Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilün

Gör o raḫtı çāder-i ‘anber-feşān açmış gider
Zevraḳ-ı pür-bār-ı ‘işve bād-bān açmış gider
Ḫam-be-ḫam kākül ḫayāli bu ḳażā-yı sīnede
Ejder-i a‘dā-yı cān u dil dehān açmış gider
Ol hümānıñ ḫaṭṭ-ı ḫaddeyn-i nevīn-ḫīzine baḳ
Murġ-ı ḥüsni perr ü bālini hemān açmış gider
Tīġ-ı ḳahrıyla bu cism-i Vāżıḥı ol şeh-levend
Laḫt laḫt ü şerḥ şerḥ ü yan yan açmış gider

In English

1. Look, that (beauty) goes along with his garment spread like an ambergris-scattering tent; the boat laden with coquetry goes along under open sail.

2. Within the expanse of my breast, the image of his lock, coil upon coil, goes along like a dragon, enemy of soul and heart, with its jaws wide open.

3. Look at the fresh down sprouting on the two cheeks of that beauty, fortunate as the huma bird; the bird of beauty has already spread its wings and is going.

4. With the sword of his wrath that kingly gallant goes along laying open the body of this Vâzıh, piece by piece, slice by slice, side by side.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal has four couplets; Özçakmak notes that the two four-couplet ghazals of the Dîvânçe are the fourteenth and the twenty-eighth. The metre is the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". The redif (refrain word) is "açmış gider" (goes along, having opened); the rhyme is the "-an/-ān" of "feşān, bād-bān, dehān, hemān, yan". For the word "ejder" (dragon) in the second couplet, Babaarslan notes that it was first written "ecder" in the manuscript and later corrected. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. To whom it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The redif "açmış gider" shows in each couplet something opening and moving: a garment spread like a tent, a boat setting sail, a dragon opening its jaws, a bird spreading its wings and a body laid open by the sword. The same verb is thus applied to five different images over the course of the ghazal. In the first couplet the beloved's gait is likened to a laden boat moving forward under sail. In the second couplet the curling lock, in keeping with the divan tradition of likening the lock to a snake and a dragon, becomes a dragon with its jaws open.

The third couplet rests on the divan notion that beauty ends once the down appears on the cheeks. The beloved is likened to the huma, the bird believed to bring fortune to whomever its shadow falls on; when the down begins to sprout on his cheeks, the "bird of beauty" spreads its wings and prepares to fly away. In the last couplet the redif now describes the stroke of a sword: the "levent" (gallant) beloved goes along laying open the poet's body piece by piece. The repetitions "laḫt laḫt", "şerḥ şerḥ" and "yan yan" give the couplet a quick rhythm; the last repetition being Turkish closes the ghazal with an everyday turn of speech.

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. 1945; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 63a). 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