Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Nesīm-i ṣubḥ esse ṣaḥn-ı ‘ālem sebze-zār olsa
Çiçekler dürlü reng ile ḳamu naḳş-ı nigār olsa
Zemīne dāmen-i gülden ḳızıl altun nis̱ār olsa
Güzellük nev-bahārında cihān bāġı bahār olsa
Baña ol yüzi gülşensiz gerekmez ṣad hezār olsa
Geyüp gül-büni nev-rūzī ḳabā her ġonce-i ra‘nā
Nihāl-i şīve olmışdur ser-ā-ser bülbül-i gūyā
Çemende ṣalınurlar serv gibi nāz ile tenhā
Lebi ġonce beli ince güzeller çoḳ durur ammā
Öpülse der-meyān olsa ḳoculsa der-kenār olsa
Bu fānī ‘işret-ābādı degüldür ‘unṣur-ı pākuñ
Ḫarāb olmış müsāfir-ḫānesidür ehl-i idrākuñ
Temāşā-gāhıdur ṣanma bu māhir ḫār u ḫāşākuñ
Ne zībā cāy idi el-ḥaḳ zümürrüd-ḳaṣr-ı eflākuñ
Bināsı pāy-dār olsa esāsı üstüvār olsa
Belinde māh-ı nevden ḫançeri var bir sipāhīdür
Başında şa‘şa‘a ṣorḳucı mihr anuñ külāhıdur
Bu ṭoḳuz ḫayme-i vālā münaḳḳaş bār-gāhıdur
Ḳamer yüzli ḳara beñlü güzeller pād-şāhıdur
Benüm māh-ı siyeh-çerdem ‘aceb mi ḫāl-dār olsa
Ṭutalum milket-i ‘Os̱mān’uñ olduñ Fażliyā şāhı
Gerekmez baña bu dünyā-yı dūnuñ ‘izzet ü cāhı
Felekde odlara yansun göreyin mihr ile māhı
Başum alup giderdüm ben ‘adem milkine dek Āhī
Öte yanında dünyānuñ eger bir reh-güẕār olsa

In English

1. Should the dawn breeze blow and the courtyard of the world turn to greenery; should the flowers, with their many colours, all become painted designs; should red gold be scattered on the ground from the skirt of the rose; should the garden of the world be in spring in the springtime of beauty: without that one whose face is a rose garden, I would have no need of it, were there a hundred thousand springs.

2. The rosebush has dressed every lovely bud in a New Year's robe; the eloquent nightingale has become from head to foot a sapling of coquetry; they sway alone and proudly in the meadow like cypresses. Beauties with rosebud lips and slender waists are many, but the point is to be kissed with arms about the waist, to be embraced and held in the lap. ("Meyān" means both waist and middle, "kenār" both lap and edge; the line is built on these two senses.)

3. This mortal place of pleasure is not the home of the pure essence; it is the ruined guesthouse of the people of understanding; do not think it a spectacle of thorns and straw. How fine a place, truly, was the emerald palace of the heavens, if only its building were lasting and its foundation firm.

4. He is a horseman with a dagger of the new moon at his waist; the gleaming plume on his head is the sun, which is his cap; this lofty ninefold tent is his embroidered pavilion. He is the sovereign of moon-faced, black-moled beauties; is it any wonder if my dark-skinned moon has a mole?

5. O Fazlî, suppose you have become shah of the land of Osman; I have no need of the honour and rank of this base world; let the sun and the moon burn in fires in the sky, that I may see it. O Âhî, were there a passage on the far side of the world, I would take my head and go as far as the land of nothingness.

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 Âhî. The first three lines of each stanza are Fazlî's and the last two Âhî's. The redif (refrain word) of Âhî's ghazal is "olsa" (should be) and its rhyme "-ār" (bahār, hezār, der-kenār, üstüvār, ḫāl-dār, reh-güẕār). In the first stanza all five lines end in "-ār olsa" (sebze-zār, nigār, nis̱ār, bahār, hezār). In the other stanzas Fazlî's lines rhyme with the first line of Âhî's couplet: "-ā" (ra‘nā, gūyā, tenhā, ammā), "-ākuñ" (pākuñ, idrākuñ, ḫāşākuñ, eflākuñ), "-āhıdur/-āhīdür" (sipāhīdür, külāhıdur, bār-gāhıdur, pād-şāhıdur) and "-āhı/-āhī" (şāhı, cāhı, māhı, Āhī). The metre is the "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün" pattern of the hezec family.

Özkat publishes the poem as the thirty-second musammat of the divan. The text rests on fol. 24a of the poetry miscellany no. 364 in the Yapı Kredi Sermet Çifter Research Library, copied in the seventeenth century. According to Özkat, Âhî's ghazal has six couplets, of which Fazlî has made a tahmis of five. Özkat compared the lines belonging to Âhî with the Âhî Divanı edited by Necati Sungur. In the divan the last line of the first stanza has "ger" instead of "ṣad"; in the last line of the second stanza "öpülse" and "ḳoculsa" change places; and the fourth line of the third stanza reads "Ne zībā ḳaṣr-idi el-ḥaḳ zümürrüd-reng eflākuñ".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Âhî's opening couplet sets the beloved against a picture of spring: even if the garden of the world is in spring, without that one whose face is a rose garden the lover has no need of a hundred thousand springs. Fazlî widens this picture: the dawn breeze blows, the courtyard turns green, the flowers are patterned like paintings, the rose scatters red gold on the ground. The red gold is the rose's petals falling to the ground; this may be counted an instance of fanciful aetiology (hüsn-i talil). In the second stanza the rosebush's dressing the buds in New Year's robes recalls the new garment of spring. At the end of the stanza Âhî's line is built on a pun (cinas): "der-meyān" means both "in the middle" and "at the waist", "der-kenār" both "at the edge" and "in the lap".

In the third stanza the subject turns to the transience of the world. The world is not the home of the pure essence; it is the ruined guesthouse of those with understanding. Âhî's couplet likens the dome of the sky to an emerald palace and laments that it does not last. The fourth stanza is a picture of the sky: a horseman bearing a dagger of the new moon at his waist, with a cap plumed with the sun on his head, who has made the nine heavens his pavilion. The likening of the crescent to a dagger, the sun to a plume and the nine spheres to a tent forms a congruence of images (tenasüp). In Âhî's line this horseman is the sovereign of moon-faced, black-moled beauties.

In the last stanza Fazlî says that even if he were shah of the land of Osman he would not want the honour of the world. Âhî's closing couplet ends this wish to escape the world with a hyperbole: were there a passage on the far side of the world, the poet would take his head and go as far as the land of nothingness.

Historical Context

According to Özkat, Fazlî made his tahmises on ghazals by Necâtî, Zâtî and Âhî; his feeling close to these three poets in style and outlook may have played a part in his choice. Özkat identifies Âhî as Âhî Benli Hasan (d. 1517), known for his work in mixed verse and prose, "Hüsn ü Dil".

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. 259-260, musammat no. 32 (Yapı Kredi Sermet Çifter Research Library 364, fol. 24a); also p. 58 (on the tahmises), p. 101 (the Âhî tahmis) and p. 121 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
  • Necati Sungur (ed.), Âhî Divanı: İnceleme-Metin, Ankara: Ministry of Culture Publications, 1994, p. 171 (as compared by Özkat).

Online sources