Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün
Cemāl-i Ḥaḳḳ’a envār-ı ruḫuñ bürhān-ı sāṭı‘dür
Cemāl-ullah ḫūr-ı şemşīr-i ġamzeñ naṣṣ-ı ḳāṭı‘dür
Ne kim üstine esbāb-ı melāḥatdan müheyyādur
Cemālüñ milket-i ḥüsn içre şāhum Mıṣr-ı cāmi‘dür
Pelās-ı ġam-libās u ḫūşe-i miḥnet yeter tūşe
Reh-i ‘ışḳa sülūk aña müyesserdür ki ḳāni‘dür
O meh her yirde seyr eyler hemān ancaḳ benüm maḥrūm
Ḳamu menzilde ṭāli‘dür baña gülmez ne ṭāli‘dür
Sebelden sürme-i ‘ışḳ-ile çeşm-i cānı pāk eyle
Cemāl-i yārı seyr it ṣūfiyā her yirde lāmi‘dür
Gözüñ aç ḥüsnidür yārüñ niḳāb-ı ḥüsni iy ġāfil
Ki nūr-ı ḥüsnine mihrüñ yine öz nūrı māni‘dür
Çün aṣluñ ‘ışḳdur Fażlī ḳo maḥv itsün vücūduñ ‘ışḳ
Bilürsin ‘āḳıbet eşyā’ yine aṣlına rāci‘dür
In English
1. The lights of your face are a shining proof of the beauty of God; the sun (the gleam) of the sword of your glance is a decisive text (an indisputable proof) of the beauty of God.
2. My king, whatever has been prepared upon it from the means of comeliness (is gathered in you); your beauty, within the realm of loveliness, is a city that gathers all things in itself (an Egypt).
3. A coarse woollen cloak for the garment of grief and an ear of affliction for provision are enough; to set out on the path of love is granted to the one who is content.
4. That moon roams everywhere, only I am deprived; it rises in every station, yet it does not smile on me; what a fortune is this.
5. O Sufi, cleanse the eye of the soul of its clouding with the collyrium of love; behold the beauty of the beloved, (it) shines everywhere.
6. O heedless one, open your eyes; the veil of the beloved's beauty is that beauty itself; for what keeps the sun's light from being seen is again its own light.
7. O Fazlî, since your origin is love, let love efface your being; you know that in the end all things return to their origin.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of seven 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 the suffix "-dür" (is); Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a suffix redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-āi‘" in the words "sāṭı‘, ḳāṭı‘, cāmi‘, ḳāni‘, ṭāli‘, lāmi‘, māni‘, rāci‘"; all the rhyme words are Arabic active participles. In the fourth couplet the word "ṭāli‘" is used twice as a rhyme, in two different senses. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. The ghazal is the eighty-fourth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 240b) 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
The ghazal has a mystical (Sufi) manner of expression: the beloved's beauty is described as the appearance in this world of the beauty of God. Özkat states that in his mystical feelings and thoughts Fazlî was a follower of Riyâzî of Skopje and of the Halveti sheikh Zarîfî Hasan Efendi, and that the poet entered the Halveti order by attaching himself to Zarîfî. The first couplet is built on the terms of proof: "bürhān-ı sāṭı‘" means a shining proof, and "naṣṣ-ı ḳāṭı‘" a decisive text in a religious ruling. Since the word "ḳāṭı‘" means both "decisive" and "cutting", it forms a double entendre (tevriye) with the sword of the glance; "sāṭı‘" (shining) is likewise tied to the words light and sun; this is our own observation. The phrase "Mıṣr-ı cāmi‘" in the second couplet means a great city that gathers everything in itself; the word "Mıṣr" at the same time recalls Egypt, the land of Joseph, who is proverbial for his beauty. This second meaning is our own interpretation.
The third couplet names the simple means of a dervish's life: "pelās" is a coarse woollen cloak, "tūşe" is provision for the road; there is a likeness of sound between "ḫūşe" (ear of grain) and "tūşe". "Sülūk" means entering upon the path of a Sufi order; the poet says that this path is open to the one who is content. In the fourth couplet the beloved is likened to the moon, and an expression is built on the stations (menzil), the moon's lodging places in the sky. The word "ṭāli‘" means "rising" the first time it occurs and "fortune" the second; this pun (cinas) joins in a single word the moon's rising everywhere and its failure to smile on the lover as his fortune. In the fifth couplet "sebel" is an eye disease resembling the clouding of the eye by a film; collyrium (sürme) is known as a remedy good for the eyes. The opening of the eye of the soul with the collyrium of love is tied to the idea that the beauty of God is seen everywhere.
The sixth couplet starts from the fact that one cannot look at the sun because of its own light: the veil that covers the beloved's beauty is that beauty itself. In the last couplet the poet addresses himself and asks that his being be effaced in love; the judgement in the second line, "in the end all things return to their origin", recalls the idea known in Turkish through the saying "her şey aslına rücu eder" (everything returns to its origin). This resemblance 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, pp. 333-334, ghazal no. 84 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 240b); also p. 68 (redifs), pp. 73 and 102 (mystical influences) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
Online sources
