Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün Mefā‘īlün
O meh kim tekye-i ḥüsnüñ şeh-i ṣāḥib-kemālidür
Güneş yaluñ ışıḳdur ḫidmetinde pāy-mālidür
Göñül abdāldur ‘ışḳında mest ü lāübālīdür
Bugün ol pīr ola mı nev-cüvān Dervīş Bālī’dür
Olup ol nev-cüvānuñ tekye-i ‘ışḳında dil mihmān
Lebi esrārına cān ile oldı vālih ü ḥayrān
Aña tāc u ḳabā terk itdürüp abdāl iden ‘uryān
Bugün ol pīr ola mı nev-cüvān Dervīş Bālī’dür
Geçelden tekye-i ḥüsn içre ol şeh ṣadr-ı ḫūbāne
Işıḳlar gibi ‘āşıḳlar baş açdı girdi meydāne
Bu resme ehl-i ‘ışḳı eyleyen ḥayrān u dīvāne
Bugün ol pīr ola mı nev-cüvān Dervīş Bālī’dür
Ben anı iḫtiyār idüp beni ol eyledi maḳbūl
Ḳılupdur ḥalḳa ḥalḳa dūd-ı āhı boynuma meftūl
Ben abdālı işiginde iden bir boynı baġlu ḳul
Bugün ol pīr ola mı nev-cüvān Dervīş Bālī’dür
Gice gündüz yanan nār-ı ġam ile sīne dāġıdur
Kim anuñ tekye-i ‘ışḳında bir yanar çerāġıdur
Mekānum rūz u şeb Fażlī anuñ ‘ışḳı ocaġıdur
Bugün ol pīr ola mı nev-cüvān Dervīş Bālī’dür
In English
1. That moon is the perfect sheikh of the lodge of beauty; the sun is a naked Işık dervish trampled underfoot in his service; the heart is a drunken, carefree abdal in his love. Today he is the young Derviş Bâlî, may he live to be a pîr. ("Pīr" means both an old man and the sheikh of an order; "may he live to be a pîr", that is, may he have a long life, is a formula of blessing.)
2. The heart became a guest in that youth's lodge of love and was left bewildered and enraptured, with all its soul, by the secrets of his lip; it is he who made it give up crown and robe and turned it into a naked abdal. Today he is the young Derviş Bâlî, may he live to be a pîr.
3. Since that shah took the seat of honour among the fair in the lodge of beauty, the lovers have bared their heads like Işık dervishes and entered the meydan; it is he who has thus made the people of love bewildered and mad. Today he is the young Derviş Bâlî, may he live to be a pîr. (The "meydan" is the place in a lodge where the dervishes gather.)
4. I chose him, and he accepted me; he has wound the smoke of my sighs around my neck in ring upon ring, coil upon coil; it is he who has made me, the abdal, a servant with a bound neck at his threshold. Today he is the young Derviş Bâlî, may he live to be a pîr.
5. The wound in my breast is the brand of the fire of grief that burns night and day; it is a lamp burning in his lodge of love. O Fazlî, night and day my place is the hearth of his love. Today he is the young Derviş Bâlî, may he live to be a pîr. ("Ocak" means both hearth and a dervish lodge.)
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 "Bugün ol pīr ola mı nev-cüvān Dervīş Bālī'dür". In the first stanza the refrain also shares the rhyme "-ālidür". The rhymes of the other stanzas are "-ān", "-āne", "-ūl" and "-āġıdur". The metre is the "mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün mefā‘īlün" pattern of the hezec family. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last stanza. The words "pīr ola mı" in the refrain have been understood as "pîr olası" (may he live to be a pîr); in Fazlî's eleventh murabba the same blessing appears in the form "pīr olası nev-cüvān".
Özkat publishes the poem as the ninth musammat of the divan. The text is found only in the Fazlî divan section (fol. 222b) 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; it bears the note "left unfinished".
Meaning and Figures of Speech
According to Özkat, Fazlî also wrote murabbas of praise for beauties who had become famous in his time; among them appear names such as Derviş Bâlî, Derzi Memî Şâh, Berber Hasan Bâlî and Alî Bâlî. This murabba was written for a young beauty called Derviş Bâlî, whose name is given in the refrain. All the images of the poem start from the word "derviş" in his name: the beloved is the sheikh of the lodge of beauty, the heart is his guest and his abdal, the lovers enter his meydan bareheaded, the wound in the poet's breast is a lamp burning in this lodge, and his own place is the hearth of that love. These words taken from the life of the dervish lodge ("tekye", "abdāl", "ışıḳ", "tāc u ḳabā", "meydān", "ḥalḳa", "çerāġ", "ocaḳ", "pīr", "mihmān") form a web of congruent images (tenasüp) in the poem.
The word "ışıḳ" in the first and third stanzas is the name given to a group of dervishes who went about bareheaded and half-naked; the poet uses both this sense and the word's sense of "light": the sun is a "naked Işık" (or "bare light") trampled underfoot in the beloved's service. In the second stanza the beloved's making the lover give up "crown and robe" and turning him into a naked abdal is a reference to the abandonment of worldly ornaments on entering the dervish path. In the fourth stanza the words "iḫtiyār" (choosing) and "maḳbūl" (accepted) describe a disciple's entry into an order; the smoke of sighs wound "ring upon ring" around the neck evokes both the circle of remembrance (zikir halkası) and the bond of captivity. Among the idioms collected by Özkat, "baş açmak" (to bare one's head) is illustrated from the third stanza of this murabba and "boynu bağlı" (with bound neck) from the fourth. There is also a contrast in the refrain between "pīr" (old man, sheikh) and "nev-cüvān" (young): the beloved is both a young beauty and the sheikh of this lodge of love.
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. 237, musammat no. 9 (Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Hazine, fol. 222b); also pp. 57-58 (on the murabbas), p. 91 (idioms) and pp. 119-120 (description of the manuscripts), https://katalog.marmara.edu.tr/veriler/yordambt/cokluortam/5E/T0051713.pdf.
Online sources
