Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ḥasretā derdā efendüm serverüm ḫānum gider
Kim sa‘ādetle yine ol şāh-ı devrānum gider
Künc-i miḥnetde ḳoyup ben ḥaste-i bī-çāresin
Varsın ṣaġ olsun ol derdüme dermānum gider
Gerçi kim ben bundayum ammā ki göñlüm andadur
Her yañe[den] kim benüm ol şāh-ı devrānum gider
Andadur her gün benüm peyk-i ḥayālüm şāma dek
Ḳanḳı menzilden ki ol devletlü sulṭānum gider
Umarum kim ben du‘ācını ferāmūş itmeye
Şimdi kim ol server İskender-i Ḳur’ān’um gider
Ḥaḳ ṣala girü sa‘ādetle irişe ‘an-ḳarīb
Fażliyā ol pādişāh-ı milk-i ‘irfānum gider
İsterüm Ḥaḳ’dan ki üstinde yavuz yil esmeye
Ser-firāz olsun çün ol serv-i ḫırāmānum gider

In English

1. Alas the longing, alas the pain: my lord, my chief, my khan is departing; that shah of the age is (again) departing in felicity.

2. Leaving me, his helpless sick one, in the corner of suffering, (he departs); may he be well, the cure of my pain is departing.

3. Though I am here, my heart is there, in whichever direction that shah of the age goes.

4. From whatever stage that fortunate sultan of mine departs, the courier of my imagination is there every day until evening.

5. Now that that chief, my İskender of the Qur'an, is departing, I hope he will not forget me, his well-wisher.

6. O Fazlî, the padishah of the realm of wisdom is departing; may God bring him back in felicity and may he soon arrive.

7. I ask of God that no ill wind blow over him; since my swaying cypress is departing, may his head be held high.

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 "-um gider" (my ... is departing); 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 "-ān" in the words "ḫān, devrān, dermān, devrān, sulṭān, Ḳur’ān, ‘irfān, ḫırāmān"; the phrase "şāh-ı devrānum" (my shah of the age) serves twice as a rhyme, in the first and third couplets. Unlike most of the ghazals, the pen name (mahlas) appears not in the last couplet but in the sixth, in the form "Fażliyā". The ghazal is the seventy-seventh in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 239a) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. In the word "yañe[den]" in the third couplet the suffix in square brackets is Özkat's addition.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal is a poem of farewell. Every couplet is spoken after someone setting out on a journey, who is called "efendüm" (my lord), "serverüm" (my chief), "ḫānum" (my khan), "şāh-ı devrānum" (my shah of the age), "devletlü sulṭānum" (my fortunate sultan) and "pādişāh-ı milk-i ‘irfān" (padishah of the realm of wisdom). The poet wishes that he may go in felicity, that he may be well, that he may not forget him, that he may soon return in felicity, and that no ill wind may blow over him. The heart's going along with the one who departs and the courier of imagination's being every day at the stage where he halts express the separation in the concrete language of a journey; the words "menzil" (stage) and "peyk" (courier) form a congruence of images (tenasüp) from the field of travel and communication.

"İskender-i Ḳur’ān" in the fifth couplet is an allusion (telmih) to the ruler named in the Qur'an as Dhu'l-Qarnayn and identified in tradition with Alexander; in this way the one being sent off is likened to a great world-conqueror. In the last couplet there is a sudden return to the language of the ghazal: the departing person is called "serv-i ḫırāmān" (the swaying cypress), and it is wished that his head be held high; there is a congruence of images between the tall stature of the cypress and the expression "ser-firāz" (with head held high). The word "yavuz" in "yavuz yil" (ill wind) is used in its Old Turkish sense of "bad".

Historical Context

Özkat says nothing about to whom or on what occasion the ghazal was written. According to Özkat, Fazlî spent more than thirty years of his life as "dîvân kâtibi" (secretary of the council) in the service of three princes of Süleyman the Magnificent. The density of the forms of address in the ghazal suggests that the poem may have been written to bid farewell to a patron rather than to a beloved; it is possible that the person being sent off was one of the princes in whose service Fazlî stood. But this is only an inference; no name or date occurs in the text, and there is no record concerning this ghazal in the sources.

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. 329-330, ghazal no. 77 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 239a); also p. 36 (his poetry and his service as secretary to the princes), p. 69 (redifs) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources