Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Tekye-i iḥsānı kim bir ḫoş ziyāret-gāhdur
Yüz sürer dā’im mücerredler ulu der-gāhdur
Ḫvān-ı vaṣlı ḫāṣṣ u ‘āma ḥasbeten-lillāhdur
Ol saḫāvet menba‘ı kim adı Muṣlī Şāh’dur
Kim ki ḳalḳup bāb-ı cūdına anuñ idḫāl ider
Yalvarup naḳd-i murādın isteyüp dürler döker
Geydürür ol dem aña iḥsān idüp bir tāc-ı zer
Ol saḫāvet menba‘ı kim adı Muṣlī Şāh’dur
Ḳāmetin her kim ümīd-i vaṣl ile idüp kemān
Tīr-i āhuñ menzilini itse burc-ı āsmān
Tīr-i maḳṣūdın nişāna irgürür ol nev-cüvān
Ol saḫāvet menba‘ı kim adı Muṣlī Şāh’dur
Her gedā kim naḳd-i vaṣlın isteyüp efġān ider
Luṭf idüp ol dem aña bir gülce sīm iḥsān ider
Ol gedāyı ġarḳ idüp sīm ü zere şādān ider
Ol saḫāvet menba‘ı kim adı Muṣlī Şāh’dur
Geydürüp iḥrām-ı in‘āmını idüp iḥtirām
Virdi her nā-maḥreme vuṣlat ḥarīminde maḳām
Ben faḳīre bilmezem yā Rab niçün ḳıldı ḥarām
Ol saḫāvet menba‘ı kim adı Muṣlī Şāh’dur
Ḫāne-i vaṣlında her kim bir gece mihmān olur
Taḫt-ı ‘āc üstine çıḳup ‘āleme sulṭān olur
Yüz ḳoyup ol şāh öñinde ḫāk ile yeksān olur
Ol saḫāvet menba‘ı kim adı Muṣlī Şāh’dur
Naḳd-i vaṣlın ḫās u ‘āma beẕl idüp ol kām-rān
Pādişehdür arḳasında ḫoş geçer pīr ü cüvān
Fażliyā var iste bende yoḳ dimez virür hemān
Ol saḫāvet menba‘ı kim adı Muṣlī Şāh’dur

In English

1. His lodge of kindness is a pleasant place of pilgrimage; it is a lofty convent at which the dervishes who have renounced the world (the celibates) ever rub their faces; his table of union is open, for the love of God, to the elite and the common alike. That fountain of generosity whose name is Muslî Şah.

2. Whoever rises and enters the gate of his bounty, pleading for the coin of his desire and shedding pearls (of tears), that moment he bestows his favour and sets a golden crown on his head. That fountain of generosity whose name is Muslî Şah.

3. Whoever, in the hope of union, bends his stature like a bow and makes the constellation of the sky the range of the arrow of his sighs, that youth brings the arrow of his desire to its mark. That fountain of generosity whose name is Muslî Şah.

4. To every beggar who moans and asks for the coin of union, he graciously gives a handful of silver that very moment; he drowns that beggar in silver and gold and makes him glad. That fountain of generosity whose name is Muslî Şah.

5. He clothed them in the pilgrim's garb (ihram) of his favour and showed them honour; he gave every stranger a place in the sanctuary of union; O Lord, I do not know why he made it forbidden to me, the poor one. That fountain of generosity whose name is Muslî Şah.

6. Whoever is a guest for one night in his house of union mounts an ivory throne and becomes sultan of the world; he lays his face before that shah and becomes one with the dust. That fountain of generosity whose name is Muslî Şah.

7. That fortunate one lavishes the coin of union on the elite and the common alike; he has a sovereign at his back (his support is strong), and old and young pass a pleasant time with him; O Fazlî, go and ask; he does not say "no" to his servant, he gives at once. That fountain of generosity whose name is Muslî Şah.

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 "Ol saḫāvet menba‘ı kim adı Muṣlī Şāh'dur". In the first stanza all the lines end in "-āhdur" (ziyāret-gāhdur, der-gāhdur, lillāhdur, Şāh'dur). The rhymes of the other stanzas are "-er" (ider, döker, zer), "-ān" (kemān, āsmān, nev-cüvān), "-ān ider" (efġān, iḥsān, şādān), "-ām" (iḥtirām, maḳām, ḥarām), "-ān olur" (mihmān, sulṭān, yeksān) and "-ān" (kām-rān, cüvān, hemān). 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, it is one of Fazlî's three seven-stanza murabbas (musammats 14, 16 and 22).

Özkat publishes the poem as the twenty-second musammat of the divan. The text is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 227b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. According to Özkat's footnote, the refrain line is written out in full in the first stanza of the manuscript, shown only by its first words in the other stanzas up to the sixth, and written out in full again in the last stanza; in this last writing the word "menba‘ı" (fountain) appears as "ma‘deni" (mine).

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Among the murabbas Fazlî wrote for the famous beauties of the time, Özkat counts two poems for Muslî Şâh: the eighteenth musammat and this poem. In the eighteenth murabba the beauty is praised as a silver-bodied beloved; here he is called a fountain of generosity. To describe the beloved's generosity, the poem joins the language of a dervish lodge with that of a palace. In the first stanza his kindness is a "tekye" (lodge), his gate a "dergâh" (convent), his table a "ḫvān" open to all; the "mücerredler", who have renounced the world, rub their faces at this gate. In the second and sixth stanzas, however, the same person is a ruler who sets a golden crown on whoever comes and raises his guest to an ivory throne.

In the third stanza images of archery are used: the lover's stature bent like a bow (kemān), the arrow (tīr) of his sigh, and the arrow's range and mark (nişān) form a congruence of images (tenasüp). In the fourth stanza "sīm" (silver) is given to the beggar; in divan poetry silver is a word that also evokes the beloved's white skin. The fifth stanza is woven from notions of the pilgrimage: "iḥrām" (pilgrim's garb), "ḥarīm" (sanctuary), "nā-maḥrem" (stranger) and "ḥarām" (forbidden) are words from the same root and form a figure of common derivation (iştikak). The stanza's conceit is a contrast: he has given every stranger a place in the sanctuary of union and has forbidden this place only to the poet. The irony that runs through the whole poem springs from here: the gate of generosity open to all is closed to the complaining lover. The words "yüz ḳoyup" (laying his face) in the sixth stanza are among the examples of the idiom "to lay one's face (on the ground)" in Özkat's list of idioms.

In the last stanza the poet addresses himself and says "var iste" (go and ask); read beside the complaint of the fifth stanza, this advice carries a light mockery. The second line of the seventh stanza is obscure; the words "pādişehdür arḳasında" (he has a sovereign at his back) seem to say that the beloved has a powerful support.

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. 247-248, musammat no. 22 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 227b); also pp. 57-58 (on the murabbas), p. 94 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources