Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Yāri ḳılduñ ẓulm-ile ben bendeden yād iy felek
İtmedüñ vaṣl ile bir dem ḫurrem ü şād iy felek
Olmadum bir laḥẓa bend-i ġamdan āzād iy felek
Hey ne ẓālimsin elüñden dād u feryād iy felek
Vaṣl-ı dilberden beni ‘ ālemde mehcūr eyledüñ
Yāri ġayra yār idüp ben ‘āşıḳı dūr eyledüñ
Aġlamaḳdan rūz u şeb çeşmümi bī-nūr eyledüñ
Hey ne ẓālimsin elüñden dād u feryād iy felek
İrgürüp birgün murāduma beni şād itmedüñ
Bir nefes ẕevḳ ü ṣafādan ḫāṭırum yād itmedüñ
Ẓulm idersin her zamān bir gün daḫı yād itmedün
Hey ne ẓālimsin elüñden dād u feryād iy felek
Hicr-i yār ile beni giryān u nālān eyledüñ
Ḳarşuma düşmenlerüm şādān u ḫandān eyledüñ
Baġrumı tīġ-ı ġam u hicrān ile ḳan eyledüñ
Hey ne ẓālimsin elüñden dād u feryād iy felek
Olmadum bir laḥẓa derd ü ġuṣṣa vü ġamdan beri
Görmedüm yanımda bir dem ol vefāsız dilberi
Ġālib itdüñ Fażlī’ye her vech ile düşmenleri
Hey ne ẓālimsin elüñden dād u feryād iy felek
Yāri benden ayırup düşmenlere yār eyledüñ
Derd-i reşk ile beni ‘ālemde bīmār eyledüñ
Künc-i ġamda kārumı feryād ile zār eyledün
Hey ne ẓālimsin elüñden dād u feryād iy felek

In English

1. O sphere, by your oppression you have made the beloved a stranger to me, your servant; you have not made me cheerful and glad with union for a single moment; I have not escaped the bond of grief for an instant. Hey, what a tyrant you are, O sphere; justice and outcry against your hand.

2. You have deprived me of union with the beloved in the world; making the beloved the friend of another, you have driven me, the lover, far away; with weeping night and day you have put out the light of my eyes. Hey, what a tyrant you are, O sphere; justice and outcry against your hand.

3. Not for one day have you brought me to my desire and made me glad; you have not remembered my heart with a breath of delight and joy; you oppress at all times, and not for one day have you remembered me. Hey, what a tyrant you are, O sphere; justice and outcry against your hand.

4. With separation from the beloved you have made me one who weeps and moans; you have made my enemies cheerful and laughing before me; you have bloodied my breast with the sword of grief and separation. Hey, what a tyrant you are, O sphere; justice and outcry against your hand.

5. Not for a moment have I been free of pain, sorrow and grief; not for a moment have I seen that faithless beloved at my side; you have made the enemies superior to Fazlî in every way. Hey, what a tyrant you are, O sphere; justice and outcry against your hand.

6. Parting the beloved from me, you have made her the friend of my enemies; with the pain of jealousy you have made me sick in the world; in the corner of grief you have made my work lament and wailing. Hey, what a tyrant you are, O sphere; justice and outcry against your hand.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The poem is a murabba (quatrain stanza poem) of six stanzas. The first three lines of each stanza rhyme among themselves; the fourth is repeated in every stanza as the refrain "Hey ne ẓālimsin elüñden dād u feryād iy felek". In the first stanza the refrain shares the redif (refrain word) "iy felek" and the rhyme "-ād" with the other lines. In most of the other stanzas verbal redifs are used: "eyledüñ" (you made) in the second, fourth and sixth stanzas, and "itmedüñ" (you did not) in the third. The poem thus turns from beginning to end into a series of accusations directed at the sphere. The metre is the "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün" pattern of the remel family. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Özkat publishes the poem as the fourth musammat of the divan. The text is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 220b) of the miscellany in the Hazine collection of the Topkapı Palace Museum Library. According to Özkat, Fazlî generally uses his pen name (mahlas) in the last stanza of his murabbas; in this fourth murabba of six stanzas, however, he breaks the rule and uses it in the fifth stanza, the second to last. This is one of Fazlî's two murabbas with six stanzas.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The poem is built on one of the commonest themes of divan poetry, the complaint against the sphere. The sphere, that is, the heaven that governs fortune, is named as a tyrant who parts the lover from the beloved, makes the beloved the friend of rivals and enemies, and gladdens the enemies while making the lover weep. The words "dād u feryād" (justice and outcry) in the refrain are like the cry of someone seeking his right in a court; their repetition at the end of every stanza heightens the complaint. The beloved is not accused in the poem; the whole fault is laid on the sphere. This is a familiar attitude in divan poetry, in which the cruelty of the beloved is tied to the cruelty of fate.

The verbal redifs ("eyledüñ", "itmedüñ") give each stanza a rhythm of enumeration: what the sphere has done and what it has not done are listed line by line. In the fourth stanza a contrast is drawn: the lover has become "giryān u nālān" (weeping and moaning), while the enemies have become "şādān u ḫandān" (cheerful and laughing). In the sixth stanza the likeness of sound between "yār" (beloved), "bīmār" (sick) and "zār" (wailing) builds the rhyme of the stanza. In the third stanza the word "yād" is used as the rhyme in two lines; in the first it comes close to the sense of "to deprive of delight", in the second to "remember". The language is plain and carries the rhythm of spoken speech; the plainness Özkat notes in Fazlî's murabbas is seen in this poem too.

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. 233-234, musammat no. 4 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 220b); 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