Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Mefā‘ilün Fe‘ilün

İy girān-māye gevher-i yemm-i cūd
Ebr-i luṭfuñla ġarḳdur deryā
Ḥüsn-i ḫulḳuñ cihāna müstevlī
Luṭf u cūduñ zamāna müstevfā
Ṭab‘uñ āyīne-i muṣaffādur
Görinür anda ṣūret-i ma‘nā
Olmaz-idi ser-āmed-i ‘ālem
Elüñ altında olmasa ṭuġrā
Lāyıḳ-ı ‘izz ü rif‘at ü iḳbāl
Müsteḥaḳḳ-ı sa‘ādet-i ‘uẓmā
Ẕāt-ı nīkū-ṣıfat u ‘ālī-şān
Eṣlaḥu’llāhi şānühü ebedā
Dilegüm bu Ḫudā’dan iy Fażlī
Ḳadri günden güne ziyāde ola

In English

1. O precious pearl of the sea of generosity, through the rain of your cloud of grace even the sea is drowned in water.

2. Your fine character has spread over the world; your grace and generosity have given the age its full due.

3. Your nature is a polished, purified mirror; the form of meaning appears in it.

4. Were the tuğra (the imperial monogram) not under your hand, it would not stand at the head of the world as its choicest.

5. You are worthy of honour, eminence and good fortune, and deserving of the greatest felicity.

6. He is a person of fine qualities and lofty dignity; may God exalt his dignity for ever.

7. O Fazlî, this is my wish from God: that his worth may increase day by day.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a kıt'a (fragment) of seven couplets (beyit); only the second lines of the couplets rhyme (deryā, müstevfā, ma‘nā, ṭuġrā …). The metre is "fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün" of the hafif family. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. Like the first, Özkat counts this poem as a "kıt'a-i kebîre", a great kıt'a, written as a eulogy. The kıt'a is found in the Fazlî divan section of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library (fol. 230a) and in miscellany no. 314 of the Âşir Efendi collection in the Süleymaniye Library (fol. 127b).

The second line of the sixth couplet is in Arabic and is printed in Arabic script in the edition. In a footnote Özkat gives the reading of this prayer as "Eṣlaḥu'llāhi şānühü ebedā" and its meaning as "May God make his dignity eternal, exalt it for ever"; the line in the original text has been established according to this footnote.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

In the first couplet the person praised is the pearl of the sea of generosity, and his cloud of grace rains so heavily that it would drown even the sea; there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among sea, pearl and cloud, and hyperbole in the idea of the cloud drowning the sea. In the second couplet the words "müstevlī" (spreading over) and "müstevfā" (complete, in full) are chosen for their closeness of sound, and the two lines are built in parallel. In the third couplet his nature is likened to a polished mirror, and in the mirror appears "ṣūret-i ma‘nā", the form of meaning; the antithesis of form and meaning is the subtlety of the couplet. Özkat counts the phrase "el altında" (under the hand) in the fourth couplet among the idioms Fazlî uses. Because the tuğra was drawn at the head of imperial decrees, mentioning it together with the word "ser-āmed" (that which comes at the head, the choicest) creates a double meaning; this interpretation is our own.

Historical Context

The name of the person praised in the kıt'a is not given. Starting from the fourth couplet, which says that the tuğra is under his hand, Özkat states that the poem was written for a high dignitary of the state. Since drawing the tuğra was the task of the nişancı (the chancellor responsible for the imperial monogram), the couplet brings a nişancı to mind; this, however, is our own inference, and the source does not say who he was. When the kıt'a was written is also unknown.

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. 375-376, kıt'a no. 2 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 230a; Süleymaniye Library, Âşir Efendi 314, fol. 127b); also p. 64 (on the kıt'as), p. 92 (idioms) and pp. 118-119 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources