Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ruḫ-ı zerdüm ki yer yer nāḫun-ı ġamdan ḫırāş itdüm
Vücūdum defterinden ‘āfiyet ḥarfin tırāş itdüm
Döginmekden ḳararmış ḳollarum aḳ boynına ṣaldum
Ben anı ṣūret-i vaṣl-ı nigāra iki ḳaş itdüm
Atı ayaġına ferş olmaġa ol şeh-süvāruñ ṣīb
Tenüm zerd eyleyüp derdiyle altunlu ḳumāş itdüm
N’ola āh eyleyüp ḳan aġlasam sırr-ı ġam-ı ‘ışḳı
Gözüm yaşıyla āhumdan cihān ḫalḳına ḳaş itdüm
Hebā olup tozar gördüm hevāya bād-ı āhumdan
Anuñçün ten ġubārın eşk-i ḫūnīnümle yaş itdüm
Ayaġuñ ṭaşını ḳoçdum ḳılup eşkümle ḫūn-ālūd
Ben anı lā‘l-veş ol ḫāṭem-i zerrīne ṭaş itdüm
Bugün baş oynadup meydān-ı ġamda ‘ışḳ-ile Fażlī
Belālu başumı ser-bāzlar silkine baş itdüm

In English

1. With the nail of grief I scratched my yellow cheek in many places; from the register of my being I erased the letter of well-being.

2. I put my arms, blackened from beating my breast, round his white neck; I made them two eyebrows in the image of union with the beloved.

3. To be spread beneath the feet of the horse of that royal rider, I made my body yellow with his pain and turned it into gold-brocaded cloth. (The meaning of the word "ṣīb" at the end of the first line is not clear.)

4. Is it a wonder if I sigh and weep blood for the secret of love's grief; with my tears and my sighs I have made (that secret) known to all the world. (The word "ḳaş" in the text has been understood with the reading "fāş", made known.)

5. I saw (my body) wasted and blown up into the air by the wind of my sighs; therefore I wetted the dust of my body with my bloody tears.

6. I embraced the stone that your foot had trodden, staining it with blood through my tears; like a ruby I made it the stone of that golden ring.

7. O Fazlî, today, staking my head with love on the field of grief, I made my afflicted head the head of the company of those who risk their heads.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven 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 verb "itdüm" (I made, I did); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a Turkish word as redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-āş" in the words "ḫırāş, tırāş, ḳaş, ḳumāş, yaş, ṭaş, baş"; the word "ḳaş" rhymes twice, in the second and fourth couplets. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the hundred and twenty-seventh in Özkat's edition and is found in the anthology of response poems compiled by Pervâne Beg, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Bağdat Köşkü 406 (fol. 400b); Özkat takes the text from the thesis prepared on this anthology by Kısmet Gül Şener.

Historical Context

According to the note Özkat cites from Şener, this ghazal was written as a nazire (response poem) to Zâtî's ghazal opening "Ṣanurlar levḥ-i sīnem ben ḥarāretden ḫırāş itdüm / Ḥurūf-ı ‘ayn u şīn ü ḳāfdan ġayrın tırāş itdüm"; this ghazal of Zâtî was answered by Fazlî, Ayânî Beg and Rahîmî with one ghazal each. Özkat says that Fazlî took pride in being the pupil of Zâtî, whom he regarded as his master, that he wrote a tahmis on one of his ghazals and answered two of his ghazals; this ghazal is one of those two response poems. In Zâtî's opening couplet it is said that everything on the tablet of the breast has been scraped away except the letters of the word "aşk" (love: ‘ayn, şīn, ḳāf); with the same rhyme and redif Fazlî scrapes the letter of "well-being" from the register of his being. That the image of writing, letters and erasure is common to the two opening couplets is our own observation.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on terms of writing and registers: the lover scratches his cheek with the nail of grief and erases the letter of well-being from the register of his being. The words "ḫırāş" (scratching) and "tırāş" (scraping off) are close to each other in sound. In the second couplet the lover puts his arms, blackened from beating his breast, round the beloved's white neck; the dark arms on the white neck resemble two eyebrows. Özkat cites the third couplet among the couplets that reflect the customs of the age: the poet spreads his body, yellowed by the pain of separation, like gold cloth beneath the feet of the horse of the beloved, whom he calls a master rider, and according to Özkat the custom of spreading red carpets beneath the feet of dignitaries when welcoming them is emphasised here. The meaning of the word "ṣīb" at the end of the line is not clear.

In the fourth couplet the text reads "cihān ḫalḳına ḳaş itdüm". Since the rhyme word in the second couplet is also "ḳaş" (eyebrow), and since the sense calls for the secret of love being made known to all, the reading "fāş" (made known) here is our own inference; in Arabic script the letters "ḳ" and "f" differ only in their dots. In the fifth couplet the wind of the sigh scatters the body like dust; the lover keeps this dust on the ground by wetting it with his bloody tears. In the sixth couplet the stone trodden by the beloved's foot, reddened by the blood of tears, turns into a ruby and becomes the stone of a golden ring; that the "golden ring" stands for the lover's yellowed body is our own inference. In the last couplet the idiom "baş oynatmak" (to stake one's head) means to risk one's life; on the field of grief the lover has become the head of those who stake their heads. The threefold occurrence of the word "baş" (head) in the same line creates the music of the couplet.

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. 359-360, ghazal no. 127 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Bağdat Köşkü 406, fol. 400b); also p. 69 (redifs), p. 80 (customs) and pp. 97-98 (response poems), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
  • Kısmet Gül Şener, Pervâne Beg Nazire Mecmuası (392a-415b): Transkripsiyonlu, Edisyon Kritikli Metin, unpublished MA thesis, Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies, Istanbul 2002, p. 55 (as cited by Özkat). katalog.marmara.edu.tr