Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilātün Fe‘ilün

Nice bir tekye-i miḥnetde ḳarār eyleyelüm
Girelüm bir nemede ‘ışḳ ile kār eyleyelüm
Ḳoyalum Rūm ilini Şām’a güẕār eyleyelüm
Gel ḳalender olalum terk-i diyār eyleyelüm
Dūd-ı dilden giyelüm egnümüze şāl-ı siyāh
Şerer-i nār-ı belādan uralum başa külāh
‘Işḳ yolında durur rehberimüz şu‘le-i āh
Gel ḳalender olalum terk-i diyār eyleyelüm
‘İşret-i bāġ-ı cihān kimseye ḳalmaz bāḳī
Getürelüm ayaġı bezm-i fenādan sāḳī
Sāġar-ı māh gibi devr idelüm āfāḳı
Gel ḳalender olalum terk-i diyār eyleyelüm
Çün naṣīb olmadı bir gün bize būy-ı vuṣlat
Gül gibi elde iken bāġ-ı zemānda furṣat
İdelüm bād-ı ṣabā gibi vaṭandan ‘uzlet
Gel ḳalender olalum terk-i diyār eyleyelüm
Kāse-i serde vaṭan eylemedin mūr-ı ecel
İrmedin seng-i fenādan tene ḫāk ile ḫalel
Nice bir baġlaya bu çeşm-i dili ḫᵛāb-ı ecel
Gel ḳalender olalum terk-i diyār eyleyelüm
Cān u dil virmeyelüm ḫār u ḫas-ı dünyāya
Göz göre kendüzimüz atmayalum deryāya
‘Işḳ ile yapışalum dāmen-i istiġnāya
Gel ḳalender olalum terk-i diyār eyleyelüm
Cāme-i ṣāfı çıḳarup teni ‘üryān idelüm
Göz yaşın lā‘l-i lebi yādına efşān idelüm
Baş açuḳ yalın ayaḳ ‘azm-i Bedaḫşān idelüm
Gel ḳalender olalum terk-i diyār eyleyelüm
Levḥ-i dilden yuyalum Fażlī bu cevr āyetini
Dest-i ġamla yazalum anda ‘adem ṣūretini
Ẕerreye ṣaymayalum milk-i cihān milketini
Gel ḳalender olalum terk-i diyār eyleyelüm

In English

1. How long shall we stay in the lodge of affliction? Let us put on the felt (the dervish's garb) and work with love; let us leave the land of Rum and set out for Damascus; come, let us become kalenders (wandering dervishes) and forsake our homeland.

2. Let us wear on our backs a black shawl made of the smoke of the heart; let us put on our heads a cap made of the sparks of the fire of calamity; on the path of love our guide is the flame of the sigh. Come, let us become kalenders and forsake our homeland.

3. The pleasure of the garden of the world does not last for anyone; O cupbearer, let us bring the cup from the gathering of annihilation; let us travel the horizons like the cup of the moon. Come, let us become kalenders and forsake our homeland.

4. Since not one day has the scent of union been granted us, while opportunity is in our hands like a rose in the garden of time, let us leave our homeland like the morning breeze and withdraw into seclusion. Come, let us become kalenders and forsake our homeland.

5. Before the ant of death settles in the bowl of the head (the skull), before harm comes to the body with earth from the stone of annihilation: how much longer will the sleep of death bind this eye of the heart? Come, let us become kalenders and forsake our homeland.

6. Let us not give soul and heart to the thorns and straw of the world; let us not throw ourselves into the sea with our eyes open; with love let us cling to the skirt of self-sufficiency (needing nothing). Come, let us become kalenders and forsake our homeland.

7. Let us take off the clean robe and leave the body naked; remembering his ruby lip, let us scatter tears; bareheaded and barefoot let us head for Badakhshan. Come, let us become kalenders and forsake our homeland.

8. O Fazlî, let us wash this verse of cruelty from the tablet of the heart; with the hand of grief let us write upon it the image of nothingness; let us not count the realm of the world's kingdom as much as a mote. Come, let us become kalenders and forsake our homeland.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a murabba (quatrain stanza poem) of eight stanzas and, according to Özkat, Fazlî's only murabba of eight stanzas. The first three lines of each stanza rhyme among themselves; the fourth is repeated in every stanza as the refrain "Gel ḳalender olalum terk-i diyār eyleyelüm". In the first stanza all the lines end in "-ār eyleyelüm"; "eyleyelüm" is the redif (refrain word) and the words "ḳarār, kār, güẕār, diyār" are the rhyme. The rhymes of the other stanzas are "-āh" (siyāh, külāh, āh), "-āḳī/-āḳı" (bāḳī, sāḳī, āfāḳı), "-at/-et" (vuṣlat, furṣat, ‘uzlet), "-el" (ecel, ḫalel, ecel), "-āya" (dünyāya, deryāya, istiġnāya), "-ān idelüm" (‘üryān, efşān, Bedaḫşān) and "-etini" (āyetini, ṣūretini, milketini). The metre is the "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün" pattern of the remel family. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza.

Özkat publishes the poem as the twenty-eighth musammat of the divan. The text rests on fol. 60b of the poetry miscellany no. 1073 in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. According to Özkat's description, this miscellany contains samples of the ghazals, muhammeses, tahmises and riddles of many poets, among them Necâtî, Ahmed Paşa, Hayâlî, Mihrî and Sultan Mustafa, and carries two musammats by Fazlî.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Özkat says that Fazlî wrote one of his murabbas with mystical feelings and thoughts, and points to this poem. The call in the refrain is to break the ties of the world and become a wandering dervish, a "ḳalender". All the stanzas of the poem set out the reasons for this call or describe its garb. In the first stanza the "tekye-i miḥnet" (lodge of affliction) is set against the true garb of dervishhood: putting on the felt, working with love, leaving the land of Rum and going to Damascus. In the second stanza the kalender's clothing is made from the lover's own pain: the black shawl from the smoke of the heart, the cap from the sparks of the fire of calamity, and the guide is the flame of the sigh.

The third, fourth and fifth stanzas speak of the transience of the world. The pleasure of the garden of the world lasts for no one; while opportunity is in hand like a rose, one must set out like the morning breeze. The image in the fifth stanza is harsh: one must wake from the sleep of heedlessness before the ant of death settles in the skull, that is, before death comes and the body mingles with the earth. The sixth stanza turns this thought into advice: soul and heart should not be given to the "ḫār u ḫas" (thorns and straw) of the world, one should not throw oneself into the sea with open eyes, and one should cling to the skirt of self-sufficiency.

The seventh stanza uses the idiom "baş açık yalın ayak" (bareheaded and barefoot), which appears in Özkat's list of idioms; the kalender takes off his robe and heads for Badakhshan. Since Badakhshan is a place associated in divan poetry with the ruby, it forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) with "lā‘l-i leb" (ruby lip) in the same stanza. As Özkat notes, Badakhshan is one of the distant place names, like Kandahar and Khitai, that entered classical Turkish poetry under the influence of Persian literature. In the last stanza images of writing ("levḥ" tablet, "āyet" verse, "yazalum" let us write, "ṣūret" image) come together, and the poem closes with the line Özkat cites as an example of the idiom "dünyayı zerreye saymamak" (not to count the world as a mote): the resolve not to count the realm of the world as much as a mote.

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. 254-255, musammat no. 28 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine 1073, fol. 60b); also pp. 57-58 (on the murabbas), pp. 90-92 (idioms), p. 104 (place names) and p. 120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.

Online sources