Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü Fā‘ilātü Mefā‘īlü Fā‘ilün

Ḥüsnüñden eylese n’ola çeşm-i pür-āb baḥs̱
Ehl-i nücūm içinde olur āfitāb baḥs̱
‘Işḳ ehli ḥüsnüñ içün iderse n’ola cedel
Ẕīrā olur mübāne-i ehl-i kitāb baḥs̱
Baḫs̱ itme ṣūfi var ḥelāl ü ḥarāmdan
Meclisde olur ise şarāb u kebāb baḥs̱
Añma ḥadīs̱-i Kevs̱er’i billāh zāhidā
Şol bezm içinde kim ola ol lā‘l-i nāb baḥs̱
Baḫs̱ itse n’ola cān ile dil bezm-i ‘ışḳda
İy Fażlī olmaz içil[ür] ise şarāb baḥs̱

In English

1. Is it any wonder if my tearful eye opens a debate on your beauty? Among the astronomers there is debate about the sun.

2. Is it any wonder if the people of love quarrel over your beauty? For among the people of the book there is debate.

3. O Sufi, if wine and kebab are the subject in the gathering, go your way and do not speak of the lawful and the forbidden.

4. O ascetic, for God's sake, do not mention the tradition of Kevser in a gathering where that pure ruby (the lip, or ruby-coloured wine) is discussed.

5. Is it any wonder if soul and heart dispute in the gathering of love? O Fazlî, if wine is drunk, no dispute remains. (The line can also be read as a question: "if wine is drunk, will there not be dispute?")

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün" pattern of the muzâri family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is "baḥs̱" (debate, discussion); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with an Arabic single-word redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-āb" in the words "pür-āb, āfitāb, kitāb, kebāb, nāb, şarāb". In the edition the redif word is written "baḥs̱" in the rhyme position, but "baḫs̱" at the beginning of the third and fifth couplets. In the word "içil[ür]" in the last line the syllable in square brackets is Özkat's addition. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the forty-eighth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 233b) 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 word "baḥs̱" in the redif gives the ghazal the air of a debate in the madrasa, and each couplet says why a debate is unavoidable or needless. The first two couplets justify the debate: just as astronomers debate the sun, so the tearful eye debates the beloved's sun-like beauty; just as there is debate among the people of the book, so the people of love quarrel over beauty. In the first couplet there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "ehl-i nücūm" (astronomers) and "āfitāb" (sun), in the second between "ehl-i kitāb" (people of the book) and "cedel" (disputation); the second couplet also calls to mind lovers who read beauty like a book.

The last three couplets, by contrast, find debate out of place and turn to the Sufi and the ascetic. In the third couplet there is no room for a debate on the lawful and the forbidden in a gathering where wine and kebab are the subject; the line beginning "baḫs̱ itme" (do not debate) uses the redif word this time as a prohibition. In the fourth couplet "lā‘l-i nāb" suggests both a lip like pure ruby and pure red wine; in such a gathering it is out of place for the ascetic to speak of Kevser, the river of paradise. There is an implied comparison between Kevser and wine. In the last couplet the debate is carried over to soul and heart and ends with wine.

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. 311-312, ghazal no. 48 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 233b); also p. 69 (redifs) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources