Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü / fā‘ilātü / mefā‘īlü / fā‘ilün

Sāḳī getür ‘araḳ mı mey-i lāle-rū mı var
Ṭoldur hemān ḳabaḳ mı çanaḳ mı sebū mı var
Mey-ḫāneye ‘azīmet idegör ayaḳda ṣav
Ey dil büt-i ġamıñ yine ġāyet hücūmı var
‘Aşḳ āteşi içinde bu şeydā dili görüñ
Billāh didirir ki ḥamāmda delü mi var
Aġyār baḳmasun diyü nāme-i ḥüsnine
Ḳara beñ-ile bir iki üç yerde mū mı var
Vāżıḥ anıñ çeh-i zenaḫına göz aldırır
Bī-çāre hīç bilmez öñinde ḳuyu mı var

In English

1. Cupbearer, bring it; is there arrack, is there tulip-hued wine? Fill it at once; is there a gourd, a bowl, a jug?

2. O heart, set out for the tavern, slip away while still on your feet; the grief for that idol of beauty is mounting its fiercest attack again.

3. Behold this frenzied heart in the fire of love; by God, it makes one ask, "Is there a madman in the bathhouse?"

4. So that rivals may not read the letter of his beauty, are there hairs in one, two, three places along with the black mole? (The couplet is not fully clear; the mole and the down on the face may be imagined as blots that make the writing illegible to others.)

5. Vâzıh loses his gaze in the dimple of his chin; the poor man has no idea that there is a well before him.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This five-couplet ghazal is written in the muzari pattern "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "mı var" (is there); the rhyme is the "-u/-ū" of "rū, sebū, hücū(m), delü, mū, ḳuyu". In the second couplet the syllable "mı" inside "hücūmı var" coincides in sound with the redif. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. To whom it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a summons to the tavern. Addressing the cupbearer, the poet asks for whatever drink there is and whatever vessel can be found: arrack, tulip-hued wine, a gourd, a bowl, a jug. These names of household things and drinks lend the ghazal the noisy air of a gathering. Özçakmak lists this couplet among the examples of Vâzıh's Nedîmâne manner; in her reading "tabak" (plate) stands in place of "ḳabaḳ". The phrase "Is there a madman in the bathhouse?" in the third couplet is taken from popular speech; Özçakmak also cites the couplet as an example of Vâzıh bringing popular expressions into his poems. The heart burning in the fire of love is likened to a madman shouting in the hot bathhouse.

The fourth couplet contains a comparison that cannot be fully solved: the beloved's face is likened to a letter, and the mole and the down to marks upon it. In the last couplet the dimple of the chin becomes a well, following the familiar divan theme of "çāh-ı zenaḫ" (the well of the chin). The lover loses his gaze in this dimple but does not know that a well lies before him, that is, a danger from which he will not escape once fallen in. This idiomatic turn placed at the end fits the use of proverbs and idioms 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. 1940; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 61b-62a). 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, pp. 271-272.

Online sources