Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilātün Fā‘ilün
Cān olaldan ol Mesīḥ-efġānuñ iy dil hem-demi
Pür-sürūr oldı ferāmūş eyleyüp derd ü ġamı
Kim dürür dirseñ eger ol pādişāh-ı ‘ālemi
Dil-nevāzum ser-firāzum dilberüm nāzük Memī
Ḥüsn-i bī-hem-tā ile bir dilber-i merġūbdur
Yoḳ naẓīri ‘ālem içre māh-ı şehr-āşūbdur
Bī-naẓīr ü bī-bedeldür ḫūbdur maḥbūbdur
Dil-nevāzum ser-firāzum dilberüm nāzük Memī
Lā‘l-i cān-baḫş ile ol āfet Mesīḥ-i s̱ānidür
Ḫande-i şīrīn-i cān-efzāsı ādem cānıdur
Ġamzesi cānlar alur līkin cihān fettānıdur
Dil-nevāzum ser-firāzum dilberüm nāzük Memī
Çeşm-i şehlāsı ‘aceb ḫūnī ḥarāmīdür anuñ
Murġ-ı dil ṣaydına zülfi fitne dāmıdur anuñ
Ġamzesi siḥriyle ‘ālem cümle rāmīdür anuñ
Dil-nevāzum ser-firāzum dilberüm nāzük Memī
Bir ḳuloġlıdur ki ‘ālem ḫalḳınuñ maḳbūlidür
Manṣıb-ı ḥüsnīnüñ anuñ şāhlar ma‘zūlidür
Fażlī-i üftāde ol şāh-ı cihānuñ ḳulıdur
Dil-nevāzum ser-firāzum dilberüm nāzük Memī
In English
1. O heart, ever since the soul became the close companion of that beauty whose voice revives like the breath of the Messiah, it has forgotten pain and grief and filled with joy. If you ask who that sovereign of the world is: my heart's comforter, my exalted one, my charmer, delicate Memî.
2. He is a charmer admired for his matchless beauty; he has no equal in the world, he is a moon who throws the city into turmoil; he is peerless, none can take his place, he is fair, he is beloved. My heart's comforter, my exalted one, my charmer, delicate Memî.
3. That bane of hearts, with his life-giving ruby lip, is a second Messiah; his sweet, life-adding smile is the very soul of a man; his glance takes lives, yet he is the enchanter of the world. My heart's comforter, my exalted one, my charmer, delicate Memî.
4. His languid eye is a strange, bloodthirsty brigand; his lock is a snare of mischief set to catch the bird of the heart; by the magic of his glance the whole world has submitted to him. My heart's comforter, my exalted one, my charmer, delicate Memî. (The word "rāmī" at the end of the line can also mean "archer"; read this way, the world has become his archer through the magic of his glance.)
5. He is a kuloğlu (one born of the sultan's servants) who is the favourite of the people of the world; before the office of his beauty shahs are as if dismissed; the fallen Fazlî is the servant of that shah of the world. My heart's comforter, my exalted one, my charmer, delicate Memî.
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 "Dil-nevāzum ser-firāzum dilberüm nāzük Memī". In the first stanza the words "hem-demi, ġamı, ‘ālemi" rhyme with "Memī" in the refrain. The rhymes of the other stanzas are "-ūbdur" (merġūbdur, şehr-āşūbdur, maḥbūbdur), "-ānidür/-ānıdur" (s̱ānidür, cānıdur, fettānıdur), "-āmīdür anuñ" and "-ūlidür"; in the fourth stanza the word "anuñ" 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.
Özkat publishes the poem as the seventeenth musammat of the divan. The text is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 225b) 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.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
According to Özkat, this poem is the third of the three murabbas Fazlî wrote for the famous beauty called Derzi (Tailor) Memî Şâh (the other two are musammats 10 and 12). The tailoring images of the tenth murabba and the supplication of the twelfth give way here to praise; the refrain too is a string of loving epithets: "dil-nevāz" (heart's comforter), "ser-firāz" (exalted), "dilber" (charmer) and "nāzük" (delicate).
The poem's most prominent image is the Messiah. In the first stanza the beauty is called "Mesīḥ-efġān"; Jesus is believed to have raised the dead with his breath, and so his voice or breath gives life to the soul. In the third stanza the same thought is stated openly: with his life-giving ruby lip the beauty is "Mesīḥ-i s̱ānī", a second Messiah. His glance, by contrast, takes lives; thus a contrast is set between lip and glance, between giving life and taking it. In the fourth stanza the eye is likened to a bloodthirsty brigand and the lock to a snare that catches the bird of the heart; "çeşm-i şehlā" (the languid, hazel eye) stands beside "ḫūnī ḥarāmī" (bloodthirsty bandit). The last rhyme word of this stanza, "rāmīdür", can be understood in two ways: read as "rām", the world has submitted to the beauty; read as "rāmī", it has become his archer; given that the glance is likened to an arrow, the second sense also suits the world of images.
The last stanza adds an irony to the poem. Memî is a "ḳuloġlı", that is, of servant stock; yet in the office of beauty he dismisses shahs. At the end of the stanza Fazlî declares himself the servant of this kuloğlu and him the "şāh-ı cihān" (shah of the world). This exchange of places between servant and shah is an application of the divan tradition, in which the lover is a servant and the beloved a sultan, that plays on the beloved's real station.
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. 244, musammat no. 17 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 225b); also pp. 57-58 (on the murabbas) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
Online sources
