Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Çünki bezm ehline ḳan yutdurmaḳ oldı ḫū saña
Ben daḫı sāḳī götürdüm ayaġı yā hū saña
Bādeye düşdüñ yitürdüñ naḳd-i ṣabrı iy göñül
‘Āḳıbet n’eyler göresin ol delüḳanlu saña
Ṭolaşursın būy içün zülfine yārüñ iy göñül
‘Āḳıbet bir bend geçmeyince ḳomaz bū saña
Ẕemm idersin ‘āşıḳ-ı dīvāneyi her-dem
Vā‘iẓā billāh niçün disün kişi uṣlu saña
Zülfünüñ her tārı bir ejder görinür Fażliyā
Kim bilür ne siḥr ider ol gözleri cādū saña

In English

1. O cupbearer, since making the people of the gathering swallow blood has become your habit, I too, crying "Ya Hu", have raised the cup to you.

2. O heart, you have fallen to wine and lost the coin of patience; in the end you will see what that young blade will do to you.

3. O heart, you wind yourself round the beloved's tresses for their scent; in the end this scent (this affair) will not let you go until a bond has been laid on you.

4. O preacher, at every moment you reproach the mad lover; for God's sake, why should anyone call you "sane"?

5. O Fazlî, every strand of his tresses looks like a dragon; who knows what spell those sorcerer eyes will cast on you.

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 "saña" (to you); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a Turkish single-word redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ū/-u" at the end of the words "ḫū, yā hū, delüḳanlu, bū, uṣlu, cādū". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the twenty-seventh in Özkat's edition and does not appear in the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library; the text rests only on Pervâne Beg's anthology of response poems "Mecmû‘atü'n-Nezâ'ir", Bağdat Köşkü 406 (fol. 8b), and Özkat takes it from the text in İbrahim Sevinç's thesis. According to Özkat, Pervâne Beg's anthology is of great importance because it contains the nazires Fazlî wrote to the poets of his time. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet is a reproach addressed to the cupbearer: the cupbearer has made it a habit to make the people of the gathering swallow blood; the lover answers by raising his cup with the cry "Ya Hu". "Yā hū" is a call known from the dervish litany; its use in a tavern gathering adds a light mockery to the couplet. The word "ayaġ" means both "cup" and "foot". Özkat takes the idiom "kan yutturmak" (to make someone swallow blood) from this couplet. The second couplet is among those Özkat cites most often. He gives it in four places: as an example of Fazlî's using with equal ease both the spoken language adorned with idioms and proverbs and the Ottoman language adorned with compounds; of plain Turkish words in his poems such as "delüḳanlu" (young blade), which give the impression of being modern coinages; of the Arabic and Persian elements in his poems being easily understood, short compounds; and of his sincere style, speaking as if in conversation with the beloved or with his own heart. Indeed a short Persian compound such as "naḳd-i ṣabr" (the coin of patience) stands in the same couplet beside expressions from spoken language such as "n'eyler göresin" (you will see what he does) and "delüḳanlu".

In the third couplet the word "bū" can be read both as "scent" and as "this"; the heart winds itself round the tresses for their scent, and in the end the tresses bind it. Thinking of the tresses as a bond and a lasso is a familiar image of divan poetry. The fourth couplet is addressed to the preacher and is built on the contrast between "dīvāne" (mad) and "uṣlu" (sane): the preacher who reproaches the lover as mad is himself not to be counted sane. In the last couplet each strand of the tresses is likened to a dragon and the eyes to a sorcerer; the words "ejder" (dragon), "siḥr" (spell) and "cādū" (sorcerer) form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

The Nazire Relation

According to Özkat, this ghazal was written as a nazire (response poem) to Hızrî's ghazal whose opening couplet is "İy ṣanem cevr-ile can almaḳ olupdur ḫū saña / Ben de geçdüm cān u dilden dōstum yā hū saña", and this ghazal of Hızrî's was answered by 28 ghazals, Fazlî's included. Özkat identifies Hızrî as the son of Ahmed Paşa, mufti of Bursa, and gives his date of death as 1517/18. Fazlî keeps the rhymes "ḫū saña" and "yā hū saña" of Hızrî's opening couplet unchanged; in Hızrî the habit is the beloved's taking of lives, in Fazlî the cupbearer's making the gathering swallow blood. Özkat notes that it is not known which of the poets he answered Fazlî actually met, but that his nazires are in no way inferior to their originals.

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. 300, ghazal no. 27 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Bağdat Köşkü 406, fol. 8b); also pp. 43-44 (Türkî-i Basit and plain Turkish words), p. 69 (redifs), p. 93 (idioms), pp. 96 and 100 (response poems), pp. 105, 107 and 113 (language and expression), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
  • İbrahim Sevinç, Pervâne Beg Nazire Mecmuası (1a-29b): Transkripsiyonlu, Edisyon Kritikli Metin, unpublished MA thesis, Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies, Istanbul 2001, p. 52 (as cited by Özkat). katalog.marmara.edu.tr