Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Her ḳaçan dil yā ḳılup ḳaddini āhın tīr ider
Deşt-i miḥnetde belā āhūların naḫçīr ider
İki sā‘at çeşmüme görinmese ol māh-ı rev
Eşk ü āhum aramaḳdan yiri gögi bir ider
Ḥall idüp her-dem sevād-ı çeşmi naḳḳāş-ı ḫayāl
Levḥa-i dilde ṣanemler ṣūretin taṣvīr ider
Küfr-i zülfin ol bütüñ her kim ki īmān bilmeye
Dīni içün müfti-i ‘uşşāḳ anı tekfīr ider
Çıḳsa ḳaddüñ yādına āhum elif-veş ṭoġrulup
Āsmān-ı aṭlas aña başı üzre yir ider
Dilkülenme herkese nūş eyle ṭavşan ḳanı mey
Gürbe ṣūfī mūşek iken kārı nice şīr ider
Fażlī’nüñ rüsvāy u bed-nām olduġın ‘ayb eyleme
Çünki iy ṣūfī bilürsin her işi taḳdīr ider

In English

1. Whenever the heart bends its stature into a bow and makes its sigh an arrow, it hunts the gazelles of affliction in the desert of suffering.

2. If that moving moon does not appear to my eye for two hours, my tears and sighs, searching for him, turn earth and sky upside down.

3. The painter of imagination at every moment dissolves the black of his eye (as ink) and depicts the forms of idols (beauties) on the tablet of the heart.

4. Whoever does not hold the unbelief of that idol's tress to be faith, the mufti of lovers declares him an unbeliever for his religion.

5. When my sigh, recalling your stature, rises upright like the letter elif, the satin sky gives it a place above its head.

6. Do not play the fox with everyone; drink wine the colour of hare's blood. How can the cat of a Sufi, while still a mouse, do the work of a lion?

7. O Sufi, do not reproach Fazlî for being disgraced and ill-famed; for you know that destiny decrees every deed.

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 word) is "ider" (does, makes); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a Turkish single-word redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-īr/-ir" in the words "tīr, naḫçīr, bir, taṣvīr, tekfīr, yir, şīr, taḳdīr". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the sixty-ninth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 237b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. According to Özkat's note, the word "mūşek" in the sixth couplet appears in the manuscript in a different spelling. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet opens with a hunting scene: the heart makes its bent stature a bow and its sigh an arrow and hunts the gazelles of affliction in the desert of suffering. The words "yā" (bow), "tīr" (arrow), "deşt" (desert), "āhū" (gazelle) and "naḫçīr" (game) form a congruence of images (tenasüp); there is also a likeness of sound between "āh" (sigh) and "āhū" (gazelle). In the second couplet, if the beloved does not appear for two hours, the lover's tears and sighs turn earth and sky into one; Özkat gives this couplet as an example of the idiom "yeri göğü bir etmek" (to make earth and sky one, to move heaven and earth). The tears' going to the earth and the sigh's rising to the sky bring the idiom to life in its literal sense as well. In the third couplet imagination is a painter; it dissolves the black of the eye like ink and draws the forms of beauties on the tablet of the heart. The word "sevād" means both the black of the pupil and the black of writing.

The fourth couplet is built on the contrast between unbelief and faith and rests on the convention in divan poetry that the tress is "unbelief" (küfr): the mufti of lovers declares an unbeliever whoever does not hold the unbelief of the beloved's tress to be faith. In the fifth couplet the lover's sigh, recalling the beloved's stature, rises upright like the letter elif, and the satin sky gives it a place above its head. Özkat counts this couplet among the examples of the idiom "baş üstünde yer vermek" (to give someone a place above one's head, to honour). The word "aṭlas" is known both as the name of the highest sphere of heaven and as a precious fabric (satin).

The sixth couplet is one of Özkat's examples of the figure of congruence (tenasüp) and appears in two places in his study. In the couplet there is a series built of animal names: "dilkü" (fox), "ṭavşan" (hare), "gürbe" (cat), "mūş" (mouse) and "şīr" (lion). "Dilkülenmek", to play the fox, means to be sly; hare's blood describes the colour of the wine. The Sufi is likened to a cat; but while he is still as small as a mouse, he sets out to do a lion's work. The couplet is a mocking remark belittling the Sufi's ostentatious asceticism. In the last couplet the lover's disgrace is tied to destiny, and the Sufi is reminded that he knows destiny decrees every deed.

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. 325, ghazal no. 69 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 237b); also pp. 45 and 83 (figures of speech), p. 69 (redifs), pp. 91 and 93 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources