Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Sīne ṭablum eşk-i ceyşüm oldı vü āhum sevā
Milk-i ‘ışḳuñ şāhıyam dirsem n’ola ben bī-nevā
Ḫaste-i ‘ışḳam benüm derdüme dermān eylegil
Mümkin ise ger ṭabībā ḫasteye itmek devā
N’ola her-dem ney gibi efġān idersem sāḳiyā
Ġayrdan olup tehī oldı derūnum pür-hevā
Seg raḳībüñ pendini cānā revā görüp müdām
‘Āşıḳı giryān u nālān idesin görme revā
N’ola olsam dā‘vi-i ‘ışḳ içre ben s̱ābit-ḳadem
Oldı Fażlī māh u māhī eşk ü āhumdan güvā

In English

1. My breast has become my drum, my tears my army, my sigh the dark mass of the host; is it any wonder if I, the destitute, say I am the shah of the realm of love? (The word "sevā" in the first line has been read in the sense of the throng and dark mass of an army seen from afar.)

2. I am sick with love; O physician, if it is possible to cure the sick, give a remedy for my pain.

3. O cupbearer, is it any wonder if I lament at every moment like the reed flute? My inside has been emptied of others and filled with longing (with air).

4. O soul, do not always hold the counsel of the dog-like rival fitting and think it fitting to make the lover weep and wail.

5. Is it any wonder if I stand firm in the suit of love? O Fazlî, the moon and the fish have both borne witness to my tears and my sigh.

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). It has no redif; Özkat counts this ghazal among those with full rhyme. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-vā" at the end of the words "sevā, bī-nevā, devā, pür-hevā, revā, güvā". In the fourth couplet the word "revā" occurs in both lines. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the thirty-third in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 247b) 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 first couplet equips the lover like a ruler. His breast is a drum (ṭabl), his tears an army (ceyş), his sigh the dark mass of the host; drum, army and realm form a congruence of images (tenasüp). Beating the breast recalls the beating of a drum, tears flowing like a flood an army, and the rising sigh the dark mass of an army seen from afar. So equipped, the lover, though destitute, counts himself the shah of the realm of love; the contrast between "şāh" and "bī-nevā" (destitute) is the wit of the couplet. In the second couplet the lover addresses the physician; the words "ṭabīb" (physician), "ḫaste" (sick), "derd" (pain), "dermān" (remedy) and "devā" (cure) gather around sickness and healing.

In the third couplet the lover likens himself to the ney. The ney is a hollow reed that laments with the air passing through it; the lover's inside too has been emptied of others and filled with longing. The word "hevā" means both "air" and "desire", and joins through a double entendre (tevriye) the air of the reed and the longing of the lover. In the fourth couplet the repetition of the word "revā" (fitting) in both lines forms a figure of repetition (tekrir): the beloved holds the rival's counsel fitting, and the lover asks that he not hold it fitting to make the lover weep. The last couplet is built with words from the language of law: "dā‘vā" (suit) and "güvā" (witness). "Māh u māhī", the moon and the fish, is an expression for the whole universe from top to bottom; in the second line moon and fish are paired with tears and sigh in reverse order: the sigh rising to the sky reaches the moon, the tears flowing downward reach the fish. This is an example of the form of leff ü neşr in which the order of correspondence is mixed.

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. 303-304, ghazal no. 33 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 247b); also p. 69 (rhyme) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources