Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Dimezem kim bu ten-i mürdeye sen cānumsın
Cānumuñ cānı vü cāndan ulu cānānumsın
Ben senüñ sāye-i bī-māye gibi pā-mālüñ
Sen benüm rif‘atle serv-i ḫırāmānumsın
Dil-i meyyāl ile ben ḫaste-i āfet-zede’em
Çeşm-i ḳattāl ile sen āfet-i devrānumsın
Ḫāk-ı ẕilletde fütāde benüm ol mūr-ı ża‘īf
Sen benüm taḥt-ı sa‘ādetde Süleymān’umsın
Senden artuḳ kime ‘arż eyleye ḥālin Fażlī
Ḳulına şefḳat ider ḥażret-i sulṭānumsın

In English

1. I do not say to this dead body, "you are my soul"; you are the soul of my soul, my beloved greater than the soul.

2. I am trodden underfoot by you like a worthless shadow; you are my cypress swaying in loftiness.

3. With my yearning heart I am a sick man struck by calamity; with your murderous eye you are the calamity of my age.

4. I am that weak ant fallen in the dust of abasement; you are my Solomon on the throne of felicity.

5. To whom but you should Fazlî lay open his state; you are my lord sultan who shows compassion to his servant.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five 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 suffix "-umsın" (you are my ...); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a suffix as redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ān" in the words "cān, cānān, ḫırāmān, devrān, Süleymān, sulṭān". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the hundred and thirty-first in Özkat's edition and is found in the poetry miscellany Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine 982 (fol. 122b). According to Özkat's description, fols. 121b-125 of this miscellany contain one ghazal by Fazlî among one or two ghazals each by Ubeydî, Selîkî, Ulvî, Nihânî, Cinânî, Taşlıcalı Yahyâ, Sıdkî and Fuzûlî. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal sets the lover and the beloved face to face: the pronouns "I" and "you" are divided between the lines, and the beloved's loftiness is measured by the lover's abasement. In the opening couplet the lover says that there is no soul in a dead body; the beloved is greater even than the soul, "the soul of the soul". In the second couplet the lover is a shadow trodden underfoot, the beloved a swaying cypress. The relation between shadow and cypress rests on the cypress casting its shadow on the ground; this is our own observation. In the third couplet the words "meyyāl" (yearning) and "ḳattāl" (murderous) are in the same pattern, and "āfet-zede" (struck by calamity) and "āfet" (calamity) come from the same root; the lover is the victim of calamity, the beloved calamity itself.

The fourth couplet is the one Özkat cites as an example of allusion (telmih). The lover likens himself to a weak ant fallen in the dust of abasement and the beloved to Solomon on the throne of felicity; the couplet recalls the story of the prophet Solomon and the ant. In the last couplet the beloved is called "ḥażret-i sulṭān" (lord sultan) and thought of as a ruler who shows compassion to his servant. Calling the beloved a ruler is common in divan poetry; that the royal language of this ghazal, with its throne, servant and sultan, could also be read as an address to a patron in whose service the poet stood is our own inference. There is no record to this effect in the sources.

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. 363, ghazal no. 131 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine 982, fol. 122b); also p. 69 (redifs), p. 85 (figures of speech) and p. 120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources