Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Geç ṣaf-ı ṣuffe-i erbāb-ı ṣafāya ṣāfī
Nūş ḳıl ṣōfī ṣafā ile şarāb-ı ṣāfı
Ḳāmet-i servüñe virdüm elif-i īmānı
Kāf-ı küfrüñ baña iy kāküli lā mim kāfi
O bütüñ küfrüne īmān diyeni ġayb itmez
Nıṣf-ı dīn añladı iy şeyḫ şu kim inṣāfı
Kūh-ı Ḳāf olsa ġamuñ bārı çekem lā diyemem
Ger şikāf olsa tenüm niteki kūfī kāfī
Cevher-i nefsüme hem-seng olımaz dürr-i yetīm
Naẓm bāzārınuñ iy Fażlī benem ṣarrāfı

In English

1. O Sufi, pass pure through the rank of the bench of the people of delight; drink with delight the pure wine.

2. To your cypress stature I gave the alif of faith; O you whose forelock is a lâm (and whose mouth is a mîm), the kâf of your unbelief is enough for me. (The words "lā mim" are obscure; this reading is a conjecture.)

3. O sheikh, he who has understood that fairness is half of religion does not blame the one who calls the unbelief of that idol "faith".

4. Were the load of your grief Mount Kaf, I would bear it and could not say "no"; even if my body were split like a Kufic kâf.

5. The peerless pearl (dürr-i yetîm) cannot weigh equal with the jewel of my soul; O Fazlî, I am the money-changer of the market of verse.

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). It has no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is formed by the sounds "-āfī / -āfı" in the words "ṣāfī, ṣāfı, kāfi, inṣāfı, kāfī, ṣarrāfı", and Özkat counts this ghazal among those with rich rhyme. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the hundred and thirty-ninth in Özkat's edition and is found in the anthology of response poems compiled by Pervâne Beg, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Bağdat Köşkü 406 (fols. 568b-569a); Özkat takes the text from the thesis prepared on this anthology by Tuğba Başer.

Historical Context

According to the note Özkat cites from Başer, this ghazal was written as a nazire (response poem) to Muhibbî's ghazal opening "Jeng-i ġamdan diler iseñ ola göñlüñ ṣāfī / Ḳoma elden ḳoma bir laḥẓa şarāb-ı ṣafī". This ghazal of Muhibbî was answered by six poets with one ghazal each: Hayâlî, Hayderî, Mutîî, Zuhûrî, Fazlî and Hudâyî. Muhibbî is the pen name of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent; Özkat counts Süleyman among the poets who influenced Fazlî and says that Fazlî answered two of his ghazals. This ghazal is one of those two response poems. It is not known to whom or when the ghazal was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built by bringing together words from the same roots and sounds: "ṣaf" (rank), "ṣuffe" (bench, raised seat), "ṣafā" (delight), "ṣāfī" (pure), "ṣōfī" (Sufi) and "ṣāf" (clear). This play of sound comes from the rhyme "ṣāfī / ṣafī" in Muhibbî's opening couplet; Fazlî multiplies it within a single line. This comparison is our own observation. The second and fourth couplets rest on plays on letters. In divan poetry the straight letter "alif" is likened to a tall stature, the curled letter "lâm" to the tresses, and the round letter "mîm" to a small mouth. In the second couplet the lover has given the alif of faith, that is, his belief in the one God, to the beloved's cypress stature; the beloved's "unbelief", that is, his black tresses, is enough for him. That the words "lā mim" in the line stand for the letters "lâm and mîm", that is, the tresses and the mouth, is our own inference. There is also a play of sound between the words "kāf-ı küfr" (the kâf of unbelief) and "kāfi" (enough).

That the third couplet refers to a saying meaning "fairness is half of religion" is our own inference; one who is fair does not blame the man who calls the beloved's unbelief faith. In the fourth couplet "Kūh-ı Ḳāf" (Mount Kaf) and the letter "kāf" of the Arabic alphabet come together; in Kufic script the open, split shape of the letter kâf is likened to the splitting of the body. This comparison is our own observation. Özkat quotes the last couplet in two separate places: the poet calls himself "the money-changer of the market of verse" and says that not even the "dürr-i yetîm" (the single, peerless pearl) can weigh equal with the jewel of his soul. Özkat treats this couplet, together with the praise in sixteenth-century sources, as a saying that shows the value Fazlî placed on his poetry.

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. 368, ghazal no. 139 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Bağdat Köşkü 406, fol. 568b-569a); also pp. 38 and 102 (view of poetry), p. 69 (rhyme) and p. 99 (response poems), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
  • Tuğba Başer, Pervâne Beg Nazire Mecmuası (557a-580b): Transkriptli, Edisyon Kritikli Metin, unpublished MA thesis, Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies, Istanbul 2004, pp. 107-108 (as cited by Özkat). katalog.marmara.edu.tr