Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mef‘ūlü Mefā‘īlü Mefā‘īlü Fe‘ūlün
Hicrānuñ ile geçdi meh ü sālüm efendüm
İrişmedi vaṣla dil-i meyyālüm efendüm
Ġāyet de mükerrer durur aḥvālüm efendüm
Ben bendeñe raḥm eyle Ḥasan Bālüm efendüm
Destüñdeki ḫātem gibi ḳaddüm ḫam olupdur
Çeşm-i dem ile lā‘l-i nigīn ḫātem olupdur
Aġladuġuma raḥm ider iseñ dem olupdur
Ben bendeñe raḥm eyle Ḥasan Bālüm efendüm
Sen serv-ḳadi cāme-i sebz ile görelden
Ṣu gibi revān oldı göñül iy yüzi gülşen
Üftāde durur sāye gibi mihrüñ ile ten
Ben bendeñe raḥm eyle Ḥasan Bālüm efendüm
Bu sūsenī ferrāce vü ol fıstıḳī aṭlas
Gey yaraşur el-ḥaḳ saña iy gözleri nergis
Dil-dāde durur bencileyin ḥüsnüñe herkes
Ben bendeñe raḥm eyle Ḥasan Bālüm efendüm
Ger ḥüsn-i ḫaṭuñ bilmez isem nāme-i iḳbāl
Ḳaṭ‘ it ḳalemüñ gibi başum tīġ ile fī’l-ḥāl
Yaz göñlini Fażlī ḳuluñuñ eyleme ihmāl
Ben bendeñe raḥm eyle Ḥasan Bālüm efendüm
In English
1. My lord, my months and years have passed in separation from you; my heart that inclines to you has not attained union, my lord; my state has been repeated many times over (I have told the same pain again and again), my lord. Have mercy on me, your servant, my Hasan Bâlî, my lord.
2. My stature has bent double like the ring on your hand; my eye, weeping blood, has become a ring set with a red ruby; if you will pity my weeping, the time has come. Have mercy on me, your servant, my Hasan Bâlî, my lord. (The word "dem" is used here in the senses of both "blood" and "time".)
3. O you whose face is a rose garden, since I saw you, cypress-statured, in a green robe, my heart has flowed away like water (has run to you); my body has fallen like a shadow before your sun (your love). Have mercy on me, your servant, my Hasan Bâlî, my lord.
4. O narcissus-eyed one, put on this iris-coloured (purple) mantle and that pistachio-green satin; truly they suit you; everyone, like me, has given his heart to your beauty. Have mercy on me, your servant, my Hasan Bâlî, my lord.
5. If I do not take the beauty of your facial down for a letter of good fortune, cut off my head at once with the sword, as one trims the nib of your pen; write the heart of your servant Fazlî (write something after his heart), do not neglect him. Have mercy on me, your servant, my Hasan Bâlî, my lord.
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 bendeñe raḥm eyle Ḥasan Bālüm efendüm". In the first stanza all the lines end in "-ālüm efendüm"; "efendüm" is the redif (refrain word) and the words "sālüm, meyyālüm, aḥvālüm, Bālüm" are the rhyme. The second stanza uses the redif "olupdur" with the rhyme "ḫam, ḫātem, dem"; the rhymes of the other stanzas are "-en" (görelden, gülşen, ten), "-as/-is" (aṭlas, nergis, herkes) and "-āl" (iḳbāl, fi'l-ḥāl, ihmāl). The metre is the "mef‘ūlü mefā‘īlü mefā‘īlü fe‘ūlün" pattern of the hezec family. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza.
Özkat publishes the poem as the twentieth musammat of the divan. The text is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 226b) 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
Among the murabbas Fazlî wrote for beauties famous in his day, Özkat connects this poem with a beauty called Hasan Bâlî. He names the addressee of the eleventh murabba separately as Berber (Barber) Hasan Bâlî. The address "efendüm" (my lord) in the refrain, repeated at the end of every line in the first stanza, gives the poem a respectful yet intimate tone of speech.
The second stanza is built around the image of a ring. The lover's bent stature resembles the band on the beloved's finger, and his eye, filled with bloody tears, a ring set with a red ruby; "ḫātem" (ring), "nigīn" (ring stone) and "lā‘l" (ruby) form a congruence of images (tenasüp). The word "dem" is used twice in the same stanza in two different senses: first "blood", then "time". In the third stanza the heart's being "ṣu gibi revān" (flowing like water) is an example of the idiom "su gibi akmak" (to flow like water), which Özkat counts among the idioms. In the same stanza the word "mihr" stands for both the sun and love; the body is like a shadow fallen before the sun.
The fourth stanza is an example of the realistic detail seen in Fazlî's murabbas. The beloved's clothing is named by its colours: a green robe (cāme-i sebz), an iris-coloured mantle and pistachio-green satin. The poet finds these garments becoming and asks him to wear them. The last stanza is woven from the tools of writing: the word "ḫaṭ" means both the down on the face and handwriting; "nāme-i iḳbāl" (letter of good fortune), "ḳalem" (pen), "ḳaṭ‘" (trimming the nib) and the verb "yaz" (write) form a congruence of images. The lover asks that his head be cut off like a pen if he does not take the beauty of the beloved's down for a letter of good fortune. The words "Yaz göñlini Fażlī ḳuluñuñ" in the last line are obscure; it may be thought that the beloved is asked to write something that would please the lover's heart.
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. 246, musammat no. 20 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 226b); 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
