Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fâilâtün feilâtün feilâtün feilün (identification of the metre is ours)

Hamdulillâh der-i meyhâneyi gördük meftûh
İçelim câm-ı musaffâ bulalım râhat-ı rûh
Ola bizden bu gice gussalar ey mûğbeçe dûr
Gün yüzün şevki ile nûş idelim câm-ı sabûh
Der-i meyhâneyi gel bekleyelim ölünce
Bizden önden gelene bundan imiş feth-i fütûh
Ömr-i câvide irüb sâye-i zülfünde gönül
İrdi bir rûha ki ömründe anı görmedi Nûh
Hâfıza tövbeye gelsin der isen ey nâsih
Ne sen ol dînde ne tövbe ve ne nâm-ı Nasûh

In English

1. Thanks be to God, we have found the tavern door open; let us drink from the pure, clear cup and find the ease of the soul.

2. O tavern boy, let sorrows be far from us tonight; let us drink the morning cup in longing for (the beloved's) sun-like face.

3. Come, let us wait at the tavern door until we die; all the opening, all the victory of those who came before us was from here.

4. In the shade of (the beloved's) hair the heart has reached an everlasting life and found such a spirit, such ease, as Noah never saw in all his long life.

5. O adviser, if you say "let Hâfız come to repentance": neither are you of that faith, nor is there repentance, nor the name of Nasûh. (The meaning of the line is open to debate; it is discussed in the commentary.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal (gazel) is a nazire (response poem). Hüsameddin says that this nazire of Kara Hâfız's to Şeyhî's ghazal with the opening line "Aşkdır âfet-i akl ü secîdir rahat-ı rûh" was famous, and that it is found in Münîrî's collection of letters (münşeat) and in Edirneli Nazmî's Mecmaü'n-nezâir. The nazire keeps the rhyme and metre of the model poem: Kara Hâfız's opening couplet (matla), like Şeyhî's, ends with the words "râhat-ı rûh", and the rhyme stays on the sound "-ûh" throughout the ghazal: meftûh, rûh, sabûh, fütûh, Nûh, Nasûh. There is no redif (refrain word). The pen-name (mahlas) couplet is the fifth, and the ghazal appears to end with it. Since neither the edition of the anthology nor Münîrî's münşeat was available, the text is taken from Hüsameddin's printing.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is built from beginning to end on the language of tavern and wine, but this language is woven with words taken from the Quran and the stories of the prophets. The word "meftûh", open, in the matla and the phrase "feth-i fütûh" in the third couplet come from the same root; the open tavern door becomes the source of all openings and victories. In Sufism "fütûh" also denotes the opening that comes to the heart, a divine gift; waiting at the tavern door until death thus recalls a dervish waiting at a door. The association is not certain; it is a reading the text allows. In the second couplet night and morning are set against each other: let sorrows be far tonight, and let the morning cup be drunk in longing for the beloved's sun-like face.

The fourth couplet mentions the prophet Noah, symbol of long life. The heart has found an everlasting life in the shade of the beloved's hair; the ease this life gives was never seen even by Noah, who is said to have lived more than nine hundred years. The last couplet carries the ghazal's densest wordplay. "Nâsih", adviser, and "Nasûh" come from the same root. "Tevbe-i nasûh" is a phrase found in the Quran denoting repentance made sincerely and never broken again; Nasûh is also the name of the hero of a story remembered for his repentance. The poet tells the adviser that calling Hâfız to repentance is in vain: the adviser is not a man of that path, Hâfız has no repentance, and the name of Nasûh has no place here. The words "Ne sen ol dînde" can be understood as "you are not of our faith" or as "you are not one to stay in that faith"; it was not possible to draw the exact meaning of the line from the text. The pen name Hâfız, in its sense of one who knows the Quran by heart, adds a congruence of images (tenasüp) with the words repentance and faith.

Historical Context

The nazire is undated. According to M. Fatih Köksal the Mecmaü'n-nezâir gathers nazires written up to 940 (1533-34), and twenty-seven ghazals of Şeyhî appear in it as model poems; considering that Kara Hâfız died around 935, the ghazal entered the anthology in the poet's lifetime or immediately after his death. That a teacher of Persian at Şehzade Ahmed's palace wrote a nazire to Şeyhî shows the bond the literary circle of Amasya formed with the great masters of Anatolian Turkish poetry. Kara Hâfız's palace years and family are covered in the article Kara Hâfız Ali Çelebi.

Bibliography

Online sources