"; Sâfî's reputation in the biographical anthologies as a poet fond of proverbs and sayings shows itself in this couplet too. That a saying about the government of a country should be applied to love in a couplet from the pen of a vizier and treasurer is a further point of interest.

The fourth couplet leans on a Sufi idea. The universe has appeared in the mirror of the beloved's beauty; that being so, it is needless for the sun and the moon to go from door to door like mirrors reflecting light. "Āyīnedār" means one who holds a mirror. The wandering of sun and moon through the skies is likened to the rounds of mirror-bearers who wish to carry the beloved's beauty to every door; this is an example of poetic aetiology (hüsn-i talil). The closing couplet carries the finest wordplay of the ghazal. The word "ḫaṭ" means both writing and the down that appears on a youth's face; the appearance of the down is called "ḫaṭ gelmek". The poet says that what is written on the brow will surely come in the end, just like the beloved's down, and adds that it is pointless to have dust on the mirror of the heart, that is, to grieve. The word "ġubār" too is both dust and the name of a script written in very small letters; thus writing, down and dust are bound to one another in the same couplet. The meaning "pure, clean" of the pen name also accords with the idea that the mirror should be free of dust.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Filiz Kılıç, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), p. 553, entry on Sâfî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Kınalızâde Hasan Çelebi, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), pp. 494-495, entry on Sâfî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Beyânî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ, ed. Aysun Sungurhan, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2017 (e-book), p. 107, entry on Sâfî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr
  • Latîfî, Tezkiretü'ş-şu'arâ ve Tabsıratü'n-nuzamâ, ed. Rıdvan Canım, Ankara: Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Yay., 2018 (e-book), pp. 321-322, entry on Sâfî. ekitap.ktb.gov.tr