Original Text (Mixed Languages)

Metre: Mef‘ūlü Mefā‘īlün Fe‘ūlün

Sen serv-ḳade ḳul oldı ṭūbā
طوبي لمن اقتداك طوبي
Kim Ka‘be ḳapuñ ṭavvāf ḳıldı
قد ضاعف ربّه ثوابا
مَنْ حَسَّنَ شَانَهُ رُبَّانُ
من افتخر بفضل آبائه
پا از سرو سر ز پا ندانم
از شوق چو بر سرم زدي پا
Destüñ ṭoludur çü bāde sāḳī
Ṣun destüme cām-ı nāb-ı ṣahbā
اين نيست غزل كه گفت فضلي
قد انزل رُبّه كتابا
با كم نه ز حيلت اعادي
باماست چو همّت احبّا

Reading in Latin script: 1. Sen serv-ḳade ḳul oldı ṭūbā / Ṭūbā li-men iḳtedāke ṭūbā
2. Kim Ka‘be ḳapuñ ṭavvāf ḳıldı / Ḳad żā‘afe rabbuhū s̱evābā
3. Men ḥassene şānehū rubbānu / Men iftaḫara bi-fażli ābā’ihī
4. Pā ez ser ü ser zi-pā nedānem / Ez şevḳ çü ber serem zedī pā
6. Īn nīst ġazel ki goft Fażlī / Ḳad enzele rabbuhū kitābā
7. Bākem ne zi-ḥīlet-i a‘ādī / Bā-māst çü himmet-i eḥibbā

In English

1. O cypress-statured one, the Tuba tree has become your slave; blessed is he who follows you, blessed indeed. (Tuba is the tree believed to stand in Paradise.)

2. Whoever has circled your door as if it were the Kaaba, his Lord has multiplied his reward many times over.

3. The one who manages his affairs well is the captain; and the one who boasts of the merit of his forefathers... (Özkat translates the first line as "The one who saves his ship is the captain." He gives the meaning of the second line with a question mark as well; the line looks like a comparison left unfinished.)

4. When in your ardour you set your foot on my head, I cannot tell foot from head, nor head from foot. (Özkat's translation: "When ardour gains the upper hand over me, I am bewildered and do not know what to do." In Persian, being unable to tell head from foot means being utterly bewildered.)

5. O cupbearer, since your hand is full of wine, hand into my hand the cup of that pure, red wine.

6. What Fazlî has spoken is not a ghazal; his Lord has sent it down as a book.

7. I have no fear of the enemies' guile, for the spiritual support (himmet) of friends is with us. (Özkat translates the first line as "My fear is not of its being recited again by guile"; he evidently read the word "اعادي" as "i‘ādī" (recitation again). We have read "a‘ādī" (enemies).)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets (beyit), written in the "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlün fe‘ūlün" pattern of the hezec metre of aruz (quantitative metre). Özkat presents this ghazal as one of Fazlî's two mülemma ghazals written in three languages, Turkish, Arabic and Persian. A mülemma is a poem in which lines composed in different languages are brought together. In the ghazal four lines are Turkish, five Arabic and five Persian. In the first two couplets a Turkish line is followed by an Arabic one; the third couplet is entirely Arabic, the fourth and seventh couplets entirely Persian, and the fifth couplet entirely Turkish. The rhyme is built on the "-ā" sound at the end of the words "ṭūbā, s̱evābā, pā, ṣahbā, kitābā, eḥibbā", and Özkat counts the ghazal among those with full rhyme. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the sixth couplet.

The ghazal is found in the Fazlî section of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (fol. 217a). To whom and when it was written is not known. The edition gives the Arabic and Persian lines in Arabic script without showing their reading, and supplies their meanings in the footnotes. The Arabic-script lines in the original text are Özkat's text. The reading in Latin script is ours; the English rendering is based on the meanings in Özkat's footnotes, and the places where we depart from them are indicated in parentheses. Özkat marks the second line of the third couplet as Persian; that the phrase "iftaḫara bi-fażli ābā’ihī" in the line is Arabic is our observation. The words in rhyme position in the third couplet also differ from those of the other couplets, and in the form given in the edition the couplet appears incomplete in sense.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet carries the most striking conceit of the ghazal. The word "ṭūbā" is used in two different senses in the two lines: in the Turkish line it is the name of the Tuba tree of Paradise, in the Arabic line it is the exclamation meaning "blessed, good tidings". It is said that even the tree of Paradise has become a slave to the cypress-statured beloved, and then good tidings are given to those who follow the beloved. The repetition of the same word with different meanings is a paronomasia (cinas); that the Arabic line both begins and ends with this word strengthens the expression further. Özkat illustrates the idiom "kul köle olmak" (to become someone's slave) among Fazlî's idioms with this couplet.

In the second couplet the beloved's door is likened to the Kaaba, and it is said that the reward of whoever circles this door will be multiplied many times over. In divan poetry the beloved's threshold is often called a qibla or the Kaaba. The Persian expression in the fourth couplet is a wordplay built on the words head and foot: when the beloved sets foot on his head, the lover cannot tell head and foot apart. The words "ser" and "pā" occur four times in the two lines. The fifth couplet is the only entirely Turkish couplet of the ghazal, a tavern couplet addressed to the cupbearer; the word "dest" (hand) is repeated in both lines.

The sixth couplet is a boast. The poet says that the poem he has spoken is not an ordinary ghazal, but that his Lord sent it down as a book. The phrase "ḳad enzele" (sent down) in the Arabic line is a verb used for revelation; that the poet uses it to express, with hyperbole, that the poem is a product of inspiration is our interpretation. In the last couplet the poet says that he does not fear the enemies' guile, because the spiritual support of friends is with him. Özkat reads this line differently and gives the meaning that the poet does not fear his poem being recited again by guile, that is, being appropriated by others. This reading too is consistent with the boast of the preceding couplet.

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. 285-286, ghazal no. 4 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 217a; meanings of the Arabic and Persian lines in the footnotes); also p. 62 (mülemma ghazals), p. 69 (rhyme), p. 93 (idioms) and pp. 108-110 (Arabic and Persian elements), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
  • Rıza Kurtuluş, İskender Pala, "Mülemma‘", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, 2020. https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/mulemma

Online sources