Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Mefā‘ilün Fe‘ilün

Cāna derdüñ senüñ devā mı degül
Dile renc-i ġamuñ şifā mı degül
Bir baña zülfüñüñ belāsı nedür
Baña bālā ḳadüñ belā mı degül
Ġam-ı ḫaṭṭuñ çoġ olduġından dil
N’ola ḫaṭṭ eylese ṣafā mı degül
N’ola alḳışlar eylesem her gün
Baña sögdüklerüñ du‘ā mı degül
Ḫūn-ı Fażlī’yi çeşmüñ iy ḫūnī
Döke nā-ḥaḳ yire revā mı degül

In English

1. O soul, is not your pain a remedy; is not the trouble of your grief a cure for the heart?

2. What is the affliction of your tresses to me; is not your lofty stature (the real) affliction for me?

3. Since the grief for the down on your cheek is great, what if the heart takes pleasure (in it), is it not delight? (The words "ḫaṭṭ eylese" in the text have been understood with the reading "ḥaẓẓ eylese", takes pleasure.)

4. What if I offer (you) praises (blessings) every day; are not your curses at me a prayer?

5. O shedder of blood, let your eye shed Fazlî's blood unjustly; is (that) not fitting?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" pattern of the hafif family of aruz (quantitative metre); its lines are short and flowing. The redif (refrain word) is the phrase "mı degül" (is it not); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a Turkish word group as redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ā" in the words "devā, şifā, belā, ṣafā, du‘ā, revā". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the hundred and twenty-second in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 246b) 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

Every couplet of the ghazal ends with a question, and these questions expect no answer; the lover tries to win acceptance for the view that every pain coming from the beloved is in fact a kindness. In the opening couplet pain is a remedy and grief a cure. In the second couplet there is a pun (cinas) based on the likeness of sound between "bālā" (lofty) and "belā" (affliction): the affliction of the tresses is nothing to the lover, the real affliction is the beloved's lofty stature. This pun is our own observation. In divan poetry the stature is likened to the cypress, and the phrase "bālā-ḳad" (tall of stature) is counted a measure of beauty.

The third couplet is obscure. The text reads "N'ola ḫaṭṭ eylese"; the word "ḫaṭṭ" means both writing and the down on the cheek, and repeats the phrase "ġam-ı ḫaṭṭ" (grief for the down) of the first line. In Arabic script the words "ḫaṭṭ" and "ḥaẓẓ" (pleasure) differ only in their dots; the reading "ḥaẓẓ eylese" (takes pleasure) fits well with the word "ṣafā" (delight) at the end of the line. This reading is our own inference. In the fourth couplet the word "alḳış" is used in its old Turkish sense of praise and blessing; the lover blesses the beloved every day, because he counts even his curses as a prayer. The antithesis between blessing and cursing is the basis of the couplet. In the last couplet the lover asks whether it is not fitting for the eye to shed his blood unjustly; the question is charged with a fine irony that accepts the beloved's tyranny as a right. This irony is our own interpretation.

Bibliography

Online sources