Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Libās-ı ‘ışḳı ben geydüm anuñ ḥālini benden ṣor
Bir āteş-pīrehendür anı başından geçenden ṣor
Lebüñ acılarını ḫüsrevā ġayra su’āl itme
Ġam-ı şīrīni bilmek ister iseñ kūh-kenden ṣor
Bahār irdi vü gül geldi cihān reşk-i bihişt oldı
Bugün uçmaġuñ evṣāfını gel mürġ-ı çemenden ṣor
Bu dāġ-ı derd ile ṣaḥrā-yı ġamda lāle-veş iy dil
Şehīd-i dāġ-ı ‘ışḳ olduġumı ḳanlu kefenden ṣor
Gözi öldürdügini dirgürür bir sözle ol ‘Īsī
Ne ḥikmetdür anı Fażlī leb-i şekker-şikenden ṣor

In English

1. It is I who have put on the garment of love; ask me about its state. It is a shirt of fire; ask the one who has had it pass over his head.

2. O sovereign (beloved), do not ask anyone else about the bitterness of your lip; if you wish to know sweet grief (the grief of Şirin), ask the mountain-digger (Ferhad).

3. Spring has come and the rose has opened; the world has become the envy of paradise. Today come and ask the bird of the meadow (the nightingale) about the qualities of paradise.

4. O heart, with this brand of pain, in the desert of grief, ask the bloody shroud whether I, like the tulip, have become a martyr to the brand of love.

5. That Jesus revives with a word whomever his eye has slain; O Fazlî, ask the sugar-breaking lip what wisdom this is.

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 "-den ṣor" (ask ... from); 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 "-en" in the words "ben, geçen, kūh-ken, çemen, kefen, şeker-şiken". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the seventy-first in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 238a) 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

Each couplet of the ghazal counsels asking the truth of something from one who has lived it. In the first couplet love is likened to a garment that is put on and to a shirt of fire. The expression "başından geçmek" has two meanings here: both to experience something and the putting on of a shirt by passing it over one's head; this double entendre (tevriye) is our own observation. In the second couplet there is an allusion (telmih) to the story of Ferhad and Şirin: Ferhad, who dug through a mountain to win Şirin, is called "kūh-ken" (mountain-digger), and the phrase "ġam-ı şīrīn" is understood both as sweet grief and as the grief of Şirin. The contrast between the "bitterness" of the beloved's lip and "şīrīn" (sweet) also enters the couplet.

The third couplet is a picture of spring: the rose has opened, and the world has become such as to outshine paradise; whoever wishes to know the qualities of paradise should ask the nightingale, the bird of the meadows. Here the Turkish word "uçmaḳ" is used for paradise. In the fourth couplet the lover counts himself a martyr of love like the tulip: the tulip's red petals resemble a bloody shroud and the dark spot at its centre the wound opened by love. In the last couplet the beloved is again likened to Jesus: he revives with his word the one he has slain with his eye. The secret of this wisdom lies in the "sugar-breaking" lip, that is, in the sweet speech that puts even sugar to shame. The contrast between the eye's killing and the lip's reviving carries the couplet.

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. 326, ghazal no. 71 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 238a); 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