Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Baġruma çeksem diyü sen servi bir kez tīr-veş
Ḫam olup ḳaddi ‘aṣāya düşdi ḳavsüñ pīr-veş
Nīze gibi ser-keş olma tīz olup şemşīr-veş
Yā gibi ehl-i tevāżu‘ müstaḳīm ol tīr-veş
Ḳanı ol devlet ki bir tīr urasın şāhā baña
Döne döne şevḳ ile cānum virem naḫçīr-veş
‘Işḳ esīri olduġum-çün ol zenaḫdān u bu zülf
Ḳoçdı zindān gibi düşdi boynuma zencīr-veş
Bir adım kehf-i vefādan ṭaşra baṣmayam ḳadem
Fażliyā pāyum şikest olsa eger Ḳıṭmīr-veş

In English

1. So that I might once draw you, that cypress, to my breast like an arrow, the stature of the bow bent double like an old man's and fell upon a staff. (The bending bow is the lover's own body.)

2. Do not rear your head like a lance, do not grow keen and wrathful like a sword; be humble like the bow and upright like the arrow.

3. My king, where is the good fortune of your shooting an arrow at me? (If you did,) I would give up my soul with longing, spinning round like game.

4. Because I am the captive of love, that dimpled chin embraced me like a dungeon, and this tress fell upon my neck like a chain.

5. O Fazlî, even if my foot were broken like Qitmir's, I would not take a single step outside the cave of faithfulness.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a ghazal (gazel) of five 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 the suffix "-veş", meaning "like" in Persian; Özkat counts this ghazal among those with a Persian word redif. The rhyme is formed by the sound "-īr" in the words "tīr, pīr, şemşīr, naḫçīr, zencīr, Ḳıṭmīr"; the word "tīr" (arrow) rhymes twice, in the opening couplet and in the second couplet. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet in the form "Fażliyā". The ghazal is the ninety-ninth in Özkat's edition and is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 243a) 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 written in the same metre, redif and rhyme as ghazal ninety-eight, which precedes it in the edition; in both ghazals the words "tīr", "şemşīr", "naḫçīr", "zencīr" and "Ḳıṭmīr" are rhymes, both end with Qitmir, the dog of the Companions of the Cave, and both stand on the same leaf of the miscellany. This closeness is our own observation; the source does not state whether the two ghazals are response poems to each other.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first couplet rests on a movement of archery: as the archer draws the string, he pulls the arrow towards his breast. The phrase "baġra çekmek" here describes both drawing the arrow to the breast and embracing someone; this double entendre (tevriye) is our own observation. While the lover wishes to draw to his breast the beloved, straight as an arrow and tall as a cypress, his own stature has bent like a bow, and he has become an old man in need of a staff. It is not clear whether the word "ḳavsüñ" in the line should be read as "of the bow" or "of your bow". The second couplet is a counsel that draws moral lessons from weapons: the lance rears its head, the sword is keen; the bow bends, while the arrow is straight. The antithesis between the bow's curve and the arrow's straightness says that humility and honesty can be found together; this is our own interpretation.

In the third couplet the lover counts it good fortune to be struck by the beloved's arrow and wishes to give up his soul spinning round like stricken game. In the fourth couplet there is the figure of leff ü neşr (enumeration followed by matching items): in the first line "zenaḫdān" (dimpled chin) and "zülf" (tress) are named, and in the second line "zindān" (dungeon) and "zencīr" (chain) correspond to them in order. The likening of the dimple of the chin to a well, and so to a dungeon, is a familiar image in divan poetry; there is also a likeness of sound between "zenaḫdān" and "zindān". "Ḳoçmak" (to embrace) is an old Turkish verb. The last couplet again alludes to the story of the Companions of the Cave told in the Sura of the Cave: like Qitmir, the faithful dog waiting at the threshold of the cave, the lover will not leave the cave of faithfulness.

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. 342-343, ghazal no. 99 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 243a); 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