Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Beni yaḳmaḳ içün āteş ṣaçaraḳ ber-ta‘cīl
O şerīfim yine ser-mest gelür gök ḳandīl
Ḳuluñı ḫancer-i ġadriñ ile kesdiñ biçdiñ
Ey begim var olasın dostluġı itdiñ tekmīl
Baña itdikleriñi söyleyeyim mi şimdi
Seni meclisde biraz eyleyeyim mi taḫcīl
İki desti biri mey biri ‘araḳ göndermiş
Pīr-i muġ yolını erkānını itmiş ta‘dīl
Bir perī-rūya a Vāżıḥ yine çarpılmışsıñ
Yine vecheñ müteġayyir yine lehceñ tebdīl

In English

1. To burn me, scattering fire in haste, that noble beloved of mine comes again, drunk and blazing like a sky lamp.

2. You have cut and hewn your slave with the dagger of your treachery; long life to you, my lord, you have made our friendship complete.

3. Shall I tell now what you have done to me; shall I shame you a little in front of the gathering.

4. He has sent two jugs, one of wine and one of rakı; the elder of the tavern has altered his path and the rules of his order.

5. Ah Vâzıh, once again you have been struck by a fairy-faced one; once again your face has changed, once again your speech is altered.

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

The ghazal has five couplets and is written in the remel pattern "fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilātün fe‘ilün". There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme is the "-īl" of "ta‘cīl, ḳandīl, tekmīl, taḫcīl, ta‘dīl, tebdīl". Most of the rhyme words are Arabic verbal nouns of the "taf‘īl" pattern, which gives the poem an order of sound. The words end in the letter lam; this is the only ghazal listed under lam in Babaarslan's count of letters. According to Babaarslan's note, the word "vecheñ" (your face) in the last couplet was first written in the manuscript as "çehreñ", and a correction was then made beside it. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet with the colloquial address "a Vāżıḥ".

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal proceeds like the speech of a lover reproaching the beloved, and its language is among the most relaxed and conversational in the Dîvânçe. In the first couplet the beloved comes scattering fire, drunk and like a burning lamp. The lamp forms a congruence of images (tenasüp) with fire; the phrase "gök kandil" also recalls the idiom "kör kandil" used for a person who is very drunk, but this second link is our own guess. The second couplet is bitter irony: the beloved has cut and hewn the lover with the dagger of treachery, and the lover thanks him with "long life to you, you have made our friendship complete". In the third couplet the lover threatens to reveal the beloved's deeds before the gathering; this is an everyday scene of quarrel that departs from the usual attitude of the patient, long-suffering lover of divan poetry.

In the fourth couplet the "pīr-i muġ", who keeps the tavern, is said to have sent one jug of wine and one of rakı. "Path" (yol) and "rules" (erkân) are terms of the Sufi orders; the poet uses them for the customs of the tavern and makes a light joke: by sending two drinks instead of one, the elder of the tavern has altered the usage of his own order. The appearance of rakı by name in the poem is a trace of the tendency Babaarslan sees in Vâzıh to reflect the social life of his time. The last couplet rests on a popular belief: "çarpılmak" means to be struck by fairies, so that one's face and speech are changed. The poet joins this belief to the "perī-rū" (fairy-faced) beloved and creates a double entendre (tevriye): the one who has struck Vâzıh is a fairy-faced beauty.

Bibliography

Online sources