Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Fe‘ūlün

Yüzüñ gördüm zihī ḥüsnü’l-şemā’il
Lebüñ ṣordum zihī luṭfü’l-ḫaṣā’il
Ṭaleb ḳılsañ viṣāle ger vesīle
Yapış ‘ışḳa zihī a‘lā’l-vesā’il
Ḳo baḫtı ḳāl ile taḥṣīl-i ḥāl it
Ki ‘ilm-i ‘ışḳdur aḳvā’l-mesā’il
Cemālüñ nūrı rūşendür güneşden
Ne lāzımdur berāhīn ü delā’il
Güneşden ẕerresi olmaya rūşen
Ruḫuñ vaṣfında yazsam biñ resā’il
Olupdur Ka‘be ḫāk-ı āsitānuñ
Cemālüñ ḳıble-i ehl-i ḳabā’il
Şu deñlü mest-i ‘ışḳam kim ḳatumda
Degül mümtāz evāḫirden evā’il
Ne bilsün Fażliyā ‘uşşāḳı zāhid
Ahālī ḥālini bilmez reẕā’il
Naẓar ḳıldum senüñ fażluñla gördüm
Cihān memlū zihī farṭü’l-feżā’il

In English

1. I saw your face: how fair of feature; I asked about your lip: how gracious of quality.

2. If you seek a means to union, hold fast to love: the highest of all means.

3. Leave disputation (bahs) with words, acquire the inner state (hâl); for the science of love is the firmest of all questions. (The word "baḫtı" in the text has been understood with the reading "baḥsi", disputation.)

4. The light of your beauty is brighter than the sun; what need is there of proofs and demonstrations.

5. Were I to write a thousand treatises in praise of your cheek, not one particle of it would become clearer than the sun. (The couplet is obscure.)

6. The dust of your threshold has become the Kaaba; your beauty is the kıble of all the tribes.

7. I am so drunk with love that in my sight the first things are not distinct from the last.

8. O Fazlî, what does the ascetic know of lovers; the base do not know the state of the noble. (The word "ahālī" in the text has been understood with the reading "a‘ālī", the noble.)

9. I looked through your grace (fazl) and saw: the world is full; what surpassing virtues.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of nine couplets, written in the "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün" pattern of the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre); since each line consists of three feet, the diction has a short, firm rhythm. It has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is formed by the sound "-ā'il" in Arabic plurals such as "şemā'il, ḫaṣā'il, vesā'il, mesā'il, delā'il, resā'il, ḳabā'il, evā'il, reẕā'il, feżā'il", and Özkat counts this ghazal among those with rich rhyme. Özkat notes that only one of Fazlî's complete ghazals has nine couplets; in the edition this is that ghazal. The ghazal is the hundred and twenty-fourth in Özkat's edition and is found on fol. 118a of miscellany no. Âşir Efendi 314 in the Süleymaniye Library. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

The pen name (mahlas) appears in the eighth couplet; one more couplet follows the pen-name couplet. In the ghazal it is the rule for the pen name to stand in the last couplet; here it is striking that the word "fażluñla" (through your grace) in the last couplet recalls the poet's pen name a second time. This is our own observation.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Most of the rhyme words of the ghazal come in Arabic superlative and construct patterns: "ḥüsnü'l-şemā'il" (fair of feature), "luṭfü'l-ḫaṣā'il" (gracious of quality), "a‘lā'l-vesā'il" (the highest of means), "aḳvā'l-mesā'il" (the firmest of questions), "farṭü'l-feżā'il" (the most surpassing of virtues). The exclamation "zihī" (how fine) in the first two couplets adds an air of praise to these patterns. In the third couplet "ḳāl" (word) and "ḥāl" (inner state) are set against each other; in Sufism the people of word acquire knowledge through speech, the people of state through experience. The text reads "baḫtı" (fortune); the reading "baḥsi" (disputation), which makes better sense together with "ḳāl", is our own inference.

The fourth and fifth couplets draw a comparison between knowledge and beauty: the beloved's beauty is brighter than the sun and needs no proof; even if a thousand treatises were written, not one particle of it would become clearer than the sun. The syntax of the fifth couplet is obscure and this reading is a conjecture. In the sixth couplet the beloved's threshold is likened to the Kaaba and his beauty to the kıble (direction of prayer). In the seventh couplet the drunkenness of love makes it impossible to tell first from last; the words "evā'il" (the first things) and "evāḫir" (the last things) form an antithesis. In the eighth couplet the text reads "Ahālī" (the people); since it forms an antithesis with the word "reẕā'il" (the base) at the end of the line, the reading "a‘ālī" (the noble) is our own inference. In Arabic script these two words are very close to each other.

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. 357-358, ghazal no. 124 (Süleymaniye Library, Âşir Efendi 314, fol. 118a); also p. 62 (the number of couplets in the ghazals), p. 69 (rhyme) and pp. 118-119 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources