Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Umma iy şūrīde-dil zülf-i perīşāndan vefā
‘Ömrdür gelmez bilürsin kimseye andan vefā
‘Ahd-i cevr itmişdi dün itdi vefā ol şeh bugün
Kim dürür gelmez diyen ‘ālemde cānāndan vefā
Öldürem didügine inanma iy dil ġamzesi
Bu mes̱eldür çünki gelmez tīġ-ı bürrāndan vefā
Umma kim devrān ile yār ola ol meh-rū saña
Kimseler gö[r]miş degüldür hīç devrāndan vefā
Tīr-i ḫūn-rīzi dökem ḳanuñı dirse Fażliyā
İ‘timād itme aña ol ḳandan u ḳandan vefā

In English

1. O distracted heart, expect no faithfulness from the dishevelled lock; you know it is (in its length) like life; no faithfulness comes to anyone from it.

2. Yesterday that shah promised to be cruel, and today he kept his word; who is it that says no faithfulness comes from the beloved in this world?

3. O heart, do not believe his glance when it says "I will kill you"; for this is a proverb: no faithfulness comes from the sharp sword.

4. Do not hope that in time that moon-faced one will become your friend; no one has ever seen faithfulness from time.

5. O Fazlî, if his bloodshedding arrow says "let me shed your blood", do not trust it; where is he, and where is faithfulness.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is "-dan vefā" (faithfulness from); the rhyme is formed by the sound "-ān/-an" in the words "perīşān, an, cānān, bürrān, devrān, ḳan". In classifying the redifs, Özkat counts this ghazal among those whose redif consists of a suffix and an Arabic word, and shows it as the only example of this group. In the word "gö[r]miş" in the fourth couplet, the letter in square brackets is Özkat's addition. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the sixteenth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 219b) 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 subject of the ghazal is the word "vefā" (faithfulness) in the redif: the lover lists one by one the things from which faithfulness is not to be expected. The lock is dishevelled and, in its length, resembles life; since life is faithless, no faithfulness comes from the lock either. Time (devrān) is faithless. The sharp sword knows no faithfulness either. The irony of the ghazal is that this faithlessness shows itself most of all in the beloved's threats.

The second couplet first sets up this irony: yesterday the beloved promised to be cruel, and today he has kept his word. Against those who say no faithfulness comes from the beloved, the poet finds his faithfulness only in keeping his promise of torment. In the third couplet the lover is advised not to believe the glance when it says "I will kill you"; the reason is a proverb: "no faithfulness comes from the sharp sword." Özkat quotes this couplet as an example of Fazlî's use of proverbs in his poems. In the couplet the ordinary sense of the proverb is turned around: the sword of the glance will not keep its word, that is, it will not kill the lover; and the lover complains of this.

The last couplet ends the same thought with a pun (cinas): even if the bloodshedding arrow says "let me shed your blood", it is not to be trusted, for "ol ḳandan u ḳandan vefā". The first "ḳandan" is the interrogative meaning "from where", while the second, tied to the word "ḳan" (blood), can also be read as "from blood"; thus the line carries both the senses "where is he, and where is faithfulness" and "he is of blood, faithfulness of blood". The glance, the arrow and the sword form a congruence of weapons (tenasüp) describing the beloved's gaze.

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. 293, ghazal no. 16 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 219b); also p. 69 (redifs), p. 88 (proverbs) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources