Original Ottoman Turkish Text
Metre: fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilātün / fā‘ilün
Gözlerimden eşk-i ḫūn-ālūdum aḳar hem-çü şāṭ
Bu mürüvvet mi ki ben giryān olam sen pür-neşāṭ
Dā’imā der-pīç-tāb-ı ıżṭırāb olsam n’ola
Zülf-i pīç-ā-pīç-i cānān-ıla cān hem-irtibāṭ
Ḥāl ü şānıñ emr tedbīrinde taḳṣīr eyleme
Ey melek her dīv-sīretlerle itme iḫtilāṭ
Kūy-ı cānānı iḥāṭa eylemiş aġyārlar
Gūyiyā bir gülsitān eṭrāfı ḫār ile muḥāṭ
Şi‘rini tanẓīr ḥaddiñ midir ey Vāżıḥ seniñ
Ḥażret-i Rif‘at saña gösterdi ise inbisāṭ
In English
1. My blood-stained tears flow from my eyes like a river; is it generosity that I should weep while you are full of joy.
2. What wonder if I am forever writhing in the coils of anguish; my soul is bound to the beloved's curling locks.
3. Do not fail in managing the affairs of your state and standing; O angel, do not keep company with every demon-natured person.
4. The rivals have besieged the beloved's street, as though a rose garden were ringed with thorns.
5. O Vâzıh, if His Excellency Rif‘at has shown you favour, is it your place to write a response poem to his verse.
Literary and Historical Commentary
Structure of the Poem
The ghazal has five couplets and is written in the remel pattern "fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilātün fā‘ilün". There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the "-āṭ" of "şāṭ, neşāṭ, irtibāṭ, iḫtilāṭ, muḥāṭ, inbisāṭ". Since the ghazals in the manuscript are ordered by their final letter, this poem appears in Babaarslan's count of letters as the only ghazal ending in the letter ṭı. Rhyming on this rarely used letter drew the poet towards words of Arabic origin, and the language of the poem is therefore heavier than the average of the Dîvânçe. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet.
Meaning and Figures of Speech
The first four couplets list familiar situations of divan poetry: the lover weeps while the beloved is merry; the lover's soul is bound to the coils of the locks; the beloved keeps company with people of bad character, and the rivals have ringed the beloved's street like thorns. In the second couplet the closeness in sound and sense between "pīç-tāb" (writhing) and "pīç-ā-pīç" (curl upon curl) ties the lover's writhing to the curls of the hair. The third couplet is a couplet of counsel; addressing the beloved as "angel", the poet urges her to keep away from the "dīv-sīret", people with the nature of demons. The contrast between angel and demon forms the antithesis of the couplet. In the fourth couplet the rose garden and the thorn are among the most common images for the beloved and the rivals.
The last couplet changes the character of the ghazal. Addressing himself, the poet asks whether trusting in the favour shown him by someone called Rif‘at and writing a nazire (response poem) to his verse is not overstepping his bounds. This wording suggests that the ghazal was written as a response to a poem by Rif‘at. A couplet of modesty of this kind is a familiar way of praising the poet to whom a response poem is written.
Historical Context
The name Rif‘at occurs once more in the Dîvânçe. Among the chronograms there is a poem that Babaarslan describes as "a chronogram for the birth of Mîr Abdüsselâm, son of Seyyid Süleyman Rif‘at Efendi, head gatekeeper (kapıcıbaşı) of Sultan Selim (1209)". In this poem Süleyman Rif‘at is named both as head gatekeeper and sword-bearer at the court of Selim III and as an administrator to whom the district (liva) of Amasya had been entrusted; the poet praises him as a man of learning, virtue and wisdom. The year 1209 of the Hijra corresponds to 1794-1795, a few years before 1799, when Vâzıh was first appointed mufti.
It is possible that the "Hazret-i Rif‘at" of the ghazal and this Süleyman Rif‘at are the same person; a couplet of modesty of this kind would fit well in a response poem written to a dignitary who governed Amasya, understood poetry and received a chronogram from Vâzıh. This is, however, our own inference: the ghazal does not say who Rif‘at was, Babaarslan draws no link between the two poems, and the poem by Rif‘at to which the response was written is not known. For Vâzıh's life and his posts in Amasya see Kara Müftîzâde Mustafa 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. 1948; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 64a). 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
- Giyasi Babaarslan, "Amasyalı Vâzıh ve Dîvânçesi", Akademik Dil ve Edebiyat Dergisi, 5(4), 2021, pp. 1929 and 1976-1977 (chronogram for the birth of Mîr Abdüsselâm, son of Seyyid Süleyman Rif‘at Efendi, 1209; Dîvânçe, fol. 73b-74a). https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/akaded/article/993264
Online sources
