Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Ṣadā-yı nāy-ı tīrüñ iy ḳaşı yā istimā‘ eyler
Anuñ-çün Mevlevī mānend naḫçīrüñ semā‘ eyler
Şarāb-ı būs-ı lā‘lüñden senüñ iy sāḳi mest oldı
Bitüp ḳan-derlere sāġar o şevḳ ile semā‘ eyler
Virüp el merḥabāya sāḳi gelse bezme mey başdan
Getürüp [neş’eyi] yārān ġam u hemme vedā‘ eyler
Göreyin tīz günde uġrasın Ḥaḳḳ’uñ ḳılıcına
Şu kim iy Fażlī tīġından o şāhuñ inḳıṭā‘ eyler

In English

1. O you whose eyebrow is a bow, the prey listens to the sound your arrow makes, like the sound of a ney; that is why it performs the semâ like a Mevlevi dervish (spins as it is struck).

2. O cupbearer, the cup has grown drunk on the wine of the kiss of your ruby lip; with that longing it performs the semâ (goes round from hand to hand). (The meaning of the words "Bitüp ḳan-derlere" at the beginning of the second line is not clear.)

3. If the cupbearer, giving his hand in greeting, comes to the gathering and brings wine anew, the friends find their joy and bid farewell to grief and care.

5. O Fazlî, whoever cuts himself off from the sword of that king, may I see him meet the sword of God before long. (In Özkat's edition this couplet stands fifth; a space was left in the manuscript for the fourth couplet.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) 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 the verb "eyler" (does, performs); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a Turkish word redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-ā‘" in the words "istimā‘, semā‘, vedā‘, inḳıṭā‘". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażlī". The ghazal is the eightieth 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. Özkat numbers the ghazal as five couplets, but leaves the place of the fourth couplet blank with dotted lines and states in a note that a space large enough for one couplet was left in the manuscript. For this reason we have four couplets; in the rendering above the last couplet is shown as the fifth, with its number in Özkat. The word "neş'eyi" (joy) in square brackets in the third couplet is Özkat's addition. It is not known to whom or when it was written.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet is built on images of the hunt. The beloved's eyebrow is a bow; since the shaft of an arrow is made of reed, the flying arrow makes a sound like the ney (reed flute). The prey that hears this sound, spinning round as it is struck, performs the semâ like a Mevlevi dervish. Bow, arrow and prey on the one hand, and ney, semâ and Mevlevi on the other, form two separate clusters of congruent images (tenasüp) that are joined in the couplet. In the second couplet the cup is imagined as having grown drunk because it touched the beloved's lip, and its turning in the gathering is again likened to the semâ. We have not been able to resolve the words "Bitüp ḳan-derlere" at the beginning of the second line of this couplet; the rest of the line says that the cup performs the semâ with longing. The third couplet is a scene of the gathering: when the cupbearer comes and gives his hand and the wine goes round again, the friends bid farewell to grief and care. The phrase "ġam u hemm" (grief and care) is formed of two words of close meaning.

The last couplet is built on the formula of a curse: with the word "göreyin" (may I see) the poet wishes that whoever cuts himself off from the sword of that king may meet the sword of God before long. The king of the couplet may be understood as the beloved, or as a ruler or prince in whose service the poet stood; the source gives no information on this, and both readings are our own interpretation. In the last couplet of the preceding ghazal Fazlî said that he would never be cut off from the sword of love; here, with the same words "tīġ" (sword) and "inḳıṭā‘" (being cut off), he curses those who break away from the sword. This ghazal shares the metre, redif and rhyme, and even the same rhyme words, of ghazal seventy-nine, and stands on the same leaf of the miscellany; this closeness is our own observation.

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. 331, ghazal no. 80 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 239b); 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