Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilün

Sīne ṭablını dögüp sancaḳ-ı āhı çekelüm
Yine iḳlīm-i belā üzre sipāhī çekelüm
Mest ü medhūş olalum cümle cihāndan geçelüm
Bezm-i ‘ışḳ içre bugün cām-ı İlāhī çekelüm
Çünki ser-rişte-i maḳṣūda sebebdür iy cān
Ne belā ise ġam-ı zülf-i siyāhı çekelüm
Her ḳadeḥ kim çekerüm ulu güneh dirsin şerr
Merḥamet ḳıl nice bir bunca günāhı çekelüm
Tīr-i maḳṣūd dilerseñ ki nişāne irişe
İy göñül ‘ışḳ kemānını kemā-hi çekelüm
Çekmeden ḳaçma sebū-yı meyi her-geh ṣūfī
Ne ḳadar bār ise bārī anı gāhī çekelüm
Almaġa milk-i ġamı āteş-i dilden Fażlī
Tīġ-ı leşker-şiken-i ġayret-i şāhı çekelüm

In English

1. Beating the drum of the breast let us raise the banner of the sigh; let us again lead an army against the land of affliction.

2. Let us be drunk and senseless, let us give up the whole world; today in the gathering of love let us drain the divine cup.

3. O soul, since (the tresses) are the cause of the thread that leads to the goal, whatever affliction it may be, let us bear the grief of the black tresses.

4. Every cup I drain you call "a great sin" and revile (me); have mercy, how long are we to bear so many sins? (The word "şerr" is obscure; with the reading "şer‘" the line could mean "the sacred law counts this a great sin".)

5. O heart, if you wish the arrow of desire to reach the target, let us draw the bow of love as it should be drawn.

6. O Sufi, do not always shrink from drawing (drinking from) the wine jug; however heavy its load, let us at least bear it now and then.

7. O Fazlî, to seize the realm of grief from the fire of the heart, let us draw the army-breaking sword of the king's zeal.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets, written in the "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is the verb "çekelüm" (let us draw); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a Turkish word as redif. The rhyme is formed by the sounds "-āh / -āhī" in the words "āh, sipāhī, İlāhī, siyāh, günāh, kemā-hi, gāhī, şāh". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the hundred and twenty-ninth in Özkat's edition and is found on fol. 113a of miscellany no. Âşir Efendi 314 in the Süleymaniye Library. Of the first words of the opening couplet, "dögüp" (beating) appears in the manuscript text as "çeküp" (drawing) and has been corrected to "dögüp" in the margin.

Historical Context

According to Özkat, this ghazal is probably a nazire (response poem) to Muhibbî's ghazal opening "Allah Allah diyelüm sancaḳ-ı şāhı çekelüm / Yürüyüp her yaneden şarḳa sipāhī çekelüm". Muhibbî is the pen name used by Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent in his poems; Özkat counts Süleyman among the poets who influenced Fazlî and says that Fazlî answered two of his ghazals. Fazlî's opening couplet keeps the words banner and soldier of Muhibbî's opening couplet in the same places, but turns the sultan's call to campaign into the lover's march on the land of affliction. This comparison is our own observation. It is not known to whom or when the ghazal was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The images of the ghazal move back and forth between the campaign and the gathering. In the opening couplet the breast is a drum, the sigh a banner, and tears and pain an army marching on the land of affliction. In the second couplet the campaign turns into a gathering of love and the "cām-ı İlāhī" (divine cup) is drained. The verb "çekmek" in the redif is used in a different sense in every couplet: to raise a banner, to lead an army, to drain a cup, to bear grief, to bear sins, to draw a bow, to draw a sword. This variety of meaning is the chief art of the ghazal; this is our own observation. In the third couplet the tresses are thought of as "ser-rişte-i maḳṣūd" (the thread that leads to the goal); the resemblance between tresses and thread forms a congruence of images (tenasüp).

The first line of the fourth couplet is obscure; the word "şerr" at the end can be read in the sense of "evil", and can also be understood with the reading "şer‘" (the sacred law). The second reading is our own inference. In the fifth couplet there is a relation of sound between the phrase "kemā-hi" (as it should be) and the word "kemān" (bow); this is our own observation. In the sixth couplet the words "bār" (load) and "bārī" (at least) stand side by side, and the Sufi is advised to bear the load of the wine jug at least now and then. In the last couplet the sword of the king's zeal is drawn to seize the realm of grief. That on the ground of a response poem this "king" calls to mind the sultan who wrote under the pen name Muhibbî is our own inference.

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. 361, ghazal no. 129 (Süleymaniye Library, Âşir Efendi 314, fol. 113a); also p. 69 (redifs), p. 99 (response poems) and pp. 118-119 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources