Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün

Yile viren ‘aklumı anuñ hevāyī ḫālidür
Bend iden göñlüme ol zülf-i perīşān-ḥālidür
Mūr-veş dil diyu derd-i ‘ışḳınuñ pā-mālidür
Sevmişem bir şāh-ı ḥüsn adı Süleymān Bāli’dür
Görmedi anuñ gibi bir pādişā çeşm-i cihān
Yolına terk eyler ise dil ‘aceb mi cism ü cān
Ben degül ancaḳ ḳulı olmış durur ins ile cān
Sevmişem bir şāh-ı ḥüsn adı Süleymān Bāli’dür
Mūr-veş pā-māliyem itmez baña bir gün naẓar
İtdi pāyi diyu derd ü ġuṣṣada zīr ü zeber
Meyl ider düşmenlere feryād elinden dōstlar
Sevmişem bir şāh-ı ḥüsn adı Süleymān Bāli’dür
Ruḫları ḥüsn āsümānında münevver māhdur
Ḳaşları muṣḥaf yüzünde medd-i Bismi’llāh’dur
Milket-i ḥüsn ü melāḥatde mükerrem şāhdur
Sevmişem bir şāh-ı ḥüsn adı Süleymān Bāli’dür
Cām-ı lā‘l-i ḥasreti her-dem gözüm giryān ider
Nāme-i zülfi dil-i miskīn-i ġamdan ḳan ider
Bezm-i ġamda ney gibi her-dem işüm efġān ider
Sevmişem bir şāh-ı ḥüsn adı Süleymān Bāli’dür
Bezm-i ġamda her ḳaçan dil cām-ı lā‘lin yād ider
Çeng olur ḳaddüm benüm dil ney gibi feryād ider
Dōstını aġladup düşmenlerini şād ider
Sevmişem bir şāh-ı ḥüsn adı Süleymān Bāli’dür
Ḳomadı bir dāne ṣabrum dilde ol ḫāl-i siyāh
Ḫirmen-i dünyāyı berbād itse n’ola bād-ı āh
Fażlī’yi yad eyleyüp aġyārı yād eyler o şāh
Sevmişem bir şāh-ı ḥüsn adı Süleymān Bāli’dür

In English

1. What casts my reason to the wind is his fickle mole (fluttering in the air, stealing the heart); what binds my heart is that dishevelled lock; the heart, like an ant, has been trampled under the pain of his love. I have loved a shah of beauty; his name is Süleyman Bâlî. ("Yele vermek", to cast to the wind, means to waste or destroy.)

2. The eye of the world has never seen a sovereign like him; is it any wonder if the heart gives up body and soul on his path? Not I alone, but men and jinn have become his servants. I have loved a shah of beauty; his name is Süleyman Bâlî.

3. I am trampled like an ant; not for a single day does he look at me; in pain and sorrow he has turned me upside down under his feet; he inclines to my enemies; O friends, I cry out at his hands. I have loved a shah of beauty; his name is Süleyman Bâlî.

4. His cheeks are a shining moon in the sky of beauty; his eyebrows are the stroke of prolongation (medd) of the Basmala on the Qur'an of his face; he is an honoured shah in the land of beauty and charm. I have loved a shah of beauty; his name is Süleyman Bâlî.

5. Longing for the cup of his ruby lip makes my eyes weep at every moment; the letter of his lock turns the wretched heart to blood with grief; in the gathering of sorrow my work is to wail like the reed flute at every moment. I have loved a shah of beauty; his name is Süleyman Bâlî.

6. Whenever in the gathering of sorrow the heart remembers the cup of his ruby lip, my stature bends like the harp and the heart cries out like the reed flute; he makes his friend weep and his enemies rejoice. I have loved a shah of beauty; his name is Süleyman Bâlî.

7. That black mole has not left a single grain of my patience in the heart; is it any wonder if the wind of my sighs scatters the threshing heap of the world? That shah treats Fazlî as a stranger and remembers the rivals. I have loved a shah of beauty; his name is Süleyman Bâlî.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a murabba (quatrain stanza poem) of seven stanzas. The first three lines of each stanza rhyme among themselves; the fourth is repeated in every stanza as the refrain "Sevmişem bir şāh-ı ḥüsn adı Süleymān Bāli'dür". In the first stanza all the lines end in the sound "-ālidür" (ḫālidür, ḥālidür, pā-mālidür, Bāli'dür). The rhymes of the other stanzas are "-ān", "-er/-ar", "-āhdur", "-ān ider", "-ād ider" and "-āh"; in the fifth and sixth stanzas the word "ider" is used as a redif (refrain word). 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. According to Özkat, Fazlî has three seven-stanza murabbas (musammats 14, 16 and 22); this is the second of them.

Özkat publishes the poem as the sixteenth musammat of the divan. The text is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 225a) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library; according to Özkat, this part of the miscellany was copied in 1149 (1736) and later bound in.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Özkat connects this murabba with a beauty called Süleyman Bâlî, among the poems of praise Fazlî wrote for beauties famous in his day. As in his other murabbas, Fazlî builds a world of images out of the beloved's name. The name Süleyman recalls Solomon as told in the Qur'an and the stories of the prophets: the prophet-king who commands the wind, rules over men and jinn, and hears the words of the ant. The words "yile viren" (casting to the wind), "hevāyī", "mūr" (ant), "pā-māl" (trampled) and "ins ile cān" (men and jinn) in the poem are all tied to this story. In the first and third stanzas the lover likens himself to the ant that fears being crushed before Solomon's army; in the second stanza the beauty's sovereignty embraces both men and jinn. The word "hevāyī" relates on the one hand to wind and air, and on the other to passing fancy; the mole that casts reason to the wind carries both senses at once. In Özkat's list of idioms, "yele vermek" (to cast to the wind) is illustrated from this stanza.

In the fourth stanza the beloved's face is likened to a copy of the Qur'an and his eyebrows to the long stroke of "medd" in the Basmala; this is a familiar link between face and book in divan poetry. The fifth and sixth stanzas are woven from the instruments of a drinking gathering: the cup (cām), the reed flute (ney) and the harp (çeng). The lover's bent stature resembles the curved body of the harp, and his moaning the voice of the reed. In the last stanza there is a congruence of images (tenasüp) among "dāne" (grain), "ḫirmen" (threshing heap) and "bād" (wind): the black mole has used up the grains of patience, and the wind of sighs is ready to scatter the threshing heap of the world. In the same stanza a pun (cinas) links "yad eyleyüp" (treating as a stranger) and "yād eyler" (remembers); the shah counts Fazlî a stranger while he remembers the rivals.

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, p. 243, musammat no. 16 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 225a); also pp. 57-58 (on the murabbas), p. 93 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources