Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çün nefes itdüñ nefes iy şāh canlanmaḳ gerek
Olmuşam iḥsāna lāyıḳ ḥüccet ü bürhānla
Çünki ‘ahd itdüñ kerīm olan ider ‘ahde vefā
Ḳıl vefā lāyıḳ vefādur saña bu ‘unvānla
Ḥaḳ Te‘ālā cümle maḳṣūduñ müyesser eyleyüp
Devletüñ olsun ziyāde ‘ömr-i cāvidānla

In English

1. O king, since you have breathed (upon me), one must come to life through this breath; with proof and demonstration I have become worthy of bounty.

2. Since you have made a promise, one who is generous keeps his promise; keep faith, for with this title faithfulness becomes you.

3. May God Most High make all your aims easy and may your fortune increase with everlasting life.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The text before us is the last 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 hâ", among those whose first couplets are missing, and in a footnote to the heading 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. 249a) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library and is numbered as ghazal a hundred and thirty-six in Özkat's edition.

The redif (refrain word) is the suffix "-la" (with); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a suffix as redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ān" in the words "bürhān, ‘unvān, cāvidān". Since the first line of the first couplet ends with the words "canlanmaḳ gerek" and does not rhyme with the other line, this couplet is not an opening couplet. There is no pen name (mahlas) in the three couplets we have; the last couplet ends with a prayer. It is not known to whom or when the ghazal was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The language of the surviving couplets is the language of a request addressed to a superior, a patron or master, rather than to a beloved: bounty is expected from the person addressed as "king", his promise is recalled, and the fragment closes with a prayer for the increase of his fortune. This reading is our own inference; there is no record in the sources as to whom the fragment was written for. In the first couplet the phrase "nefes etmek" carries both the sense of speaking and that of breathing upon; coming to life through the king's breath calls to mind the breath of Jesus, which raised the dead. This evocation is our own interpretation. The words "ḥüccet" and "bürhān" (proof, demonstration) allow the poet to put forward his worthiness of bounty in the language of logic.

In the second couplet the words "‘ahd" (promise) and "vefā" (faithfulness) are each repeated twice: the generous man keeps the promise he has given, and this is what befits the title "kerîm" (generous). Binding his listener by the very quality for which he praises him, the poet asks him to keep his word. The last couplet ends with a wish often seen in the prayer sections of kasides in the Ottoman panegyric tradition: that his aims may be made easy and his fortune increase with everlasting life.

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. 366, ghazal no. 136 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 249a); also p. 62 (incomplete ghazals) and pp. 68-69 (redifs), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources