Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mef‘ūlü Fā‘ilātü Mefā‘īlü Fā‘ilün

Niçün su’ālin eyleme bu kār-ḫāneye
Ṭutma bahāne her nefes ol bī-bahāneye
Ta‘līm eyle nāleñi çeng ü çeġāneye
Bezm-i cihānda sāzuñı düz bu terāneye
Gördüñ zemāne uymadı uy sen zemāneye
Rif‘at viren ahāliye çün dehr-i dūn imiş
Endīşe murġı çeng-i elemde zebūn imiş
Ṭa‘n eylemek fesāne-i dehre füsūn imiş
Da‘vā-yı ‘aḳl u lāf-ı ḫıred hem cünūn imiş
Gördüñ zemāne uymadı uy sen zemāneye
Devrān-ı dehr ṣunmasun ‘aks-i murādumuz
Yazılmadan defātir-i maḳṣūda adumuz
Bu çerḫ-i pür-sitem daḫı virmez murādumuz
Ümmīd budur ki kesmeye Rezzāḳ irādumuz
Gördüñ zemāne uymadı uy sen zemāneye
İy pāy-māl-i ẕillet olan server-i ecel
Maḳṭū‘-ı tīġ-ı ḥırṣ olup kesmeyen emel
Bu sırr-ı nūşı yazdı saña kātib-i ezel
Taḳdīr çünki olmadı taġyīr fi’l-mes̱el
Gördüñ zemāne uymadı uy sen zemāneye
Virmez bu çerḫ-i ‘āḳıle göñlince kāmını
Yazmaz egerçi nāme-i mihrinde nāmını
Aṣḥāb-ı ‘ışḳ kesmedi andan selāmını
İşit semā‘-ı cān ile nāṣıḥ peyāmını
Gördüñ zemāne uymadı uy sen zemāneye
‘Ālem serāyı pür-ġam u künc-i ferāġı yoḳ
Bī-ḫār bir güli yoḳ u bülbülli bāġı yoḳ
Destinde lāle-būy ki anuñ būy-ı dāġı yoḳ
Bundan belīġ sūsen-i bāġuñ belāġı yoḳ
Gördüñ zemāne uymadı uy sen zemāneye
Ol pür-cefā ki eyleye geh geh vefāya nāz
Sen dürr-i eşkden dök ayaġına ṣad niyāz
‘Arż it zebān-ı ḥāl ile yüz dürlü gizlü rāz
Gözden bıraḳdı Fażlī’yi gerdūn-ı dūn-nüvāz
Gördüñ zemāne uymadı uy sen zemāneye

In English

1. Do not ask why this workshop of the world is as it is; do not find excuses at every breath for the one who has no excuse; teach your lament to the harp and the kemancha; in the gathering of the world tune your instrument to this melody: you have seen that the times did not suit you; you suit the times.

2. It is the base world, it seems, that grants people high rank; the bird of thought, it seems, lies helpless in the claw (the harp) of pain; to wag one's tongue at the tale of the world is idle sorcery; the claim of reason and the boast of wisdom are madness too. You have seen that the times did not suit you; you suit the times.

3. May the turning of time not set before us the reverse of our wish; though our name has not been written in the registers of desire, though this cruel wheel does not grant our wish, our hope is that God, the Provider, will not cut off our income. You have seen that the times did not suit you; you suit the times.

4. O exalted one trampled under the foot of humiliation, who, though hacked by the sword of greed, does not cut off his ambition; the scribe of eternity wrote you this secret: as the saying goes, destiny does not change. You have seen that the times did not suit you; you suit the times.

5. This sky does not grant the wise man his wish as his heart desires; though it does not write his name in its letter of love, the people of love have not ceased to greet it; listen with the ear of the soul to the counsellor's word. You have seen that the times did not suit you; you suit the times.

6. The palace of the world is full of grief, it has no corner of ease; it has no rose without a thorn, no garden without a nightingale; in its hand there is no tulip that does not carry the smell of a scar; the iris of the garden has no more eloquent message than this. You have seen that the times did not suit you; you suit the times.

7. At the feet of that cruel one, who now and then plays coy with faithfulness, pour a hundred pleas from the pearls of your tears; set forth a hundred kinds of hidden secrets in the language of your state; the sky that caresses the base has put Fazlî out of its sight. You have seen that the times did not suit you; you suit the times.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a muhammes (five-line stanza poem) of seven stanzas. The muhammes is the musammat form in which every stanza consists of five lines; here, because the last line of each stanza, "Gördüñ zemāne uymadı uy sen zemāneye", is repeated unchanged in all the stanzas, the poem is a "muhammes-i mütekerrir" (muhammes with a refrain). In the first stanza all five lines end in "-āneye" (kār-ḫāneye, bī-bahāneye, çeġāneye, terāneye, zemāneye). In the other stanzas the first four lines rhyme among themselves: "-ūn imiş" (dūn, zebūn, füsūn, cünūn), "-ādumuz" (murādumuz, adumuz, irādumuz), "-el" (ecel, emel, ezel, mes̱el), "-āmını" (kāmını, nāmını, selāmını, peyāmını), "-āġı yoḳ" (ferāġı, bāġı, dāġı, belāġı) and "-āz" (nāz, niyāz, rāz, nüvāz). The metre is the "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün" pattern of the muzari family. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza.

Özkat publishes the poem as the twenty-ninth musammat of the divan. The text rests on fol. 37b of the poetry miscellany no. 1073 in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. The word "irādumuz" (our income) in the fourth line of the third stanza appears in the manuscript as "rūzumuz"; Özkat has corrected it on grounds of metre, meaning and rhyme.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem's subject is the counsel of the refrain: the times do not suit a man, so a man must suit the times. The stanzas set out the reasons for this counsel. The world is a "kār-ḫāne", a workshop in which everything goes on without its causes being questioned; high ranks are dealt out by the "dehr-i dūn" (base world); even the claim of reason counts as madness. In the fourth stanza the words "taḳdīr çünki olmadı taġyīr fi'l-mes̱el" cite as a proverb that destiny does not change. The sixth stanza says with images from nature that the world gives nothing flawless: there is no rose without a thorn, no garden without a nightingale. The image of the tulip in the same stanza rests on the likening of the black spot at the heart of the tulip to a burn scar (dāġ); the iris is spoken of in divan poetry as a flower with tongues yet silent, and is therefore used together with the word "belāġ" (message, eloquent word). The third line of this stanza is obscure and has been rendered by its approximate sense.

There is also a play of sound and sense between the first two stanzas: in the first, "çeng" is the harp to which the lament is to be taught; in the second, "çeng-i elem" is the claw of pain that grips the bird of thought. In the fourth stanza the words "maḳṭū‘-ı tīġ-ı ḥırṣ olup kesmeyen emel" use the verb "to cut" in two senses: the man hacked by the sword of greed does not cut off his ambition. The last stanza turns the counsel into the language of love and advises pleading with the beloved; in the pen-name stanza the sky is called the "gerdūn-ı dūn-nüvāz" (the sky that caresses the base) that has put Fazlî out of its sight.

The Tradition of the Refrain

According to Özkat, it is not known who first wrote the line "Gördüñ zemāne uymadı uy sen zemāneye"; but because the line won great admiration, it led poets, especially in the sixteenth century, to write musammats with this refrain. Fazlî joined them with this poem. In the miscellany containing the muhammes there are also muhammeses carrying the same refrain line by Vâlihî, Şerîfî, Lütfî, Kıyâsî, Kâtibî and Sabûhî. According to Özkat, it is not clear which of these muhammeses is a nazire (response poem) to which.

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. 255-256, musammat no. 29 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine 1073, fol. 37b); also p. 58 (on the muhammeses), p. 102 (the tradition of the refrain) and p. 120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources