Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü Fā‘ilātün Mef‘ūlü Fā‘ilātün / Müstef‘ilün Fe‘ūlün Müstef‘ilün Fe‘ūlün

Uydum hevā-yı ‘ışḳa hergiz kenāre yir yoḳ
Bildüm ki yirde gögde bu ben ġubāre yir yoḳ
Deryā-yı reşk-i çeşme ġarḳ olmuşam ser-ā-pā
Bu varṭadan dirīġā hergiz kenāre yir yoḳ
Şemşīr-i cevrüñ ile dil pāre pāre oldı
Gel çalma pāreye kim iy māh-pāre yir yoḳ
Pür oldı mestlerden ḫalvet ayaḳ baṣılmaz
Ṣūfī bu bezme gelme kim hūş-yāre yir yoḳ
Şevḳüñde ẕerre gibi ser-geşte olmuşumdur
Mihrüñle yirde gögde ben ḫāk-sāre yir yoḳ
Ġarḳ oldum āb-ı çeşme yoluñda ṭurı ṭurı
Gel gel ki başdan aşdı bu intiẓāre yir yoḳ
Mey-ḫāneden ḳovuldum mescidde ḫod yirüm yoḳ
Dünyā yüzinde Fażlī ben ḫᵛār u zāre yir yoḳ

In English

1. I have followed the air (the passion) of love, and it has no shore; I have learned that on earth and in heaven there is no place for me, this speck of dust.

2. I have sunk from head to foot in the sea of tears shed from jealousy; alas, there is no shore to reach out of this whirlpool. (The phrase "deryā-yı reşk-i çeşme" can also be understood as "a sea that even the fountain envies".)

3. With the sword of your cruelty the heart has been cut to pieces; O piece of the moon, come, do not strike (with the sword) at the pieces any more, there is no place (left to strike).

4. The private chamber is full of drunkards, there is no room to set foot; O Sufi, do not come to this gathering, there is no place for the sober.

5. With longing for you my head spins like a mote; with your sun (your love) there is no place on earth or in heaven for me, lowly as dust.

6. Waiting on your road I have drowned in the water of my eyes; come, come, for (the water) has gone over my head, there is no more room for this waiting.

7. I have been driven out of the tavern, and in the mosque I have no place anyway; O Fazlî, on the face of the earth there is no place for me, wretched and lamenting.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets. Özkat gives the metre in two forms: "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātün" and "müstef‘ilün fe‘ūlün müstef‘ilün fe‘ūlün". In both arrangements the order of long and short syllables is the same; the pattern is merely divided into different feet. This explanation is our own observation. The first pattern belongs to the muzâri family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is the phrase "yir yoḳ" (there is no place) and takes the form "-e yir yoḳ" (there is no place for) with the dative suffix; Özkat counts this ghazal among those whose redif is made up of a suffix and a Turkish word. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ār" in the words "kenār, ġubār, māh-pār, hūş-yār, ḫāk-sār, intiẓār, zār"; the word "kenāre" (to the shore) rhymes twice, in the opening couplet and in the second couplet. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the hundred and ninth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 245a) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. It is the ghazal that opens Özkat's section of the letter ḳāf. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Each couplet of the ghazal ends with the redif "there is no place", which tells of the lover's inability to fit anywhere, and in each couplet the phrase is tied to a different place: the shore, earth and heaven, the pieces, the gathering, the waiting, the tavern and the mosque. In the first couplet the word "hevā" means both air and passion; like a speck of dust mixed into the air, the lover can settle nowhere. The relation between "hevā" and "ġubār" (dust) builds this image. In the second couplet the lover has fallen into a whirlpool in the sea of tears and cannot reach the shore; the words "deryā" (sea), "varṭa" (whirlpool) and "kenār" (shore) form a congruence of images (tenasüp). In the third couplet there is repetition of, and a pun on, the word "pāre" (piece) in "pāre pāre" (in pieces), "pāreye" (at the piece) and "māh-pāre" (piece of the moon): the heart is in pieces, while the beloved is "a piece of the moon".

The fourth couplet is one Özkat cites among the examples of the idiom "ayak basmak" (to set foot): the private chamber is full of drunkards and has become a place where "one cannot set foot". Since in Sufism the word "ḫalvet" also denotes the place where the dervish withdraws into seclusion, the words addressed to the Sufi carry a mockery; this is our own interpretation. In the fifth couplet the image of the mote turning in sunlight is used; the word "mihr" means both sun and love. In the sixth couplet the words "başdan aşdı" (went over the head) describe the water rising over the head of the lover drowning in tears; the phrase also calls up the Turkish expression for a distress that has become unbearable; this is our own observation. In the last couplet the lover fits neither in the tavern nor in the mosque; this position between the libertine and the ascetic spreads the ghazal's redif, "there is no place", over the whole world.

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, pp. 348-349, ghazal no. 109 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 245a); also p. 69 (redifs), p. 90 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources