Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün

Söyle ey bülbül-i sühan-perdâz
K’açılur sözüñ ile perde-i râz
‘Âlemüñ sen de nükte-dânisen
Bülbül-i gül-şen-i ma‘ânîsen
Yeter ol ġonce gibi beste-dehen
Yine dem ur gül-i ma‘ânîden
Eyle ‘uşşâka nâleñi dem-sâz
Perde-i ‘aşkdan düzet bir sâz
İşidüp Zühre sâzuñ âhengin
Yerlere çala reşkile çengin
Eyle gülden hikâyet-i rengîn
Şâd-mân olsun işiden ġam-gîn
Bülbül-i gül-sitân-ı efsâne
Böyle kılmış beyân-ı efsâne
Ki meger rûzgâr-ı mâzîde
Eltef ü eşref-i arâzîde
Ya‘nî Rûm içre var idi bir şâh
Lutf-ı tab‘ ile hurrem ü dil-hâh
Şâh-ı ferhunde-câh u ferruh-fâl
Nîk-rû nîk-hû vü nîk-hısâl
Cümle ef‘âli i‘tidâl üzre
Hüsn ü hulkı kamu kemâl üzre
Saf-tab‘ u latîf ü rûşen-rây
Dil-güşâ vü zarîf ü rûh-efzây
Bir şehen-şâh idi bülend-vakâr
Adına dirler idi Şâh Bahâr
Âb-ı ‘adliyle tâze rûy-ı cihân
Bâd-ı lutfıyla dehr misl-i cinân
Lutf u ihsân ü cûdile ma‘rûf
‘Adl ü insâf ü dâdile mevsûf
Hükmi âfâka yil gibi sârî
Emri her yirde su gibi cârî
‘Adl ü dâdı misâl-i bâd-ı seher
Eylemiş rûy-ı dehri tâze vü ter
Kimse devrinde eylemez zârî
Meger ancak hezâr-i gül-zârî
Kimse çekmez kimesneye hancer
Gül-şen içre meger ki Sûsen-i ter
Kimse urmaz kimesneye sûzen
Sîne-i Bülbül’e meger ki diken
Kapamaz kimse kimseden efser
Lâle tâcın meger ki bâd-ı seher
Sebzeden yir yüzinde ceyşi füzûn
Hadd ü ‘add ü şümârdan bîrûn
Berg ü bârına hadd ü ‘add yogıdı
Berg-i eşcârdan dahı çogıdı
Yogıdı ‘ayn-ı Nergis-i gül-zâr
Altun üsküflü kullarına şümâr
Biñ sileh-dârı nâr Sûsen-vâr
Cümle jengâr-pûş u hancer-dâr
Serv-i âzâde gibi bâlâ-ser
Kulı biñ ola sancaġını çeker
Hâr-veş tîz-rûy ü tîr-efgen
Nîze-dârı hezâr şîr-efgen
Nice biñ peyki var nesîm-âsâ
Her biri hem-çü ‘ömr ü tâc-rübâ
Burc-ı rif‘atde ahter-i tâbân
Dürc-i devletde gevher-i rahşân
Bâğ-ı ‘ömrinde bir gül açılmış
Hak’dan üstine feyz saçılmış
Bir oğul virmiş aña Hazret-i Hak
Gül gibi bâğ-ı ‘âleme revnak
Adı gül gerçi dahı ter-gonca
Bâğ-ı hüsn içre başlamış gunca

In English

1. Speak, O nightingale, master of words; the veil of the secret is lifted by your speech.

2. You too know the subtleties of the world; you are the nightingale of the rose garden of meanings.

3. Enough of keeping your mouth closed like that bud; speak once more of the rose of meanings.

4. Make your lament a companion to the lovers; tune a lute on the fret of love. ("Perde" means both a musical fret and a veil.)

5. Let Zühre, the planet Venus, hearing the harmony of your lute, dash her harp to the ground from envy.

6. Tell a colourful tale of the rose; let the sorrowful who hear it rejoice.

7. The nightingale of the rose garden of legend has told the legend thus:

8. Once, it seems, in times gone by, in the pleasantest and noblest land of the earth,

9. that is, in the land of Rûm, there was a king, cheerful by the grace of his nature and pleasing to the heart.

10. He was a king of happy station and auspicious fortune, fair of face, fair of temper, fair of qualities.

11. All his deeds were in measure; his beauty and his character were wholly perfect.

12. Pure of nature, gentle and clear of mind, he was one who gladdened the heart, graceful and refreshing to the soul.

13. He was a king of kings of lofty dignity; they called him King Spring (Bahar Şah).

14. By the water of his justice the face of the world was fresh; by the breeze of his kindness the age was like Paradise.

15. He was known for kindness, beneficence and generosity, and renowned for justice, fairness and equity.

16. His decree spread to the horizons like the wind; his command flowed everywhere like water.

17. Like the morning breeze, his justice had made the face of the world fresh and green.

18. In his reign no one wailed, save only the nightingale of the rose garden.

19. No one drew a dagger on another, save the fresh lily in the rose garden. (The leaves of the lily are likened to daggers.)

20. No one pricked another with a needle, save the thorn the nightingale's breast.

21. No one snatched another's crown, save the morning breeze the tulip's crown.

22. His army of verdure upon the face of the earth was vast, beyond limit, number and count.

23. Its leaves and fruits had no limit or number; they were more even than the leaves of the trees.

24. Not even the eye of the narcissus of the rose garden could count his gold-capped servants. (The yellow crown of the narcissus is likened to a golden cap and its flower to an eye. The line can also be read: "there was no count of his gold-capped servants, who were the very narcissi of the rose garden".)

25. He had a thousand sword-bearers, fire-coloured and lily-like, all clad in verdigris green and bearing daggers. (The word "nār" can be read as "fire" or as "pomegranate blossom".)

26. A thousand servants with heads held high like the free cypress bore his banner.

27. He had a thousand lancers, hard of face like the thorn and shooting arrows, all of them lion-slaying heroes.

28. He had many thousand couriers like the breeze; each passed swiftly as life itself and snatched crowns.

29. He was a shining star in the tower of loftiness, a gleaming jewel in the casket of fortune.

30. In the garden of his life a rose had opened; abundance from God had been showered upon it.

31. Almighty God had given him a son, who lent splendour to the garden of the world like a rose.

32. His name was Rose (Gül), though he was still a fresh bud; in the garden of beauty he had begun to blossom.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This text is a passage of thirty-two couplets (beyit) from Fazlî's mesnevi Gül ü Bülbül. The mesnevi is a verse form in which each couplet rhymes within itself, which makes it suitable for long narratives; here too the rhyme changes from couplet to couplet: perdāz/rāz, dānīsen/ma‘ānīsen, şāh/dil-hāh. The metre is "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" of the hafif family of aruz; Mustafa Özkat and the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi report that the whole work is written in this metre. The text is given as it was taken, under the heading "Eserlerinden Örnekler" (Examples from his Works), from Gencay Zavotçu's book Bir Şair-Bir Klasik: Fazlî-Gül ü Bülbül into the entry "Fazlî" of the Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü (Dictionary of Names in Turkish Literature). This spelling marks only long vowels and the letter ayn.

At the head of the passage stands the title "Bu Dāstān-ı Dil-sitānuñ Mebde’ vü Maṭla‘ı ve Bu Efsāne-i Pür-füsūn u Sa‘ādet-nümūnuñ Menşe’ vü Menba‘ıdur", that is, this section is the beginning of this heart-stealing tale and the source of this enchanting legend. According to the summary based on Nezahat Öztekin's edition, the work opens with sections of basmala, praise of God's unity, supplication, praise of the Prophet, the Prophet's ascension, the occasion of composition and the praise of Şehzade Mustafa, and the story proper begins after these. This passage contains the first couplets of that transition. The couplet numbers belong to this selection; the number showing its place in the edition is not given in TEİS.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The first seven couplets of the passage enter the story by addressing the nightingale. This nightingale is the poet's own voice, "the nightingale of the rose garden of meanings"; but since the hero of the mesnevi is also the Nightingale, there is a double entendre (tevriye) in the address. The word "perde" in the fourth couplet denotes both the fret of music and the veil of the secret; in the fifth couplet the planet Venus, regarded as the musician of the sky, dashing her harp to the ground from envy is a hyperbole (mübalağa). In the seventh couplet the narrator changes, and "the nightingale of the rose garden of legend" begins to tell the story.

The story begins with the word "meğer", the familiar opening of fairy tales and folk stories, and introduces a ruler named King Spring in the land of Rûm. King Spring's justice is described through the qualities of the season of spring: the water of his justice refreshes the face of the world, the breeze of his kindness turns the age into Paradise, his decree spreads like the wind and his command flows like water. Between the eighteenth and twenty-first couplets the same pattern is repeated four times: no one wails, draws a dagger, pricks with a needle or snatches a crown; only the nightingale, the lily, the thorn and the morning breeze do these things. In this way the absence of all oppression from a land is described by presenting the natural states of the flowers and birds of the garden as the only exceptions. This chain of repetition (tekrir) and personification (teşhis) also hints that King Spring's land is in fact a rose garden. After the twenty-second couplet the greenery is personified as an army: the narcissi are gold-capped servants, the lilies dagger-bearing sword-bearers, the cypresses standard-bearers, the thorns lancers, the breezes couriers.

At the end of the work Fazlî explains that each of these figures has a meaning. According to the explanation Öztekin quotes, King Spring is reason, his son the Rose is the soul, the city of Gülşen is the human body, the Nightingale the heart, the Breeze breath, the Narcissus insight, the Lily valour, the Cypress the path of the heart, the Hyacinth envy, and the Thorn pride and rancour. For this reason the just reign of King Spring represents a balanced state in which reason governs the body, and his son the Rose, born in the last couplets, represents the soul.

Historical Context

Gül ü Bülbül was written in the years when Fazlî was Şehzade Mustafa's divan secretary in Amasya, and was completed and presented to the prince in 960 (1553). According to the summary Özkat quotes, in the section on the occasion of composition an old friend tells the poet to write a work in the name of the learned, witty and virtuous Şehzade Mustafa, so that both the prince's name and his own will live until the Day of Judgement, and advises him to tell of the nightingale's love for the rose. The poet dedicates the work to Mustafa, whom he calls "the son of the padishah of the world", and praises him. There are two copies of the work made in 960. Joseph von Hammer published the text with a German translation in 1834, and E. J. W. Gibb wrote that the work is original in turning the rose-and-nightingale story into a complete allegorical romance. That the story is set in the land of Rûm and tells of a king praised for his justice and his young son may be considered together with the fact that the work was presented to a prince; but there is no interpretation in the sources that King Spring and the Rose allude to particular persons.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Academic studies

Books

  • Gencay Zavotçu, "Fazlî", Türk Edebiyatı İsimler Sözlüğü, 2013 (updated 2020), "Eserlerinden Örnekler", https://teis.yesevi.edu.tr/madde-detay/fazli; source of the text: Gencay Zavotçu, Bir Şair-Bir Klasik: Fazlî-Gül ü Bülbül, Erzurum: Atatürk University Faculty of Science and Letters Publications, 2005.

Online sources