Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ūlün Fe‘ūlün Fe‘ūlün Fe‘ūl

Gülersin ben itdükçe şekvā saña
Gelür gibi ḥālüm temāşā saña
Düş oldı baña görmek uyḫu yüzin
Yüzüñ gördi ṭuş oldı göz tā saña
Ne yirde ki Mecnūn u Leylī dinür
Kifāyetdür ol ya baña ya saña
Güzellerde olur didümse vefā
O söz ġayradur ṣanma şāhā saña
Birūnumda dāġ u derūnumda ġam
Didüm ḥāli pinhān u peydā saña
Yüzüñ şem‘ine yandı pervāne dil
Velī yanduġından ne pervā saña
Cihāndan teberrā idüpdür ḳamu
Çü Fażlī ḳalupdur tevellā saña

In English

1. Whenever I complain to you, you laugh; my state seems to you like a spectacle.

2. To see the face of sleep has become a dream for me; my eye saw your face and from that moment has been caught on you. (The couplet rests on the likeness of sound between "düş" (dream) and "ṭuş" (chance meeting); the sense of the second line is not wholly clear.)

3. Wherever the names of Mecnun and Leyla are spoken, that name suffices for either me or you (I am Mecnun, you are Leyla).

4. If I said "there is faithfulness in beauties", O shah, that word is meant for others; do not think I said it of you.

5. A scar outside me, grief within: I have told you both the hidden and the open part of my state.

6. The moth of the heart has burned in the candle of your face; but what do you care that it burned?

7. Everyone has shunned the world, for Fazlî has remained devoted (only) to you. (The couplet can also be read: "Fazlî has shunned the whole world, for he has remained devoted only to you.")

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets, written in the "fe‘ūlün fe‘ūlün fe‘ūlün fe‘ūl" pattern of the mütekarib family of aruz (quantitative metre). This short pattern gives the ghazal a plain and flowing utterance. The redif (refrain word) is "saña" (to you); the rhyme is formed by the sound "-ā/-a" in the words "şekvā, temāşā, tā, ya, şāhā, peydā, pervā, tevellā". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the sixth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 217b) 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

According to Özkat, love is foremost among the subjects treated in Fazlî's ghazals; longing for the beloved, the wish for union and the beloved's faithlessness are constantly stressed within this frame. This ghazal too is a short, reproachful speech addressed to an indifferent beloved. In the first couplet the beloved laughs at the lover's complaints and watches his state like a "temāşā" (spectacle). This indifference appears again in the sixth couplet: the moth of the heart has burned in the candle of the face, but what does the beloved care. The candle and the moth are among the best-known motifs of divan poetry; here a pun (cinas) is also formed between the words "pervāne" (moth) and "pervā" (care).

The second couplet rests on a play of sound: "düş" (dream) and "ṭuş" (chance meeting, encounter) are close in sound. For the lover sleep has become a dream, that is, he has been left sleepless; while the eye has chanced upon the beloved's face. In the third couplet there is an allusion to the story of Leyla and Mecnun: wherever these names are spoken, they suffice for the lover and the beloved. The fourth couplet is a subtle reproach: if the lover has said "there is faithfulness in beauties", he says that this word does not include the beloved; thus he names the beloved's faithlessness in the guise of praise.

The fifth couplet is an example of leff ü neşr (parallel arrangement) and contrast: "birūn" (outside) and "derūn" (inside), "pinhān" (hidden) and "peydā" (open) are compared; the scar outside is open, the grief within hidden. In the last couplet "teberrā" (shunning) and "tevellā" (devotion, holding as friend) are two terms used together in religious language, and here they form a contrast. The lover has turned away from everything and remained devoted only to the beloved.

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. 287, ghazal no. 6 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 217b); also pp. 61-62 (on the ghazals) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources