Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Āb-ı Ceyḥūn eyler imiş çeşm-i giryān ile baḫs̱
Ḳaṭre-i kūr ḳaṣd ider itmege ‘ummān ile baḫs̱
Başını ezmek gerek dad almaġ içün şekkerüñ
Kelle giçüp eyler imiş lā‘l-i cānān ile baḫs̱
Yüz ḳarasın ḥaṣıl idüp iy göñül müşg-i Ḫoten
Ḳaṣd idermiş ḳılmaġa zülf-i perīşān ile baḫs̱
Başını kes şem‘-i bezmüñ iy göñül dil çıḳmasun
Eyler-imiş germ olup ol māh-ı tābān ile baḫs̱
Ehl-i dil sābāş ider her-dem kemāl-i naẓmına
Şi‘r-i Fażlī ideli güftār-ı Selmān ile baḫs̱

In English

1. The water of the Oxus, it seems, dares to compete with my weeping eye; a blind (worthless) drop intends to dispute with the ocean.

2. Sugar's head must be crushed to get its taste; for it has overstepped itself (kelle geçmek) and, it seems, disputes with the ruby lip of the beloved.

3. O heart, the musk of Khotan, having earned a black face (disgrace), has, it seems, set out to dispute with the dishevelled tress.

4. O heart, cut off the head of the candle of the gathering so that it puts out no tongue; it has grown heated and, it seems, disputes with that shining moon (the beloved).

5. Ever since Fazlî's poetry has competed with the words of Selmân, the people of the heart praise the perfection of his verse at every moment.

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). The redif (refrain word) is the phrase "ile baḫs̱" (disputing with); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a Turkish-Arabic word-group redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ān" in the words "giryān, ‘ummān, cānān, perīşān, tābān, Selmān". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the fifty-first in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 234b) 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 work out the same idea: everything that sets out to measure itself against a quality of the lover or the beloved is defeated. The river Oxus (Ceyhun) tries to compete with the lover's tears, sugar with the beloved's lip, the musk of Khotan with the tress, the candle of the gathering with the beloved's moon-like face. The "imiş" (it seems, reportedly) endings before the redif make these claims sound like things heard about and to be wondered at. In the first couplet the Oxus is likened to a drop and the tears to an ocean; the contrast between drop and ocean shows how absurd the claim is.

The second couplet appears in three places in Özkat's study. Özkat gives the expressions "başını ezmek" (to crush someone's head) and "kelle geçmek" in this couplet among his examples of idioms; for "kelle geçmek" he gives the meaning "dalga geçmek" (to mock, to make fun) and notes that it is one of the few idioms used by Fazlî that are forgotten or little known today. A connection of the word "kelle" (head) with "kelle şekeri", a loaf of sugar, may also be considered: sugar is tasted by crushing its head, and crushing the head of the sugar that competes with the beloved's lip is also a punishment; this is our own inference. In the third couplet the black colour of the musk of Khotan is turned into a disgrace through the idiom "yüz karası" (a black face, shame); Özkat counts this couplet among the examples of that idiom. Likening black, fragrant musk to the tress is a familiar convention; here the musk has come off with a black face because it set out to compete with the tress.

In the fourth couplet the flame of the candle is likened to a tongue and its wick to a head: cutting off the candle's head means trimming its wick, so that the candle can "put out no tongue". The candle's competing with the moon-like beloved is a claim to light. In the last couplet the competition turns to the poet himself, but this time he is the winner: Fazlî's poetry has competed with the words of Selmân, and the people of the heart cry "şâbâş" (bravo) at the perfection of his verse. The name Selmân may be taken to refer to Selmân-ı Sâvecî, the well-known poet of Persian; this is our own inference, as Özkat offers no comment on the 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. 313-314, ghazal no. 51 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 234b); also p. 69 (redifs), pp. 86-87 (forgotten idioms), pp. 91, 93 and 94 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources