Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Şāh-ı milk-i ‘ışḳ-ı yārüm ġam sipāh oldı baña
Āteş-i āhum başumda zer-külāh oldı baña
Yüz sürerdüm işigüñe bir zamān şimdi velī
Ṭāḳ-ı eyvānuñ ıraḳdan secde-gāh oldı baña
Ehl-i ‘ışḳ içre şeh-i devlet-penāh oldum bugün
Aç işigüñ ṭaşı iy dilber penāh oldı baña
Pādişāhum her nefes āh itdügüm ‘ayb eyleme
Fürḳatüñde her nefes eglence āh oldı baña
Kāküline Fażliyā müşk-i Ḫıṭā didüm gice
Yine bir yüz ḳarasın ḳıldum günāh oldı baña

In English

1. I am the shah of the realm of the beloved's love; grief has become my army; the fire of my sigh has become the golden cap (crown) on my head.

2. Once I used to rub my face on your threshold; but now the arch of your hall has become, from afar, my place of prostration.

3. Today among the people of love I have become a shah who is a refuge of the state; O charmer, open (your door), the stone of your threshold has become my refuge.

4. My sovereign, do not reproach me for sighing at every breath; in separation from you sighing at every breath has become my pastime.

5. O Fazlî, last night I called his forelock "musk of Khitai"; again I committed a disgrace (literally, a blackening of the face); it has become a sin for me.

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 "oldı baña" (has become for me); the rhyme is formed by the sound "-āh" in the words "sipāh, külāh, secde-gāh, penāh, āh, günāh". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā". The ghazal is the seventeenth in Özkat's edition; the text is found in the Fazlî divan section of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library, at a place separate from the other ghazals rhyming in alif (fol. 231a). It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet portrays the lover as a ruler: he is the shah of the realm of the beloved's love; grief is his army and the fire of his sigh the golden cap on his head. "Şāh", "milk" (realm), "sipāh" (army) and "zer-külāh" (golden cap, crown) form a congruence of images (tenasüp). In divan poetry the beloved is called shah and the lover servant; in this couplet, however, the lover is the sovereign of his own sufferings. The third couplet continues this thought: the lover has become a "şeh-i devlet-penāh" (shah who is the refuge of the state) among the people of love; yet his true refuge is the stone of the beloved's threshold.

The second couplet describes a growing distance. Once the lover used to rub his face on the beloved's threshold; now he looks at the arch of the hall from afar and takes it as his "secde-gāh" (place of prostration). The likeness of shape between the arch of the hall and the prayer niche gives the couplet a religious association. Özkat counts the words "yüz sürmek" (to rub one's face) in this couplet among the examples of the idiom "to lay (rub) one's face on the ground". In the fourth couplet sighing has become an "eglence" (pastime, consolation) in separation; this is a paradox expressing how pain has turned into habit. The address "pādişāh" (sovereign) returns to the image of the shah in the opening couplet.

The closing couplet rests on a subtle conceit. Last night the lover called the beloved's forelock "musk of Khitai". In divan poetry the musk of Khitai is the measure of fragrance and blackness; but since the beloved's forelock surpasses even that, this comparison counted as an insult, a "yüz ḳarası" (blackening of the face, disgrace), and became a sin. There is a congruence of colour between the black musk and the "blackening of the face". Özkat illustrates the idiom "yüz karası" (disgrace) from this couplet; Fazlî uses the idiom here both in its figurative sense (a shameful deed) and in a way that recalls the black colour of musk.

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, pp. 293-294, ghazal no. 17 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 231a); also p. 94 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources