Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilün

Şerbet-i bādeden ol zāhide iy sāḳi müfīż
Oldı niḳrīsi ayaḳ derdine düşdi o marīż
Ḳanda hem-menzil olam ben saña iy māh-ı münīr
Saña cā evc-i cemāl ü baña cā ḫāk-ı ḥażīż
İy perī diyü raḳībi görüp ādem didügüm
Ṣanma kim vech-i ṣaḥīḥ üzre ola añla naḳīż
Pākdur dāmeni çün gerd-i riyādan rindüñ
Dāmen-ālūde görüp eyleme ṣūfī ta‘rīż
Ten ü cān u dil ü dīnini fedā itdi saña
Bes durur Fażlī’ye bir būse iderseñ ta‘vīż

In English

1. O cupbearer, pour out the sherbet of wine generously to that ascetic; that sick man has got the gout and fallen into trouble with his foot.

2. O shining moon, where could I share a station with you? Your place is the apogee of beauty, mine the lowest earth (the perigee).

3. O fairy, because I called the rival "a human being" when I saw him, do not think it was said in its true sense; understand the opposite.

4. Since the libertine's skirt is clean of the dust of hypocrisy, O Sufi, do not see it as soiled and make insinuations against him.

5. Fazlî has sacrificed his body, his soul, his heart and his faith to you; if you repay it with a single kiss, it is enough for Fazlî.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). It has no redif; Özkat counts this ghazal among those with rich rhyme. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-īż" in the words "müfīż, marīż, ḥażīż, naḳīż, ta‘rīż, ta‘vīż". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażlī'ye". The ghazal is the hundred and eighth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 244b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal treats the opposition between the ascetic and the libertine (rind) in a mocking tone. In the first couplet the ascetic is said to have fallen into "ayaḳ derdi" (trouble with his foot); "niḳrīs" (gout) is a disease known for pain in the joints of the foot. Since in old Turkish "ayak" also meant "cup", the phrase "ayak derdi" also suggests that the ascetic's real trouble is the lack of a cup, and the cupbearer is called to give him the sherbet of wine. This double entendre (tevriye) is our own observation. In the second couplet terms of astronomy are used: "evc" (apogee) is the point of a heavenly body's orbit farthest from the earth, and "ḥażīż" (perigee) the nearest and lowest point. The words "māh-ı münīr" (shining moon) and "menzil" (station) are tied to the same field. The beloved is at the summit of the sky of beauty, the lover in the lowest place on earth; the relation of these terms in the couplet is our own observation.

The third couplet rests on an irony: the lover has called the rival "ādem" (a human being), but tells the beloved that this was not said in its true sense and that its opposite is to be understood. The words "ṣaḥīḥ" (true) and "naḳīż" (opposite) form an antithesis; there is also a correspondence between "perī" (fairy) and "ādem" (human). In the fourth couplet "dāmen-ālūde" (soiled of skirt) is an idiom meaning sinful; the libertine's skirt, however, is clean of the dust of hypocrisy. The Sufi's "ta‘rīż", that is, his insinuation against the libertine, is a sign of his own hypocrisy. In the last couplet the lover has sacrificed body, soul, heart and faith and is content with a kiss as recompense (ta‘vīż).

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. 348, ghazal no. 108 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 244b); also p. 69 (rhyme) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources