Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Al geymiş dīde-i ‘āşıḳ gibi ol ġamze-kār
Ṭurfatü’l-yümn içre ger ḳanlar dökerse vechi-vār
Allar geyse içine ṭaşına ben bülbülüñ
Ḫūn-ı dilden al ider ol gül derūnın lāle-vār
Allar gey kim baḳıcaḳ gül yüzüñüñ alına
Alına ben bülbülüñ gibi saña iy gül hezār
Naḫl-i güldür ḥüsn bāzārını tezyīn eylemiş
Allarla ḳāmetüñ iy serv-ḳadd ü gül-‘iẕār
Ḳāmetüñ iy serv-i ra‘nā ol libās-ı alda
Bir elifdür rāstī ḳan içre olmış āşikār
Kim bilür kim ḳullarınuñ ḳanḳısını öldürür
Allar geymiş bugün gördüm yine ol şehr-yār
Cümle beyti al cāmuñ vaṣfıdur iy lāle ḫumār
Fażlī’nüñ bu şi‘rine dirsem ‘aceb mi lāle-zār

In English

1. That coquettish one has put on red, like the lover's eye; if he sheds blood within "Ṭurfatü'l-yümn", he has every right. (What the phrase "Ṭurfatü'l-yümn" describes here is not clear.)

2. If that rose puts on red, it dyes me, the nightingale, within and without with the blood of the heart, red like the tulip.

3. Put on red, so that, looking at the red of your rose face, O rose, I too may be taken in by you like the nightingale.

4. O cypress-statured, rose-cheeked one, your stature dressed in red is a rose sapling that has adorned the market of beauty.

5. O lovely cypress, your stature in that red garment is truly an elif (the letter) that has appeared amid blood.

6. Who knows which of his slaves he will kill? Today I saw that sovereign dressed in red again.

7. O tulip-like languid one, all the couplets (of this poem) describe your red cup; what wonder if I call this poem of Fazlî's a tulip garden?

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). It has no redif; Özkat counts this ghazal among those with rich rhyme. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ār" in the words "ġamze-kār, vechi-vār, lāle-vār, hezār, gül-‘iẕār, āşikār, şehr-yār, lāle-zār". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the seventy-eighth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 239b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

This ghazal is one of those cited most often in Özkat's study. Özkat counts it among Fazlî's yek-âhenk ghazals; yek-âhenk is the name given to ghazals all of whose couplets treat the same subject with equal force and in the same manner of expression. Indeed, all seven couplets of the ghazal describe the beloved's wearing of red.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

According to Özkat, in this ghazal Fazlî, drawing on the punning use of the word "al", repeats the expression "al (red) giymek" (to wear red) in every couplet, turns the poem into something like a rose garden, and shows the importance he gives to expression as well as to meaning. The word is used in several senses in the ghazal: the colour red, a red garment, and, in the third couplet, the verb "to be taken in, deceived" in the word "alına". In the third couplet "alına" occurs twice: the first time meaning "to the red of your rose face", the second meaning "let me be deceived"; the word "hezār" also means both "nightingale" and "thousand". The colour red, combined with rose, tulip, blood and wine, gathers all the images of the ghazal round a single colour.

Özkat cites the third and sixth couplets of the ghazal as examples showing that the features of the "Türkî-i Basit" (plain Turkish) movement, which arose at the end of the fifteenth century as a reaction against the strong influence of Persian literature, can also be found in Fazlî's manner of expression; he also names the sixth couplet among his couplets of plain expression. In the couplet "Kim bilür kim ḳullarınuñ ḳanḳısını öldürür / Allar geymiş bugün gördüm yine ol şehr-yār" there is indeed not a single Arabic or Persian compound. In the fifth couplet the beloved's upright stature is likened to the letter elif; in the red garment this elif seems to have appeared amid blood. The last couplet is one that Özkat cites among Fazlî's remarks on his own poetry: according to Özkat, the poet likens this poem, which he built on the punning use of the word "al", to a "lâle-zâr" (tulip garden). A garden full of red tulips is an apt image for a ghazal in each of whose couplets the colour red is named. The word "cām" in this couplet means "cup"; since the subject of the poem is a red garment, a closeness of sound with the word "câme", meaning "garment", may be sensed, but this is our own interpretation.

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. 330, ghazal no. 78 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 239b); also p. 42 (his remarks on his own poetry), pp. 44 and 64 (Türkî-i Basit and yek-âhenk ghazals), p. 69 (rhyme), p. 112 (manner of expression) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources