Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilün

İy ḳamer ḳulle-i çerḫ olmaz idi pāye saña
Ṣalmasa luṭf ile ol mihr-i cihān sāye saña
Būsesini alımazduñ yalıñuz cān ile sen
Ser daḫı iy dil eger olmasa sermāye saña
Ḫvān-ı şādī senüñ aşuñ degül olma ṭāma‘
İy dil-i ḫaste yeter ni‘met-i ġam vāye saña
Böyle şīrīn neden olduñ meger iy ṭıfl-ı laṭīf
Cān-ı şīrīn yidürür süd yirine dāye saña
Zīnetüñ yoġ ise zāhirde libās ile n’ola
Fażliyā ḥüsn-i kelām oldı çü pīrāye saña

In English

1. O moon, had that sun of the world not graciously cast its shade upon you, the summit of the sky would not have been a step (a rank) for you.

2. O heart, had you not had your head too as capital, you could not have bought one kiss of his with your soul alone.

3. O sick heart, the table of joy is not your food, do not covet it; the bounty of grief is provision enough for you.

4. O delicate child, how did you become so sweet? Your nurse feeds you sweet life instead of milk.

5. O Fazlî, what matter if you have no outward ornament of clothing; fine speech has become your adornment.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five couplets, written in the "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün" pattern of the remel family of aruz (quantitative metre). The redif (refrain word) is "saña" (to you); the rhyme is formed by the sound "-āye" in the words "pāye, sāye, sermāye, vāye, dāye, pīrāye". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā". The ghazal is the seventh 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. According to Özkat, 83 of the 124 ghazals that have come down complete have five couplets like this one; Fazlî did not write long (mutavvel) ghazals. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

As often in the divan ghazal, the couplets address different listeners: the moon in the first couplet, the heart in the second and third, the beloved in the fourth, and the poet himself in the last. What unites them is the structure by which, through the word "saña" (to you) in the redif, each couplet says that something has or has not been given to someone.

The first couplet is an example of hüsn-i talil (fanciful aetiology). The moon's rising to the summit of the sky is attributed to the beloved, the "sun of the world", graciously casting his shade upon it. The sun's casting a shade is a paradox in itself; but the idiom "sāye ṣalmak" (to cast one's shade) is used in Ottoman poetry in the sense of granting protection, and Özkat counts this couplet among the examples of the idiom. The thought that the moon takes its light from the sun also stands in the background of the couplet. "Ḳulle" (summit), "pāye" (step, rank) and "çerḫ" (sky) form a congruence of images (tenasüp).

The second couplet uses the language of trade: one kiss of the beloved cannot be bought with the soul alone; the "ser" (head) is also needed as capital. In the third couplet the heart is told to give up hope of the table of joy and be content with the bounty of grief; the words "ḫvān" (table), "aş" (food), "ni‘met" (bounty) and "vāye" (provision, portion) form a congruence of images. In the fourth couplet the beloved is called "ṭıfl-ı laṭīf" (delicate child); his sweetness is attributed to his nurse feeding him "cān-ı şīrīn" (sweet life) instead of milk. The word "şīrīn" stands both for the beloved's sweetness and for the idiom "tatlı can" (sweet life, one's dear life). In the closing couplet the poet makes up for his lack of the ornament of dress with the beauty of speech; the words "zīnet" (ornament), "libās" (clothing) and "pīrāye" (adornment) again stand in a congruence of images.

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. 287-288, ghazal no. 7 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 217b); also pp. 61-62 (on the ghazals), p. 93 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources