Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün

Ḳanadum altına ‘anḳā gibi biñ kūh-sār aldum
İçinde pençe-i ḳahr ile kebg-i dil-figār aldum
Muḥabbet fāḳınuñ gerçi şikārın bī-şümār aldum
‘Adū-yı zāġ elinden bir teẕerv-i şīve-kār aldum
Daḫı ben şāh-bāz-ı ‘ışḳ olaldan bir şikār aldum
Diyār-ı miḥneti Ferhād u Mecnūn yoḳ yire gezdi
Berāt-ı milk-i ‘ışḳı kātib-i ḳudret baña yazdı
Meh-i nev sikke-i ḫūrşīde nāmum tīġ ile ḳazdı
Yine burc-ı bedenden cān sevincinden çıḳayazdı
Nigāruñ göñline girdüm demürden bir ḥiṣār aldum
Dil ü cān ile yārüñ bār-ı ‘ışḳında boyun urdum
Bugün meydān-ı miḥnetde ‘adūnuñ ḳahrına ṭurdum
O yüzi ḫūb-ı ḫūn-rīzüñ cefāsın gerçi çoḳ gördüm
Ṣarup pehlūye tīġuñ zaḫmını şöyle ṣafā sürdüm
Ṣanasın yanuma bir serv-ḳāmet gül-‘iẕār aldum
Ten-i pür-ḫūbı ṭutdum ṣanmañuz dūd-ı siyāhumla
Ṭonandı lāle-zār-ı derd miḥnet bār-gāhumla
Serīr-i ṣadra geçdüm şem‘-veş oddan külāhumla
Melāmet milkini açdum ser-ā-ser tīġ-ı āhumla
Bugün ben şāh-bāz-ı milk-i ‘ışḳum bir diyār aldum
Olup Fażlī gibi ser-geştesi bir māh ruḫsāruñ
Varup dellāl-ı dil bāzār-ı kūyına o dil-dāruñ
Hezārān derd ile iḳrārın aldum [ben] o ‘ayyāruñ
Nuḳūd-ı ṣabr u dil virdüm metā‘-ı derdine yārüñ
Görenler Ẕātiyā cānlar virür bir yādigār aldum

In English

1. Like the anka (the phoenix) I took a thousand mountains under my wing; within them I seized, with the claw of wrath, a partridge with a wounded heart; though I have taken countless prey of the arrow (the arrow's nock) of love, I snatched a coquettish pheasant from the hand of the crow, my enemy. Since I became the falcon of love I have taken yet another prey.

2. Ferhad and Mecnun roamed the land of affliction in vain; the scribe of divine power wrote the patent for the realm of love to me; the new moon engraved my name with a sword on the coin of the sun; from the joy of the soul it was again about to leave the tower of the body. I entered the beloved's heart, I took a fortress of iron.

3. With soul and heart I bowed my neck to the burden of the beloved's love; today on the field of affliction I stood against the enemy's wrath; I suffered much indeed from the cruelty of that fair-faced shedder of blood; binding the wound of his sword to my side, I took such delight that it was as if I had taken to my side a cypress-statured, rose-cheeked one.

4. Do not think that I besieged the body full of beauty with my black smoke; the tulip garden of pain was decked out with my pavilion of affliction; like a candle, with my cap of fire, I passed to the throne in the seat of honour; with the sword of my sigh I conquered the realm of blame from end to end. Today I am the falcon of the realm of love; I have taken a land.

5. Like Fazlî, becoming the bewildered lover of a moon-faced one, I went, making my heart the broker, to the market of that heart-taker's quarter; with a thousand pains I won a promise from that cheat; I gave the coins of patience and heart for the beloved's wares of pain. O Zâtî, I have taken a keepsake for which those who see it give their lives.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a muhammes (five-line stanza poem) of five stanzas; in kind it is a tahmis made on a ghazal by Zâtî. In a tahmis the first three lines of each stanza belong to the poet making the tahmis and the last two to the author of the ghazal; here too the first three lines are Fazlî's and the last two Zâtî's. The redif (refrain word) of Zâtî's ghazal is "aldum" (I took) and its rhyme "-ār" (şikār, ḥiṣār, gül-‘iẕār, diyār, yādigār). In the first stanza all five lines end in "-ār aldum" (kūh-sār, dil-figār, bī-şümār, şīve-kār, şikār). In the other stanzas Fazlî's lines rhyme with the first line of Zâtî's couplet: "-azdı/-ezdi" (gezdi, yazdı, ḳazdı, çıḳayazdı), "-rdum" (urdum, ṭurdum, gördüm, sürdüm), "-āhumla" (siyāhumla, bār-gāhumla, külāhumla, āhumla) and "-āruñ" (ruḫsāruñ, dil-dāruñ, ‘ayyāruñ, yārüñ). The metre is the "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün" pattern of the hezec family.

Özkat publishes the poem as the thirty-first musammat of the divan. The text rests on fol. 16a of the poetry miscellany no. 364 in the Yapı Kredi Sermet Çifter Research Library, copied in the seventeenth century. Özkat compared the lines belonging to Zâtî with the second volume of the Zâtî Divanı published by Ali Nihat Tarlan. In the divan the Zâtî line of the fourth stanza begins with "pād-şāh-ı" instead of "şāh-bāz-ı", giving the sense "I am the sovereign of the realm of love". The word "gördüm" (I saw, suffered) in the third stanza was put in by Özkat for the sake of the rhyme in place of the manuscript's "çekdüm"; the fourth line of the last stanza reads in the manuscript "Nuḳūdı ḥayretā virdüm metā‘-ı vaṣlına yārüñ". The word "[ben]" in the last stanza is one Özkat added for the metre.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Zâtî's opening couplet sets a hunting scene: the lover, who is the falcon of love, has snatched a coquettish pheasant from the hand of the crow, his enemy. Fazlî widens this scene and fills the first stanza from end to end with birds of the hunt: the anka, the partridge, the crow, the pheasant and the falcon (şāh-bāz). These words form a strong congruence of images (tenasüp). Özkat says that Fazlî is quite successful in his tahmises and quotes the first stanza of this one as an example; he also illustrates the idiom "kanadı altına almak" (to take under one's wing) from this stanza.

After the second stanza the images pass from the hunt to the state and to war. The patent for the realm of love has been written to the lover by the scribe of divine power, and the new moon has engraved his name on the coin of the sun; coin and patent are the signs of sovereignty. At the end of the stanza the lover has entered the beloved's heart and taken a fortress of iron. In the third stanza he stands against the enemy's wrath on the field of affliction; Özkat counts the words "boyun urmak" (to bow the neck) in this stanza among the idioms. In the fourth stanza the lover, like a candle with its cap of fire, passes to the throne in the seat of honour and with the sword of his sigh conquers the realm of blame; the words "ateşten külah" (a cap of fire) are likewise illustrated from this stanza in Özkat's list of idioms. The first line of this stanza is obscure and has been rendered by its approximate sense.

The last stanza is a market scene: the words "dellāl" (broker), "bāzār" (market), "nuḳūd" (coins) and "metā‘" (wares) form a congruence of images. The lover gives the coins of patience and heart and buys the beloved's wares of pain. In Zâtî's closing couplet the word "yādigār" (keepsake) expresses the worth of what is gained in this exchange.

Historical Context

According to Özkat, Fazlî takes pride in being the pupil of Zâtî, who had the greatest share in the development of his poetic talent and in his becoming known. Özkat notes that Zâtî had a say in the training of many poets of his day, Bâkî included, and was counted the master of the Ottoman poets who came after Necâtî. Fazlî's response poems (nazire) to Zâtî's ghazals and this tahmis are traces in poetry of the bond between them.

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. 258-259, musammat no. 31 (Yapı Kredi Sermet Çifter Research Library 364, fol. 16a); also p. 58 (on the tahmises), pp. 90-92 (idioms), pp. 97-98 (Zâtî's influence) and p. 121 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
  • Ali Nihat Tarlan (ed.), Zâtî Divanı, vol. 2, Istanbul: MEB, 1970, p. 476 (as compared by Özkat).

Online sources