Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Fitne destin uzadup zülfüñ çü mekre başlar
Nice miskīn ayaġa düşer kesilür başlar
Mezra‘-ı cānda ṣaçaldan fitne tuḫmın beglerüñ
Lāle-veş baġrumda çaḳdı ḳara ḳara başlar
Görinen ṣanma şafaḳ tā çerḫa dek pür oldı ḫūn
Ġarḳa virüp ‘ālemi çeşmümden aḳan yaşlar
Naḳşı yā Rab ol büt-i ḫūbuñ niçe zībā olur
Her feni yazmaḳda ‘āciz ḳaldılar naḳḳāşlar
Başına ṭaş yaġsa yoluñda şu kim yüz döndere
Başum-içün anı [kim] müftī-i ḥüccet ṭaşlar
Yolum urdı rāh-ı ġamda bir ḥarāmī gözlü yār
Āḫiret ḥaḳḳın ḥelāl eyleñ baña yoldaşlar
Fażliyā ‘ālemde gerçi çoḳ güzel seyr eyledüm
Bir güzelde görmedüm bu resme gözler kaşlar

In English

1. When your tress stretches out the hand of mischief and begins (başlar) its trickery, many a wretch falls under foot and heads (başlar) are cut off.

2. Ever since the beauties (lords) sowed the seed of mischief in the field of the soul, jet-black heads (wounds) have burst open in my breast like the tulip.

3. Do not take what you see for the red of dawn; the tears flowing from my eyes have drowned the world and filled it with blood up to the sky.

4. O Lord, how beautiful is the image of that lovely idol, that the painters have failed in every art to depict it.

5. Whoever turns his face away because stones rained on his head on your path, by my head, the mufti stones him with a legal proof (fatwa).

6. On the road of grief a beloved with robber's eyes has waylaid me; companions, forgive me your claims for the hereafter.

7. O Fazlî, I have indeed looked upon many beauties in the world, but in no beauty have I seen such eyes and brows.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven couplets, written in the "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain) is the plural suffix "-lar"; Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a suffix redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-aş" in the words "baş, baş, yaş, naḳḳāş, ṭaş, yoldaş, kaş". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā". The ghazal is the sixty-sixth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 237a) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. The word "[kim]" in the fifth couplet is Özkat's addition. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The opening couplet is built on a pun (cinas): "başlar" at the end of the first line is a verb meaning "begins", while "başlar" at the end of the second is the plural of "baş" (head); when the tress begins its trickery, heads are cut off. This observation is our own. Özkat cites this couplet among the examples of both the idioms "ayağına düşmek" (to fall at someone's feet) and "el uzatmak" (to stretch out one's hand). Thinking of the tress as a tyrant who stirs up mischief and stretches out his hand is common in divan poetry. In the second couplet the beauties sow the seed of mischief in the field of the soul and open black wounds like the tulip in the lover's breast; the dark spot in the middle of the tulip is likened to the scar in the lover's breast.

The third and fourth couplets are Özkat's example of Fazlî's making rhymes of words from different languages in which he perceived a likeness of sound; Özkat cites these two couplets as an example of Turkish-Arabic rhyme: the Turkish "yaş" (tear) rhymes with the Arabic "naḳḳāş" (painter). In the third couplet the redness on the horizon is explained by the bloody tears flowing from the lover's eyes rising to the sky; giving such a reason for the redness of dawn has the character of hüsn-i ta'lil (poetic aetiology). The fourth couplet tells of the painters failing before the beloved's beauty. The fifth couplet is among Özkat's examples of the idioms "başına taş yağmak" (stones raining on one's head) and "yüz döndürmek" (to turn one's face away): whoever turns away on the beloved's path because stones rained on his head deserves to be stoned by the mufti's fatwa. There is derivation (iştikak) between "ṭaş" (stone) and "ṭaşlar" (stones, he stones). In the sixth couplet the beloved with robber's eyes waylays the lover; the words "yol" (road), "rāh" (way), "ḥarāmī" (robber) and "yoldaş" (companion) form a congruence of images (tenasüp), and the lover, like one about to die, asks his companions to forgive him their claims.

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. 323, ghazal no. 66 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 237a); also p. 68 (redifs), p. 70 (rhymes from different languages), pp. 90-92 and 94 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources