Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü Mefā‘īlü Mefā‘īlü Fe‘ūlün

Dil yandı yüzüñ şem‘ine merdāne degül mi
Yanmaḳdur anuñ pes işi pervāne degül mi
Nā-ḥaḳ yire ḳanuñ döke ger ġamzesi iy dil
Sen itme ta‘accüb anı mestāne degül mi
Göñlümi vaṭan eylese ruḫsārı ḫayāli
İy dil n’ola gencüñ yiri vīrāne degül mi
El ḳardum o şeh zülfine diyü öğinürmiş
Gelmez degül elinden anuñ şāne degül mi
Bir yir var imiş ġamlu varan şād gelürmiş
Ṭoġrusını di Fażlī [ki] mey-ḫāne degül mi

In English

1. The heart burned in the candle of your face; is it not valiant? Its work is to burn; is it not, then, a moth?

2. O heart, if his glance sheds your blood unjustly, do not wonder at it; is it not drunk?

3. O heart, what if the image of his cheek makes my heart its home; is not the place of treasure a ruin?

4. (The comb), they say, boasts, "I have run my hand through that king's tresses"; it is not beyond its power, is it not a comb?

5. There is, they say, a place where one who goes in grief comes back glad; Fazlî, tell the truth, is it not the tavern?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün" pattern of the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is the phrase "degül mi" (is it not); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a Turkish word group as redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-āne" in the words "merdāne, pervāne, mestāne, vīrāne, şāne, mey-ḫāne". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet; the word "[ki]" in this couplet is Özkat's addition for the sake of the metre. The ghazal is the hundred and thirty-eighth in Özkat's edition and is found in the poetry miscellany Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Revan 1969 (fol. 154a). According to Özkat's description, this large miscellany contains three ghazals by Fazlî among the ghazals, elegies, muhammes, müseddes and murabba poems of a great many poets. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Every couplet of the ghazal confirms a claim with the question "is it not", and these questions invite the reader to a spontaneous assent. In the opening couplet the heart has burned in the candle of the beloved's face; the convention of the candle and the moth here joins with the word "merdāne" (valiant). The moth's work is to burn, and the heart too is a moth. In the second couplet the beloved's glance is "mestāne" (drunken); in divan poetry the beloved's eye is thought of as drunk, and one does not wonder if a drunkard sheds blood unjustly.

Özkat cites the third couplet among the beliefs reflected in Fazlî's poems: basing himself on the belief that treasures are found in ruins, the poet asks that the image of the beloved's cheek settling in his heart be looked on with indulgence. The lover's ruined heart is a ruin, and the image of the beloved a treasure buried there. In the fourth couplet it is the comb that speaks: the comb boasts that it has run its hand through the king's tresses. The likening of the comb's teeth to fingers and the use of the idiom "elinden gelmek" (to be within one's power, literally to come from one's hand) together with this comparison is our own observation. The last couplet ends the ghazal with a libertine question: the place where one who goes in grief comes back glad is the tavern.

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. 367, ghazal no. 138 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Revan 1969, fol. 154a); also p. 69 (redifs), p. 80 (beliefs) and p. 121 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources