Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çünki aġyār-ile yār oldı o yāruñ iy göñül
Göglere irse yiridür āh u zāruñ iy göñül
Baḥr-ı ġamda nā-bedīd oldı yine fülk-i ṣafā
Var ise esdi muḫālif rūzgāruñ iy göñül
Baña zülfinden n’ola ġam olsa ḥāṣıl ādeme
Çün bilürsin zehrdür virdügi yāruñ iy göñül

In English

1. O heart, since that beloved of yours has become a friend to the rivals, it is fitting if your sighs and laments reach the heavens.

2. In the sea of grief the ship of delight has again vanished from sight; O heart, if the wind of your fortune (of the times) has blown contrary, (so be it).

3. Is it a wonder if grief comes to me, to a human being, from his tresses; O heart, you know that what the beloved gives is poison. (The use of the words "baña" and "ādeme" together in the first line makes the syntax obscure.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The text before us is the first three couplets of a ghazal (gazel) written in the "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). Özkat gives this fragment under the heading "incomplete ghazals rhyming in the letter lâm", among those whose last couplets are missing; in a footnote to the heading he explains that these ghazals were not left unfinished by the poet, but that because of missing pages in the miscellanies the first couplets of some and the last couplets of others have been lost. The fragment is found in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 246b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library and is numbered as ghazal a hundred and twenty-six in Özkat's edition.

The redif (refrain word) is the phrase "-uñ iy göñül" (your ..., O heart); Özkat counts this ghazal among those whose redif is made up of a suffix, a Turkish element and a Persian word. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ār" in the words "yār, zār, rūzgār, yār"; the word "yār" rhymes twice, in the first and third couplets. Since the pen-name couplet has been lost, it is not known to whom or when the ghazal was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is an inner dialogue in which the lover addresses his own heart. In the opening couplet the word "yār" comes in three different forms: "aġyār" (rivals), "yār olmak" (to become a friend) and "yāruñ" (your beloved); this repetition of sound underlines the pain of the beloved's friendship with the rivals. This repetition is our own observation. In the second couplet grief is likened to a sea and delight to a ship; the ship has vanished from sight. The word "rūzgār" means both wind and time, fortune, and carries both senses together with the phrase "muḫālif esmek" (to blow contrary); this double entendre (tevriye) is our own observation. The words sea, ship and wind form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

In the third couplet grief comes from the beloved's tresses, and the lover does not count this a wonder, since what the beloved gives is poison. In divan poetry the tresses are likened to a snake because of their shape and curl; the meeting of tresses and poison in the same couplet calls this comparison to mind. This evocation is our own interpretation.

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. 359, ghazal no. 126 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 246b); also p. 62 (incomplete ghazals) and p. 69 (redifs), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources