Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

İy sözüñ naṭ‘-ı zemīnde āb-ı Ḥıżr’ı itdi māt
V’ey lebüñ yādına ‘Īsī gögde kesb eyler ḥayāt
Var iken lā‘lüñ şu kim ḳand u nebāta meyl ide
Aġzı dadın virür iy şīrīn-dehen aña nebāt
Ḳan ile yazmaġa himmet nāmesini eyledüm
Kirpigümden ḫāme idüp çeşm-i ḫūnīnüm devāt
Dōstum ‘ömrinde bir būseñ alanlar ḫaşre dek
Zinde ola Ḥıżr gibi görmeye hergiz memāt
Fażlī’ye maġrūr-ı ḥüsn olup cefālar eyleme
‘Ömr gibi çün geçer iy gül aña yoḳdur s̱ebāt

In English

1. O (beloved), your speech has checkmated the water of Khidr (the water of life) on the board of words; and Jesus in heaven gains life by remembering your lip.

2. O sweet-mouthed one, whoever, while your ruby lip exists, inclines towards loaf sugar and candy, the candy gives him the taste of his own mouth. (The phrase can be understood both as "gives him a taste" and as "gives him what he deserves".)

3. To write the letter of my resolve in blood, I made my eyelash a pen and my bloody eye an inkwell.

4. My friend, those who in their lifetime take a single kiss from you stay alive like Khidr until the Day of Judgement and never see death.

5. O rose, do not be proud of your beauty and torment Fazlî; for beauty passes like a lifetime, it has no permanence.

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 rich rhyme. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-āt" in the words "māt, ḥayāt, nebāt, devāt, memāt, s̱ebāt". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the forty-fifth 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 first and fourth couplets of the ghazal rest on two allusions (telmih) to immortality: Khidr and the water of life, and Jesus raised to heaven. In the first couplet the beloved's speech has "checkmated" even the water of life; "naṭ‘" is the leather cloth on which chess is played and "māt" a chess term, and the two words form a congruence of images (tenasüp). Özkat gives this couplet as an example of the idiom "mat etmek" (to checkmate, to defeat utterly). In the second line Jesus, raised to heaven, gains life by remembering the beloved's lip; the lip's gift of life recalls the belief that Jesus raised the dead with his breath. In the fourth couplet the same idea is carried over to the kiss: whoever takes a kiss from the beloved becomes immortal like Khidr until the Day of Judgement. There is a contrast between "ḥayāt" (life) and "memāt" (death).

The second couplet is built with images of sweetness: "ḳand", "nebāt" (kinds of sugar) and "şīrīn-dehen" (sweet-mouthed). Özkat gives the phrase in this couplet as an example of the idiom "ağız tadı" (the taste of one's mouth). The third couplet rests on a comparison taken from writing implements: the eyelash is the pen, the bloody eye the inkwell, and blood the ink; "nāme" (letter), "ḫāme" (pen) and "devāt" (inkwell) form a congruence of images. To write a letter in blood is the strongest expression of devotion; the thin, long shape of the eyelash lends itself to comparison with a pen, and the round hollow of the eye with an inkwell. The last couplet is among Özkat's examples of pithy sayings of which it is not known whether they were used as proverbs among the people; Özkat sums up the thought of the couplet as "Güzellik geçicidir" (beauty is fleeting). That beauty passes like a lifetime is said by addressing the rose, known for its short life.

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. 310, ghazal no. 45 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 233a); also p. 69 (rhyme), pp. 89-90 (proverbs and idioms), p. 93 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources