Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün
Mübtelā oldum görüp gün yüzüñ iy māhum benüm
Gör ne ḥāl oldı baña yoġ iken āgāhum benüm
Çünki alduñ göñlümi alma ṣaḳın āhum benüm
Ben ḳuluña merḥamet eyle Memī Şāh’um benüm
Leyli-i zülfüñ ṣalaldan göñlümi sevdālara
Düşmüşem Mecnūn-ı ser-gerdān gibi ṣaḥrālara
Eşk-i çeşmüm fürḳatinde ṭa‘n ider deryālara
Ben ḳuluña merḥamet eyle Memī Şāh’um benüm
Hicrüñ ile āh kim āsūde-ḫāṭır olmadum
Göz açup bir gün cemāl-i vaṣla nāẓır olmadum
Küfr-i zülfüñe göñül virdümse kāfir olmadum
Ben ḳuluña merḥamet eyle Memī Şāh’um benüm
‘Aḳl u ṣabr u cān u dil yād oldı benden ḥasretā
Mümkin olmadı senüñle bir dem olmaḳ āşinā
Hicrüñ ile nice bir maḥzūn olam ben mübtelā
Ben ḳuluña merḥamet eyle Memī Şāh’um benüm
Fażlī-i üftādeyem ṣalduñ diyār-ı miḥnete
Āh kim raḥm itmedüñ ben bende-i bī-devlete
Ṭāḳatum ṭāḳ oldı ḳalmadı mecālüm fürḳate
Ben ḳuluña merḥamet eyle Memī Şāh’um benüm
In English
1. O my moon, seeing your sun-like face I have been smitten; see what has befallen me unawares; since you have taken my heart, beware of taking my sigh. Have mercy on me, your servant, my Memî Şah. ("Ah almak", to take someone's sigh, means to incur their curse.)
2. Since your Leyla-like lock cast my heart into passions, I have fallen into the deserts like bewildered Mecnun; in separation from you the tears of my eyes scorn the seas. Have mercy on me, your servant, my Memî Şah.
3. Ah, with separation from you my heart has not been at rest for a single day; I have not opened my eyes one day and looked on the beauty of union; though I gave my heart to the unbelief of your lock, I have not become an unbeliever. Have mercy on me, your servant, my Memî Şah. (The black lock, because of its darkness and its veiling, is likened to unbelief.)
4. What longing, that reason, patience, soul and heart have become strangers to me; it has not been possible to be acquainted with you for a moment; how much longer am I, the stricken lover, to grieve in separation from you. Have mercy on me, your servant, my Memî Şah.
5. I am the fallen Fazlî, you have cast me into the land of affliction; ah, you have not pitied me, your luckless servant; my strength is spent, I have no power left to endure separation. Have mercy on me, your servant, my Memî Şah.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The poem is a murabba (quatrain stanza poem) of five stanzas. The first three lines of each stanza rhyme among themselves; the fourth is repeated in every stanza as the refrain "Ben ḳuluña merḥamet eyle Memī Şāh'um benüm". In the first stanza all the lines end in "-āhum benüm". The redifs (refrain words) "-lara" in the second stanza and "olmadum" in the third are used; the rhymes of the fourth and fifth stanzas are "-ā" and "-ete". The metre is the "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" pattern of the remel family. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza.
Özkat publishes the poem as the twelfth musammat of the divan. The text is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 223b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. According to Özkat's description, this part of the miscellany was copied in 1149 (1736) and later bound in; it bears the note "left unfinished".
Meaning and Figures of Speech
According to Özkat, this murabba is the second of the three Fazlî wrote for the famous beauty called Derzi (Tailor) Memî Şâh (the other two are musammats 10 and 17). Unlike the tenth murabba, no images from the beloved's trade are used here; the poem is built in the language of supplication of the classic relation between lover and beloved. The words "have mercy on me, your servant" in the refrain accord with the tradition in which the lover sees himself as a servant and the beloved as a shah, and the word "şah" in the name "Memī Şāh" fits naturally into this tradition.
In the first stanza "gönül almak" (to take someone's heart) and "ah almak" (to take someone's sigh) are set side by side: the beloved has taken the lover's heart and should now beware of taking his sigh, that is, of incurring his curse. Özkat illustrates the idioms "ah almak" and "gönül almak" from this stanza and the idiom "gönül vermek" (to give one's heart) from the third. In the second stanza there is an allusion to the story of Leyla and Mecnun: the beloved's lock is Leyla, and the lover is Mecnun fallen into the deserts; the tears shed in separation are so many that they scorn even the seas. In the third stanza there is a contrast: the lover has given his heart to the "unbelief" of the lock, yet he has not become an unbeliever. The likening of the black lock to unbelief is one of the familiar motifs of divan poetry; with this motif the poet defends the honesty of his love. In the fourth stanza the estrangement of reason, patience, soul and heart from the lover is given by enumeration. In the last stanza the word "ṭāḳ" (spent), coming after "ṭāḳat" (strength), makes a play on sound. The language is plain; the plainness Özkat notes in the murabbas is seen here too.
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. 239-240, musammat no. 12 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 223b); also pp. 57-58 (on the murabbas), pp. 90-92 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
Online sources
