Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

Dökdi ḳanum çeşm-i ḫūn-rīz el-ġıyās̱
Aldı cānum ġamze-i tīz el-ġıyās̱
Nūş ider mey gibi her-dem gözlerüñ
Eylemez ḳanuma perhīz el-ġıyās̱
Göñlümi bir ḳılda aṣup bend ider
Zülf-i dil-bend ü dil-āvīz el-ġıyās̱
‘Āşıḳın ḳatl itmek içün eylemiş
Ġamzesi şemşīrini tīz el-ġıyās̱
Göñlümi meftūn idüpdür Fażliyā
Bend-i zülf-i ‘anber-āmīz el-ġıyās̱

In English

1. The blood-shedding eye has shed my blood, help; the keen glance has taken my life, help.

2. Your eyes drink my blood like wine at every moment; they never abstain from my blood, help.

3. The heart-binding, heart-ensnaring tress hangs my heart on a single hair and binds it, help.

4. To slay the lover, his glance has whetted its sword and made it keen, help.

5. O Fazlî, the bond of the amber-scented tress has made my heart its captive, help.

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); since each line has only three feet, its movement is short and quick. The redif (refrain word) is "el-ġıyās̱", an Arabic cry for help (help, mercy); Özkat names this ghazal as the only one with an Arabic word-group redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-īz" in the words "ḫūn-rīz, tīz, perhīz, dil-āvīz, tīz, ‘anber-āmīz". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā". The ghazal is the forty-ninth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 234a) 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

All the couplets of the ghazal present the features of the beloved's beauty as enemies attacking the lover, and each couplet ends with a cry for help. In the first couplet the eye sheds blood and the glance takes life; in the second the eyes drink the lover's blood like wine. The word "perhīz" here denotes both abstaining from drink and refraining from blood; likening blood to wine on account of their colour is a frequent pairing in divan poetry. In the fourth couplet the glance is like an executioner whetting his sword. This relation between eye, glance and sword rests on familiar conventional images in which the eyelash is thought of as an arrow and the look as a sword.

The third and fifth couplets are given to the tress. In the third the tress hangs the heart on a single hair and binds it; the words "aṣmak" (to hang), "bend" (bond), "dil-bend" (heart-binding) and "dil-āvīz" (heart-hanging, heart-alluring) support one another, coming from the same root and the same field of meaning. There is also a congruence of images (tenasüp) between "kıl", the single hair, and the tress. In the last couplet the amber scent of the tress is named and the heart's captivity is tied to that scent. In "ġamze-i tīz" (the keen glance) in the first couplet and "şemşīrini tīz eylemiş" (has made its sword keen) in the fourth, the same word is used twice as a rhyme; this is our own observation. The ghazal shares the same metre and the same cry for help with the next ghazal; Özkat states that ghazal fifty is a nazire to Ahmed Paşa, but indicates no such relation for this one.

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. 312, ghazal no. 49 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 234a); 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