Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilün

Eylesem sūz ile bir āhı cigerden peydā
Yıḳa eflākı eger olsa ḥacerden peydā
Beñzer ol āl kirāsa leb-i lā‘lüñ cānā
K’itdi ḳannād-ı ezel anı şekerden peydā
Derde ṣabr eyle dilā çāre nedür çün dönmez
Her ḳażā tīri k’ola ḳavs-i ḳaderden peydā
Ādem iden beni kūyuñ itinüñ himmetidür
Bu mes̱eldür olur iy şāh er erden peydā
Şevḳle vaṣf-ı ruḫuñda senüñ iy şeh Fażlī
Gün gibi eyledi bu şi‘ri seḥerden peydā

In English

1. If, burning, I were to bring forth a sigh from my liver, that sigh would bring down the heavens even if it came from a stone.

2. O soul, that ruby lip of yours resembles a red cherry; the Confectioner of pre-eternity made it from sugar.

3. O heart, be patient in your pain; what remedy is there, for no arrow of fate that leaves the bow of destiny ever turns back.

4. What made a man of me is the favour of the dog of your street; O shah, it is a proverb: a man is raised by a man.

5. O shah, Fazlî, describing your cheek with longing, brought forth this poem from the dawn like the sun.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is "-den/-dan peydā" (comes forth from); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a compound redif made of a suffix with Turkish and Persian elements. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-er" in the words "ciger, ḥacer, şeker, ḳader, er, seḥer". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the thirtieth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 247a) 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 word "peydā" in the redif asks in each couplet where something comes from, and the ghazal gives five answers to the question: the sigh comes from the liver, the lip from sugar, the arrow of fate from the bow of destiny, a man from a man, the poem from the dawn. The first couplet rests on hyperbole (mübalağa): the lover's sigh is so strong that even if it came from a stone it would bring down the heavens. In the second couplet the beloved's lip is likened to a red cherry, and God who made it is named "ḳannād-ı ezel", the Confectioner of pre-eternity; the sweetness of the lip is explained by this creation. In the third couplet there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "ḳavs" (bow) and "tīr" (arrow), "ḳażā" (fate) and "ḳader" (destiny); the calamity sent by destiny does not turn back, like an arrow loosed from the bow, and the lover has no remedy but patience.

The fourth couplet is cited by Özkat in two places. He gives it as an example of irsâl-i mesel, the figure that brings a proverb as proof, and of the proverbs Fazlî uses in his poems; the proverb runs "Er erden peyda olur" (a man is raised by a man). In the couplet the proverb is tied to a surprising object: what made a man of the lover is the favour of the dog in the beloved's street. The distance between the dog and the "er" (man, hero) gives the couplet a light taste of jest; the lover counts even the beloved's dog as a hero who formed him. In the last couplet there is a congruence of images between "gün" (sun) and "seḥer" (dawn); the poem describing the beloved's cheek has risen as bright as the sun born of the morning.

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. 302, ghazal no. 30 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 247a); also p. 69 (redifs), p. 84 (irsâl-i mesel), p. 88 (proverbs) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources