Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Kāf u nūn olalı ẓāhir künūz-ı ẕāt-ı ‘ışḳ
Noḳṭa noḳṭa ḥarfi kūyının der-i āyāt-ı ‘ışḳ
Ẕātına ġayb u şehādet şāhidin iy müdde‘ī
Gel beru inkārı ḳo olmış durur is̱bāt-ı ‘ışḳ
پیش ما قدری ندارد زاهدا الاّ و لات
نزد ما عزی نیابد عزّی الاّ لات عشق

Reading: Pīş-i mā ḳadrī nedāred zāhidā illā vü lāt / Nezd-i mā ‘izzī neyābed ‘Uzzā illā Lāt-ı ‘ışḳ. The edition gives no reading of this couplet; the reading is our own and the meaning rests on Özkat's footnote (p. 350).

Ḳaṭ‘-ı menzil eylemez ferzīn gibi kej-revdür ol
Olmayan bu ‘arṣada fi’l-ḥāl şāhum māt-ı ‘ışḳ
Ġuṣṣadan fāriġ olup şādīden istiġnā bulur
Bü’l-‘aceb ḥāletdür el-ḥaḳ ṣūfiyā ḥālāt-ı ‘ışḳ
Ser virür her gūşede ‘uşşāḳ serverler gibi
Tekye-i ‘ışḳ içre çoḳ ḳurbāna gelmiş şāt-ı ‘ışḳ
Ger dilerseñ mün‘akis olmaġa
Ṣāf-ṭab‘ ol Fażliyā ḳıl ḳalbüñi mir’āt-ı ‘ışḳ

In English

1. Since kāf and nūn, that is, God's command "Be", appeared, the treasures of the essence of love have come to light; the letters of the beloved's street, dot by dot, are the gate to the verses of love. (The lines are obscure; Özkat notes that the metre falters in the first line.)

2. O claimant, both the unseen and the visible worlds bear witness to the beloved's essence; come here, leave your denial, the proof of love has been made.

3. O ascetic, in our eyes "illā" (except) and "lā" (no, there is not) have no worth at all; in our presence the idol Uzzâ finds no honour either, and the only one honoured is the Lât of love. (In Özkat's explanation: "In our presence the idol named Uzzā has no worth or honour at all; only the idol of love, its Lāt, has worth.")

4. O my king, whoever is not at once checkmated by love on this field goes crookedly like the ferz (the vizier piece) in chess and makes no headway.

5. Love frees one from grief and leaves no need even for joy; O Sufi, truly the states of love are a most wondrous state.

6. Lovers give their heads in every corner like leaders; in the lodge of love many sheep of love have been sacrificed.

7. O Fazlî, if you wish love to be reflected in you, make your nature pure and clear, make your heart the mirror of love. (The first line is written incomplete in the manuscript.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven 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 the Arabic word "‘ışḳ" (love); Mustafa Özkat counts this ghazal among those whose redif is an Arabic word. The rhyme is the sound "-āt": ẕāt, āyāt, is̱bāt, Lāt, māt, ḥālāt, şāt, mir'āt. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā". The ghazal is the hundred and eleventh in Özkat's edition and is found in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 245b) 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 third couplet of the ghazal is entirely in Persian and is printed in Arabic script in the edition. In the original text this couplet has been copied letter by letter from the printed page of the edition. Özkat does not give the reading of the couplet; he explains only its meaning in Turkish in a footnote and also cites the couplet as an example among Fazlî's Arabic and Persian expressions. The reading in Latin letters is our own; the meaning rests on Özkat's explanation. Our reading fits the pattern of the metre, and the second line of the couplet, with the words "Lāt-ı ‘ışḳ", completes the rhyme and redif of the ghazal. The word ending the first line is written "لات" in the printed text, whereas Özkat, in giving the meaning, mentions the particle "lā" here. That this word recalls both the particle "lā" and the name of the idol Lât is our own observation. Özkat also notes that the metre falters in the first line of the opening couplet and that the first line of the seventh couplet was left incomplete in the manuscript; this line is indeed shorter than the pattern requires.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal treats a Sufi understanding of love: love is a state present since the beginning of existence, needing no proof and transforming a person entirely. In the opening couplet the words "kāf u nūn" are the two letters of the Arabic "kün", that is, the command "Be"; the Qur'an relates that when God wills a thing to be, He says "Be". The poet says that the treasures of love have come to light since this first moment of creation, and he builds a congruence of images (tenasüp) with the words letter, dot and verse. In the second couplet the "müddeî" (claimant) who denies love is confronted with the testimony of the unseen and the visible worlds; "şāhid" (witness) and "is̱bāt" (proof) are words taken from the language of the law court.

The third couplet is a challenge addressed to the ascetic in Persian. The mention of the particles "lā" and "illā" of the sentence of the profession of faith, "lā ilāhe illallāh" (there is no god but God), is an allusion to the ascetic's piety, which is bound to outward form; this connection is our own inference. In the second line the names of two idols of the pre-Islamic Arabs, Uzzâ and Lât, appear together. The poet says that the things the ascetic values have no worth in his presence, and that the only one honoured is "the Lât of love", that is, the beloved whom the heart worships. There is a likeness of sound between "‘izzī" (an honour) and "‘Uzzā"; this pun (cinas) is also our own observation. Likening the beloved to an idol is common in divan poetry; the boldness of the couplet lies in doing so against the ascetic and in a Persian utterance.

The fourth couplet uses chess terms: "ferzīn" (the vizier piece), "‘arṣa" (the chessboard, the field), "şāh" (king) and "māt" (checkmate). Whoever is not at once overcome by love reaches nowhere, like the ferz that moves crookedly; the address "şāhum" (my king) calls to the beloved and also evokes the king piece of chess. This double entendre (tevriye) is our own observation. The fifth couplet says that love makes the lover independent of both grief and joy; this is close to the Sufi idea of rising above the mystical states. In the sixth couplet there is a pun (cinas) between "ser virür" (gives his head) and "server" (head, leader); the words lodge and sacrifice describe how lovers are offered up on the path of love. The last couplet uses the image of the mirror of the heart: if the heart is purified, love is reflected in it.

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. 350, ghazal no. 111 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 245b); also p. 69 (redif) and p. 108 (Arabic and Persian elements), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources