Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

İster-iseñ vuṣlat-ı cānān dilā
‘Āşıḳ-ı ser-bāz olup it cān fedā
Bulduñ o şem‘i yine ḥāmī göñül
Sūzuña pervāne gibi yansaña
Söger imiş luṭf ile ‘āşıḳlara
Eyleyelüm dilbere her an du‘ā
Derdle başum ḫoş olupdur ṭabīb
Raḥmeti ḳo eyleme dermān baña
Fażlī’ye kūyuñ ola me’vā eger
Ravżada reşk eyleye Rıżvān baña

In English

1. O heart, if you desire union with the beloved, become a lover who stakes his head and sacrifice your soul.

2. O heart, you have found that candle again as your protector; why not burn in your own fire like the moth? (The word "ḥāmī" means "protector"; the line has been read in this sense.)

3. (The beloved), it seems, curses the lovers with kindness; so let us pray for the heart-stealer at every moment.

4. O physician, my head has grown content with pain; leave your mercy aside and do not give me a remedy.

5. If your street becomes the dwelling of Fazlî, even Rizvan in the garden of paradise will envy 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‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre); this pattern is one foot shorter than the four-foot pattern often used in ghazals, and the lines accordingly run short and quick. It has no redif; Özkat counts this ghazal among those with half rhyme. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ā" at the end of the words "dilā, fedā, du‘ā"; in the second couplet "yansaña", and in the fourth and fifth couplets the word "baña", answer this sound only approximately, and in the last two couplets the same word is repeated in the rhyme position. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the thirty-fourth 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

This is a short, plain ghazal; each couplet states a rule of love. In the first couplet union is won only by sacrificing the soul; the epithet "ser-bāz" (one who stakes his head) likens the lover to a gambler who stakes everything he has. The second couplet uses the theme of the candle and the moth: the heart has found the candle that will burn it and is called on to burn in its fire like the moth. The third couplet rests on irony: even the beloved's cursing is a kindness, and in return one must pray for him. The contrast between "söger" (curses) and "du‘ā" (prayer) carries this irony. In the first couplet the closeness in sound between "cānān" (beloved) and "cān" (soul) suggests that what is to be given for the beloved is the soul itself; in the second, the words "şem‘" (candle), "sūz" (burning), "pervāne" (moth) and "yanmaḳ" (to burn) form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

In the fourth couplet the lover asks the physician to withhold treatment; pain has become a source of pleasure for him, and a remedy would mean being parted from pain. The words "ṭabīb" (physician), "dermān" (remedy) and "raḥmet" (mercy) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) between sickness and healing. In the last couplet the beloved's street is set above paradise: if Fazlî can find shelter there, even Rizvan, the keeper of paradise, will envy him. There is a congruence of images between "ravża" (garden, the garden of paradise) and "Rıżvān".

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. 304, ghazal no. 34 (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