Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Oḳlaruñdan incinürse ḫaste-dil ma‘ẕūr ṭut
İy kemān ebrū mes̱eldür ādeme eylük batar

In English

1. O you whose brow is a bow, if the sick heart is hurt by your arrows, hold it excused; it is a proverb: "Kindness pricks a man."

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The text before us is a single couplet written in the "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). Özkat gathers Fazlî's couplets found in the biographical anthologies of poets (tezkire) at the end of the ghazal section, under the heading "Couplets Appearing Independently in the Tezkires"; according to Özkat the fourteen fragments under this heading amount to twenty couplets. This couplet is numbered as ghazal a hundred and forty-eight in that section. In the edition the footnote number of this couplet appears through a typeface error as "14O"; the place and order of the footnote show that it is 148, and accordingly the source of the couplet is the tezkire of Kâfzâde Fâizî. This correction is our own observation. As Özkat reports, Kâfzâde says that he saw Fazlî's divan and copied the couplets from it. There is no rhyme between the lines ("ṭut / batar"); Özkat counts this couplet among the eight fragments surviving as single couplets. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

According to Özkat, Kâfzâde repeats almost word for word the information given by Riyâzî about Fazlî's death, namely that the poet died in 971 and that Gelibolulu Âlî composed a chronogram on his death with the words "Fażlī öldi" (Fazlî has died). Most of Fazlî's ghazals that have come down complete are of five couplets; according to Özkat, eighty-three of the hundred and twenty-four complete ghazals are of this length. The length of the ghazal to which this lone couplet belonged, however, is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The couplet rests on the proverb in its second line. Özkat mentions this couplet too when giving examples of Fazlî's use of proverbs, and includes the proverb "Adama iyilik batar" (kindness pricks a man) in his list. The figure of supporting a statement with a proverb is called irsal-i mesel; the poet does this openly, saying "mes̱eldür" (it is a proverb). The beloved is addressed as "kemān ebrū" (bow-browed); the arrows of a beloved whose brow is likened to a bow must be the glances or the eyelashes. The point of the couplet lies in the verb "batmak": the arrow literally pierces, and the kindness of the proverb also pricks a man, weighs upon him. For the lover the arrow that comes from the beloved is a favour, that is, a kindness; that the sick heart is hurt by this kindness is just what the proverb says. Thus the lover tries to excuse the aching of his heart in the beloved's eyes. This interpretation is our own. The word "eylük" in the proverb means kindness. The phrase "ḫaste-dil" (sick heart) also links the wound opened by the arrow with sickness; the wounded heart is at the same time sick with love.

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. 371, ghazal no. 148 (Kâfzâde Fâizî's tezkire); also p. 21 (Kâfzâde's notes on the divan and the poet's death), p. 62 (the couplets in the tezkires and the complete ghazals), p. 69 (single-couplet fragments) and p. 87 (proverbs), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
  • Kâfzâde Fâizî, Zübdetü'l-Eş'âr, manuscript, Millet Library, Ali Emîrî Collection no. 1325 (as cited by Özkat).

Online sources