Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mefā‘ilün / fe‘ilātün / mefā‘ilün / fe‘ilün

Baña gelür elem-i ġabġabıñ tamām leẕīẕ
Gelür dil ehline līmūn ile ṭa‘ām leẕīẕ
O nev-cüvān ile pek ülfete durur maḥbūb
Sitanbulī ile elbet olur kelām [leẕīẕ]
İşitdim o güzeli sögdi baña didi redī
Ḫoşā cenāb-ı nigārımdan ol selām [leẕīẕ]
Leb-i zülāl ile zemzemleyüp vire Vāżıḥ
O şūḫ-ı nāz ile olmaz mı nūş-ı cām [leẕīẕ]

In English

1. The pain of his double chin tastes wholly delicious to me; to people of heart, food eaten with lemon tastes delicious.

2. Intimacy with that young beloved is very pleasant; talk with a man of Istanbul is surely delicious.

3. I heard that the beauty cursed me and called me "base"; how fine, that greeting from my beloved's presence is delicious.

4. Vâzıh, if that coquettish playful one should bless the cup with his limpid lip, as with Zamzam water, and hand it over, would drinking with him not be delicious?

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal has four couplets. Babaarslan and Özçakmak note that most ghazals of the Dîvânçe have five couplets and that only two consist of four; Özçakmak says these are the fourteenth and the twenty-eighth. The metre is the müctes pattern "mefā‘ilün fe‘ilātün mefā‘ilün fe‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "leẕīẕ" (delicious); the rhyme is the "-ām" of "tamām, ṭa‘ām, kelām, selām, cām". In the last three couplets the redif is given in square brackets in the edition; it appears that the repeated redif was not written out in the manuscript and was supplied in the edition. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

A redif meaning "delicious" lends the ghazal the air of a meal, and every couplet describes the taste of something that comes from the beloved. In the first couplet the pain caused by the double chin is likened to food eaten with sour but pleasant lemon: though painful, it is sweet. The third couplet states a well-known divan theme in plain words: even the beloved's curses reach the lover like a greeting from him. The last couplet uses the verb "zemzemlemek" (to bless with Zamzam water); the beloved will touch the cup to his lip as if to bless it before handing it over, and the poet will drink from that cup.

The word "Sitanbulī" (man of Istanbul) in the second couplet stands out. The pleasure of talking with the beloved is tied to his being from Istanbul; the refinement of Istanbul speech is mentioned in the poem as an element of beauty. In his twenty-third ghazal too Vâzıh says of the beloved "Ol Sitanbūlīdir elbet dillidir ülfetlidir" (he is surely from Istanbul, eloquent and companionable). Babaarslan notes that the poet spent some time in Istanbul for his studies; whether these couplets belong to his Istanbul years is not known. The everyday turns of speech and images of the table are examples of the localizing tendency (mahallîleşme) that Babaarslan sees in Vâzıh.

Bibliography

Academic studies

  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1922-1984 (text of the poem: p. 1938; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 61a). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1924-1930 (life and description of the Dîvânçe). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
  • Fatma Özçakmak, "Mustafa Vâzıh Efendi ve Dîvânçe'si", Kesit Akademi Dergisi, 7(26), 2021, pp. 255-278, p. 273.

Online sources