Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Bī-tāb gözinde ġamze-i ṣāḥib-fiten mi var
Bir mest elinde rişte-i ‘ālem-şiken mi var
Tellendi nālem işidicek hep rebāblar
Meydān-ı nāliş içre öñüme gelen mi var
Didim ki minnet eyleme seng-i cefālarıñ
Didi ki anı şimdi başıña ḳaḳan mı var
Ey ṭıfl-ı nā-resīde bu nāzı bu şīveyi
Sen ne bilür idiñ saña bir ögreden mi var
‘Ālem kemānçe gibi enīn eylemekdedir
Vāżıḥ bu köhne çarḫ-ı felekde düzen mi var

In English

1. Is there in his languid eye a glance that stirs up strife? Is there in a drunkard's hand a cord that breaks the world?

2. On hearing my lament all the rebabs took up their strings (to moan along with me); is there anyone to face me in the field of lament?

3. I said, "Do not count it a favour, the stones of your cruelty"; he said, "Is anyone now throwing it in your face (literally, knocking it on your head)?"

4. O child not yet come of age, how could you have known this coquetry, this grace; is there someone who teaches you?

5. The world is moaning like a kemençe; Vâzıh, is there any order (both order and musical tuning) in this worn-out wheel of the heavens?

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 "mi var" (is there); the rhyme is the "-en/-an" of "fiten, şiken, gelen, ḳaḳan, ögreden, düzen". Every couplet ends in a question; the redif turns the whole ghazal into a series of questions. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. To whom it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most distinct thread of the ghazal is its musical vocabulary. In the second couplet the rebabs that hear the poet's lament "take up their strings", in the last the world moans like a kemençe, and the poet asks whether there is any "düzen" in the heavens. The word "düzen" is a double entendre (tevriye): it means both the order of the world and the tuning of an instrument. A congruence of images (tenasüp) is formed among rebab, kemençe, string, lament and tuning; at the end of the ghazal the disorder of the heavens is likened to the sound of an instrument out of tune.

The third couplet is a good example of the use of idioms that Babaarslan sees in Vâzıh. The lover asks the beloved not to present the stones of cruelty he throws as a favour to be "knocked on his head"; the beloved answers, "Is anyone now knocking it on your head?" Since the idiom "başına kakmak" means both to throw a kindness in someone's face and, literally, to strike someone's head, as a stone would, the couplet rests on a play on words. In the fourth couplet the beloved is again called a child, and the poet asks from whom he has learned his coquetry.

Bibliography

Online sources