Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Cigerüm ḳanı şarāb oldı gözüm cām saña
İçürür zehr-i ġamı iy göñül eyyām saña
Murġ-ı zīrüñ geçinüp degmeye ṣayd olmaz iken
Zülf ü ḫāl oldı göñül dāne ile dām saña
Ṭāli‘üñ ġāyet iti olmasa iy kelb-i raḳīb
O ġazālum bu ḳadar niçün ola rām saña
Merḥabā itse senüñle ne gün ol şāh göñül
Rūz-ı mātem daḫi olsa ola bayrām saña
Zülfi sevdāsına düşdüñ gibi iy Fażlī yine
Rūz-ı rūşen görinür ẓulmet ile şām saña

In English

1. O heart, the blood of my liver has become your wine and my eye your cup; time (the days) makes you drink the poison of grief.

2. O heart, while you passed for a clever bird that does not fall prey to every chance comer, the lock and the mole became snare and bait for you.

3. O dog of a rival, had your luck not been so very sharp, why should that gazelle of mine be so tame to you? (The word "iti" means "sharp" in old Turkish; it makes a play of sound with "it", dog.)

4. O heart, on whatever day that shah exchanges greetings with you, let that day be a feast for you even if it is a day of mourning.

5. O Fazlî, because you have again fallen into passion for his lock, the bright day seems to you like evening with darkness.

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 "saña" (to you); the rhyme is formed by the sound "-ām" in the words "cām, eyyām, dām, rām, bayrām, şām". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the fourteenth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 219a) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is addressed mostly to the lover's own heart; in the third couplet, however, the speech turns to the rival. The first couplet carries a picture of a drinking gathering into the lover's body: the blood of the liver becomes wine, the eye a cup, and time takes the cupbearer's place and makes him drink the poison of grief. The words "şarāb" (wine), "cām" (cup) and "içürür" (makes drink) form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

The second couplet rests on images of the hunt and contains a leff ü neşr (parallel arrangement). The heart thinks it is a clever bird that falls into no snare; but the beloved's lock and mole have become snare and bait for it. The lock, being long and curling, corresponds to the snare (dām), and the black mole, being small and single, to the bait (dāne); in the second line the bait is named first and then the snare, so that the order is mixed. "Murġ" (bird), "ṣayd" (prey), "dāne" (bait) and "dām" (snare) form a congruence of images.

The third couplet is the richest place in the ghazal for wordplay. The rival is called "kelb" (dog); and "iti" in the words "ṭāli‘üñ ġāyet iti" means "sharp" in old Turkish and makes a play of sound with the word "it" (dog). The beloved is called a "ġazāl" (gazelle); the hunting relation between gazelle and dog makes the beloved's being "rām" (tame) to the rival surprising. The lover can only attribute this to the sharpness of the rival's luck. In the fourth couplet there is a contrast between "rūz-ı mātem" (day of mourning) and "bayrām" (feast). In the last couplet the word "sevdā" refers both to love and to black bile, associated with the colour black; the blackness of the lock turns the bright day into a dark evening. "Rūz-ı rūşen" (bright day) and "ẓulmet" and "şām" (darkness, evening) form this last contrast.

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. 292, ghazal no. 14 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 219a); also pp. 61-62 (on the ghazals) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources