Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫak olupdur cism-i ḫākı derd ü ġamdan sāḳiyā
Cür‘a-i cān-baḫş ile yād it keremden sāḳiyā
Āb-ı āteş-tāb ile luṭf eyle teskīn [it] anı
Yandı baġrum tābiş-i nār-ı elemden sāḳiyā
Ṭolular nūş eylesün şevḳ ehli her-dem ‘ışḳuña
Olmasun reşk-i tehī pür-cām-ı Cem’den sāḳiyā
Şol ḳadar ḳan aġladum bir cür‘adan yād itmedüñ
Nemden incindin ‘aceb bilsem ki nemden sāḳiyā
Şimdi ser-mest itdi ṣanma cām-ı ‘ışḳuñ cānumı
Ben anı nūş itmişem bezm-i ḳademden sāḳiyā
Cām-ı ‘ışḳuñ nūş idüp ben müsted[ī]m uyanmadan
‘Ayn-ı ‘ālem ḫᵛāb-ı nūşīn-i ‘ademden sāḳiyā
Fażlī’ye ṣun cām-ı ‘adli ġuṣṣadan eyle ḫalāṣ
Yoḫsa devrān öldürür ẓulm ü sitemden sāḳiyā

In English

1. O cupbearer, the earthen body (of the lover) has turned to dust from pain and grief; be generous and remember it with a soul-giving draught.

2. O cupbearer, my heart has burned from the heat of the fire of sorrow; be kind and soothe it with water that glows like fire (with wine).

3. O cupbearer, let the people of longing drink full cups to your love at every moment; let the empty-handed not envy the full cup of Cem.

4. O cupbearer, I wept so much blood, yet you did not remember me even with a draught; I wonder what of mine offended you, if only I knew, what of mine?

5. O cupbearer, do not think that the cup of your love has made my soul drunk only now; I drank it in the gathering of pre-eternity.

6. O cupbearer, I had drunk the cup of your love and was drunk before the eye of the world awoke from the sweet sleep of non-existence.

7. O cupbearer, offer Fazlî the cup of justice and free him from sorrow; otherwise the turning heavens will kill him with oppression and cruelty.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven 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/-den sāḳiyā" (from..., O cupbearer); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a compound redif made of a suffix with Turkish and Arabic elements. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-em/-am" in the words "ġam, kerem, elem, Cem, nem, ḳadem, ‘adem, sitem"; in the opening couplet both lines rhyme. That every couplet ends by addressing the cupbearer gives the ghazal the air of a tavern gathering. In "[it]" in the second couplet and in the word "müsted[ī]m" in the sixth, the parts in square brackets are Özkat's additions for the metre; in sense the latter word fits the reading "mest idim" (I was drunk). The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the twenty-first in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 231b) 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 a poem to the cupbearer written against a background of wine: in every couplet the lover asks the cupbearer for a draught or a cup. In the first couplet there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "ḫāk" (earth) and "cür‘a" (draught); the body turned to dust by pain and grief can come to life only through a draught the cupbearer bestows. In the second couplet wine is called "āb-ı āteş-tāb", water glowing like fire; the contrast between water and fire carries the idea that the fire of sorrow will be quenched by a water that is itself the colour of fire. Özkat counts this couplet among the examples of the idiom "bağrı yanık" (burnt-hearted). In the third couplet a contrast is drawn between "ṭolular" (full cups), "tehī" (empty) and "pür" (full); "cām-ı Cem" is the cup attributed in divan poetry to Jamshid, the legendary king of Iran.

The fourth couplet is among Özkat's examples of the idiom "kan ağlamak" (to weep blood). The double repetition of the word "nemden" at the end of the line sharpens the reproach; while the word means "from what of mine", it also calls to mind "nem" (moisture), which recalls the tears of the lover weeping blood. The fifth and sixth couplets say that love is pre-eternal: the lover drank the cup of love in "bezm-i ḳadem", the gathering of pre-eternity; he was drunk before the world had awoken from the sweet sleep of non-existence, that is, before it was created. In the last couplet the word "devrān" suggests both the turning heavens and the round of the cup in the gathering; if the cupbearer does not offer the cup of justice, the heavens will kill the lover with their oppression.

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. 296, ghazal no. 21 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 231b); also p. 69 (redifs), pp. 91-92 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources