Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü Fā‘ilātü Mefā‘īlü Fā‘ilün

Ol māh-rū eger ki ide bī-niḳāb raḳṣ
Şevḳ ile çerḫa girüp ider āfitāb raḳṣ
Şevḳ-i ruḫuñla yandı semā‘ itmeden göñül
Āteş ki germ ola ider artuḳ kebāb raḳṣ
Bir gün mezāruma gele ol āfitāb eger
Ḳabrümde ẕerre-vār ura herbir türāb raḳṣ
Emdükçe lā‘lüñi n’ola dil raḳṣ iderse kim
Bī-iḫtiyār ider kişi içse şarāb raḳṣ
Mey-ḫāne ṣadrına geçüben Fażliyā müdām
Eyler ṣafā-yı cām ile mest ü ḫarāb raḳṣ

In English

1. If that moon-faced one were to dance unveiled, the sun would begin to spin with longing and dance. (In the Revan miscellany the first line reads: "If the heart-stealer were to dance unveiled with coquetry".)

2. The heart has burned with longing for your cheek before it even began the semâ; when the fire is hot, the roast dances (leaps) all the more. (In the Revan miscellany the second line reads: "The more the fire grows hot, the more it increases the dance of the roast".)

3. If one day that sun (-faced one) came to my grave, every speck of earth in my tomb would dance like a mote.

4. What wonder if the heart dances as it sucks your ruby lip? For whoever drinks wine dances without willing it.

5. O Fazlî, (the heart) takes the seat of honour in the tavern and ever dances, drunk and senseless with the delight of the cup. (The Revan miscellany has "with the desire for the cup" instead of "with the delight of the cup".)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün" pattern of the muzâri family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is the Arabic word "raḳṣ" (dance); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with an Arabic word redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-āb" in the words "bī-niḳāb, āfitāb, kebāb, türāb, şarāb, ḫarāb". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā". The ghazal is the hundred and third in Özkat's edition and is found in two manuscripts: in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 243b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library, and in the "Mecmū‘a-i Eş‘ār" in the same library, Revan 1969 (fol. 153b). Özkat establishes the text from the Hazine manuscript and gives the variants of the Revan manuscript in a note: in this manuscript the first line reads "Nāz-ile dil-rübā ide ger bī-niḳāb raḳṣ" and the second line of the second couplet "Germ olduġunca arturur āteş kebāb raḳṣ"; in addition, the second couplet has "itmedin" instead of "itmeden" (before doing) and the last couplet "hevā-yı" (desire for) instead of "ṣafā-yı" (delight of). It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Each couplet of the ghazal sets a scene of dance round the word "raḳṣ" of the redif and each time lays the dance on something else: the sun, the roast, the earth of the grave, the heart and the lover in the tavern. In the first couplet it is said that if the beloved danced unveiled, the sun too would begin to spin with longing; the phrase "çerḫa girmek" describes beginning to spin and, with the sense of "çerḫ" as the sky, also calls up the sun's revolution in the heavens. The same phrase was used together with the semâ in ghazal seventy-nine as well; this is our own observation. In the second couplet the heart has burned before it rose to the semâ; the leaping of the roast sizzling on the fire is likened to a dance. The likening of the heart to a roast (kebab) is a familiar image in divan poetry.

The third couplet uses the image of motes dancing in sunlight: if the sun-faced beloved came to the lover's grave, every speck of earth in the grave would dance like the motes in a sunbeam. The words "āfitāb" (sun), "ẕerre" (mote) and "türāb" (earth) form a congruence of images (tenasüp). In the fourth couplet the beloved's ruby lip is likened to wine; just as one who drinks wine dances without willing it, the heart that sucks the lip dances too. This is an expression resembling the use of a proverbial maxim (irsâl-i mesel), in which a particular case is grounded on a general judgement; this is our own interpretation. The last couplet closes with a scene in the tavern: the lover has taken the seat of honour in the tavern and dances, drunk and senseless with the delight of the cup. The phrase "mest ü ḫarāb" (drunk and ruined) is a pairing that expresses the highest degree of drunkenness.

Bibliography

  • Mustafa Özkat, Kara Fazlî'nin Hayatı, Eserleri, Edebî Kişiliği ve Dîvânı (İnceleme-Tenkitli Metin), MA thesis, Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies, Istanbul 2005, p. 345, ghazal no. 103 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 243b; Revan 1969, fol. 153b); also p. 69 (redifs), pp. 119-120 and 121 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources