Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün

Güneş üftādesi olsa ne var yüzüñdeki nūruñ
Düşüpdür pertevinden lerze iy meh cismine Ṭūr’uñ
Ruḫuñdur kār-nāme şemsesine saḳf-ı merfū‘uñ
İşiğüñ resmidür ḳıblem esāsı Beyt-i Ma‘mūr’uñ
Ḫadeng-i āhı düşmezmiş yire tīr-i ḳażā gibi
Bulınmazsa n’ola yayın çeker Ḥallāc-ı Manṣūr’uñ
Ney ü çengüñ nevāsıyle ḳulaġı ṭoldı ‘uşşāḳuñ
Ne naḳş ile işidür ḥaşr olınca nālesi ṣūruñ
Ṣaḳın bezm-i ḥayātuñ revnaḳına Fażlī aldanma
Ṣıdı seng-i ecel çün kāse-i ‘ömrini faġfūruñ

In English

1. Is it a wonder if the sun is enamoured of the light in your face? O moon, from its radiance a trembling has fallen even upon the body of Mount Sinai (Tûr).

2. Your cheek is a masterpiece for the sun-shaped ornament (şemse) of the raised roof (the sky); O my kıble, the plan of your threshold is the foundation of the Frequented House (Beyt-i Ma'mûr).

3. The arrow of (the lover's) sigh, they say, does not fall to the ground, like the arrow of fate; if (no one) is found, what of it, (he) draws the bow of Hallâc-ı Mansûr. (The couplet is obscure; this reading is a conjecture.)

4. The ears of the lovers are filled with the melody of the reed flute and the harp; with what tune will they hear the wail of the Trumpet until the Resurrection?

5. O Fazlî, beware, do not be deceived by the splendour of the feast of life; for the stone of death has broken the cup of life of the Faghfur (the emperor of China).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün" pattern of the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is the genitive suffix "-uñ"; Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a suffix as redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ūr" in the words "nūr, Ṭūr, Ma‘mūr, Manṣūr, ṣūr, faġfūr"; the first line of the second couplet is also bound to the same redif with the word "merfū‘uñ". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the hundred and eighteenth in Özkat's edition and is found in miscellany no. 383 of the Yapı Kredi Sermet Çifter Research Library (fol. 4b). According to Özkat's description, this fifteen-leaf miscellany copied in the sixteenth century contains one ghazal by Fazlî among poems by such poets as Ahmed Paşa, Necâtî, Âhî, Zâtî, Figânî and İshak Çelebi. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first two couplets of the ghazal praise the beloved's face with cosmic and sacred images. In the opening couplet the sun is the lover of the light in the beloved's face; even Mount Sinai (Tûr) has trembled at the radiance of that light. Tûr is the mountain on which the divine manifestation appeared to Moses, and the beloved's face is likened to this manifestation. The terms of the second couplet are striking: "saḳf-ı merfū‘" (the raised roof) and "Beyt-i Ma‘mūr" (the Frequented House in the heavens) are two oaths named one after the other at the beginning of the sura of al-Tûr in the Qur'an. That the poet uses Tûr in the opening couplet and these two terms of the same sura in the second couplet is our own observation. The beloved's cheek is a masterpiece that has served as a model for the sky's şemse; the plan of his threshold is the foundation of the Frequented House. The word "şemse" denotes both the sun and the sun-shaped motif in ceiling and bookbinding decoration.

The third couplet is obscure. The arrow of fate does not miss its mark; nor does the arrow of the lover's sigh. In the second line Hallâc-ı Mansûr is named; the word "hallāc" means a cotton-carder, and the tool used in carding cotton is also called a bow. The coming together of the name Hallâc and the word bow creates a double entendre (tevriye) based on this trade; this is our own inference. It is not clear whether the line says exactly who draws the bow. In the fourth couplet the melody of the reed flute and the harp has so filled the lovers' ears that they will not hear even the sound of the Trumpet to be blown on the Day of Judgement. The word "naḳş" is used here in the sense of tune; that it is also the name of a musical form is our own observation. In the last couplet "faġfūr" means both the title of the emperor of China and Chinese porcelain; the cup of life broken by the stone of death carries both senses together. This double entendre is our own observation.

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. 354, ghazal no. 118 (Yapı Kredi Sermet Çifter Research Library 383, fol. 4b); also p. 69 (redifs) and p. 122 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources