Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḫaṭṭ-ı reyḥān kim ṭutupdur rūy-ı cānānı dürüst
Sebze-i terdür ki zeyn itmiş gülistānı dürüst
Nice kāfir diyeyüm ben ġamze-i bed-mestüñe
Şefḳati olmayanuñ çün olmaz imānı dürüst
Ḳāmet-i ra‘nāña teşbīh eyler imiş kendüyi
Añladum kej-ṭab‘ imiş serv-i ḫırāmānı dürüst
Dişlemekden leblerüñ ḥelvāsını kesmez ṭama‘
Ḳalmasa ger ‘āşıḳuñ aġzında dendānı dürüst
Tīġ-ı ġamdan baġrı ṣad-çāk olmaya her kimsenüñ
Ehl-i ‘ışḳ içinde ṭutmazlar dilā anı dürüst
Gelsüñ iy gül gülşene ref‘ eyleyüp yüzden niḳāb
Ḳalmaya bir ġoncenüñ hergiz girībānı dürüst
Va‘de-i vaṣlına iy Fażlī inanma dil-berüñ
Ehl-i ḥüsnüñ çünki olmaz ‘ahd u peymānı dürüst

In English

1. The basil-like down that wholly covers the beloved's face is the fresh greenery that adorns the rose garden from end to end.

2. How should I not call your ill-tempered, drunken glance an unbeliever? For the faith of one who has no compassion is not sound.

3. The swaying cypress, it seems, likens itself to your graceful stature; I understood that the swaying cypress is wholly crooked of nature.

4. Even if no sound tooth remains in the lover's mouth, he does not give up his greed to bite the halva of your lips.

5. O heart, whoever's breast has not been split in a hundred places by the sword of grief is not held to be a true (lover) among the people of love.

6. O rose, lift the veil from your face and come to the garden, so that no rosebud's collar may stay whole.

7. O Fazlî, do not believe the heart-stealer's promise of union; for the pledges and vows of the beautiful are never sound.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven 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 "-ı dürüst" (wholly, sound); 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 "-ān" in the words "cānān, gülistān, īmān, ḫırāmān, dendān, girībān, peymān"; in the fifth couplet, however, the word "anı" stands in the rhyme position and answers this sound only approximately. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the forty-fourth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 233a) 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 whole ghazal plays on the senses of the word "dürüst" in the redif. The word is used in the first couplet to mean "wholly, entirely", in the second "right, sound (faith)", in the third again "wholly", in the fourth "sound (tooth)", in the fifth "complete, true (lover)", in the sixth "untorn (collar)" and in the last "sound (word)". That a single word shows a different face in each couplet gives the ghazal a tight unity. In the first couplet the down on the cheek is likened to basil and to the fresh greenery of the rose garden; the face is a rose garden and the down the meadow that adorns it.

The second couplet is among Özkat's examples of proverbs; the saying in it runs "Şefkati (merhameti) olmayanın imanı dürüst olmaz" (the faith of one who has no compassion is not sound). The lover uses this saying as proof against the beloved's glance: a glance that knows no mercy must be counted an unbeliever. In the third couplet there is a contrast between the cypress and "kej-ṭab‘" (crooked of nature); the upright cypress is held to be crooked of nature because it presumes to liken itself to the beloved's stature. The fourth couplet is a light jest: even the toothless lover does not give up his desire to bite the beloved's lip, sweet as halva. In the sixth couplet the opening of the rosebud is ascribed to its tearing its collar before the beloved's beauty; this is the figure of fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil). The last couplet closes the ghazal by turning the faithlessness of the beautiful into a ruling.

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. 309-310, ghazal no. 44 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 233a); also p. 69 (redifs), p. 90 (proverbs) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources