Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

Senden ayru gözlerüm yaşı durur hem-dem baña
Künc-i miḥnetde belā vü ġam durur maḥrem baña
Zülf-i reyḥānuñ ġamından olalı ten ḳara ḫāk
Hep siyeh-pūş oldı sünbüller dutup mātem baña
Cām-ı la‘lüñ yādına ‘ālemde görse ‘ālimüm
Bezm-i şevḳ ü ẕevḳde reşk eyler-idi Cem baña
Ḳāmet ü zülf ü dehānuñ görmeyelden iy perī
Girmişem bir ṣūrete gören dimez ādem baña
Dūr olsam Fażliyā ġamdan beni ġum öldürür
Şöyle me’nūs oldı hicrinde o şāhuñ ġam baña

In English

1. Apart from you, the tears of my eyes are my close companion; in the corner of affliction calamity and grief are my confidants.

2. Since my body became black earth through grief for your basil-scented lock, all the hyacinths have gone into mourning for me and dressed in black.

3. Had Cem (Jamshid) seen me in the gathering of rapture and delight that I hold remembering the cup of your ruby lip, even he would have envied me. (The reading of the word "‘ālimüm" in the first line is not clear; the couplet has been rendered by its general sense.)

4. O fairy, since I could not see your stature, your lock and your mouth, I have taken such a shape that whoever sees me does not call me human.

5. O Fazlî, if I were parted from grief, (then) griefless-ness would kill me; so accustomed to me has grief grown in separation from that shah. (The second word "ġum" has this form in the edition; the context suggests the reading "ġam", grief.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is "baña" (to me); the rhyme is formed by the sound "-em/-am" in the words "hem-dem, maḥrem, mātem, Cem, ādem, ġam". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā". The ghazal is the eleventh in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 218b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. It is not known to whom or when it was written. The second word "ġum" in the last couplet is printed in this form in the edition; in sense the reading "ġam" (grief) is likely.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal describes the loneliness of the lover in separation and the "friends" who keep him company. In the first couplet the tear becomes his "hem-dem" (close companion), and calamity and grief his "maḥrem" (confidants). These two words express closeness between people; by giving them to tears, calamity and grief, the poet conveys his loneliness indirectly. The last couplet completes this thought with a paradox: grief has grown so used to the lover that even being parted from it would kill him.

Özkat says that the beloved, aware of his beauty, remains indifferent to the poet and that this wounds the poet deeply, and he quotes the second couplet of this ghazal as an example. In the couplet the lover's body has become black earth through grief for the basil-scented lock; the black hyacinths growing on the earth have gone into mourning for him and dressed in black. A congruence of colour (tenasüp) is formed among the black lock, the black earth and the black hyacinth; the words "siyeh-pūş" (dressed in black) and "mātem" (mourning) complete a scene that suggests the time after death.

In the third couplet there is an allusion to Cem, the owner of the legendary cup; a pun (cinas) resting on likeness of sound is also formed between "cām" (cup) and "Cem". The conceit of the fourth couplet rests on divan poetry's likening of the stature to the letter alif, the lock to dal and the mouth to mim. When these three letters stand side by side they spell the word "âdem" (human being). Because the lover cannot see the beloved's stature, lock and mouth, that is, because he is deprived of the letters of "âdem", whoever sees him does not call him "human". The address "perī" (fairy) also forms a contrast between human and fairy.

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. 290, ghazal no. 11 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 218b); also p. 62 (on the ghazals) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources