Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün

Senüñ mihrüñle iy meh sīnem üzre iki dāġum var
Yanar ġam tekye-gāhında iki rūşen çerāġum var
Ṣunarsa kāsesi çerḫüñ ne ġam ben ‘āşıḳa sāḳī
Bugün çün iki destümde iki ṭolu ayaġum var
İki ‘ālemde bir dīdāre ḥayrān ‘āşıḳ-ı pākum
Yeter gül-zār-ı ḥüsnüñ bāġ-ı ‘ālemden ferāġum var
Alup başum ele ben kim temennā eylerüm būseñ
Şarāba giderüm gūyā elümde bir ḳabāġum var
N’ola bāġ-ı cefāña ẕerrece meyl itmesem ṣūfī
Bugün Fażlī gibi çün yār işigünde ṭuraġum var

In English

1. O moon (faced one), through love of you (your sun) I have two brand-scars on my breast; they are my two bright lamps burning in the lodge of grief.

2. Cupbearer, if the sky offers its bowl, what grief is it to me, the lover? Today I have two full cups in my two hands.

3. In both worlds I am a pure lover, lost in wonder at a single face; the rose garden of your beauty is enough, I have given up the garden of the world.

4. I who take my head in my hands and long for your kiss am, as it were, going for wine with a gourd in my hand.

5. O Sufi, what wonder if I have not the slightest inclination for your garden of torment? Today, like Fazlî, I have a place to stand at the beloved's threshold.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün" pattern of the hezec family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is "-um var" (I have); Özkat counts this ghazal among those whose redif is a group made of a suffix and a Turkish word. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-āġ/-aġ" in the words "dāġ, çerāġ, ayaġ, ferāġ, ḳabāġ, ṭuraġ". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the fifty-eighth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 235a) 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

In the first three couplets of the ghazal the number "two" is repeated: two scars on the breast, two lamps in the lodge of grief, two cups in two hands, and the two worlds. This repetition, together with the sound "-āġ" of the rhyme, gives the ghazal a marked cadence; this is our own observation. In the first couplet the word "mihr" means both love and the sun and forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) with "meh" (moon). The "dāġ"s on the lover's breast are the scars burned into the body for love's sake; here these wounds are likened to two lamps burning in the lodge of grief. The image of the dervish lodge and the lamp expresses the pain of love in the language of mystical ordeal.

In the second couplet the sky is imagined as a cupbearer offering the lover a bowl; but since the lover holds two full cups in his two hands, he has no need of the bowl the sky might offer. The word "ayaġ" means both "cup" and "foot". The third couplet speaks of the lover, devoted in both worlds to a single face, giving up the garden of the world; "gül-zār-ı ḥüsn" (the rose garden of beauty) and "bāġ-ı ‘ālem" (the garden of the world) are set against each other. In the fourth couplet the lover likens one who takes his head in his hands and asks for a kiss to one going for wine with a gourd in his hand; a link seems to be drawn between wine being carried in gourd flasks and the head being likened to a gourd, but this is our own interpretation. In the last couplet the Sufi's "garden of torment", that is, the path of asceticism, is compared with the beloved's threshold; for the lover, finding a place to stand at the beloved's threshold surpasses the Sufi's whole garden.

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. 318-319, ghazal no. 58 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 235a); 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