Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Gel gülī-cāme ile ol gül-i gülzār-ı cinān
Cān-ı ‘āşıḳda [olup rūḥ-ı] revān şīve-künān
Cān metā‘ını alur ber-vece taḥrīr-i ḥurūf
Gösterüp cīm zül(ü)f ḳadd-i elif [nūn çeşmān]
Teşne-i āb-ı viṣālem diyü itdim girye
Gülerek didi leb-i la‘lime baḳ gözden ḳan
Āteş-i ‘aşḳıñ ile yandı sipend-i dil ü cān
Meded Allāh meded bu ne baḳışdır yan yan
Vaṣf-ı ṭuġrā-yı ser-i zülfüñ içün sulṭānım
Bir ġazel ṭarḥ ide Vāżıḥ ḳuluña ḳıl fermān

In English

1. Come, O rose of the rose garden of paradise, in your rose-coloured robe; come swaying with grace, a spirit flowing in the lover's soul.

2. By the way the letters are written she takes the goods of the soul: she shows her locks as cim, her stature as elif and her eyes as nun.

3. I wept, saying "I thirst for the water of union"; laughing, she said "Look at the ruby of my lip, (you will weep) blood from your eyes".

4. The rue seed of heart and soul burned in the fire of your love; help, O God, help, what a sidelong glance this is.

5. My sultan, so that Vâzıh may lay out a ghazal to praise the tuğra of the tip of your locks, issue a decree to your slave.

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 "-an" or "-ān" of "cinān, künān, çeşmān, ḳan, yan, fermān". The phrases "[olup rūḥ-ı]" in the opening couplet and "[nūn çeşmān]" in the second couplet are given in square brackets, which shows that places illegible or missing in the manuscript were supplied in the edition. Babaarslan also notes that the phrase "ber-vech" in the second couplet is read as "ber-vece" for the sake of the metre. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. To whom it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The most striking couplet of the ghazal is the second, which plays on the shapes of letters. In divan poetry the forms of the Arabic letters are compared to the beauty's features: the curling lock to "cim" (ج), the upright stature to "elif" (ا), the bow-curved eye to "nun" (ن). The poet lists these three letters in order, and when cim, elif and nun are put together they form "cān" (جان), the word for "soul". By writing the word "soul" with her own features, the beloved takes the lover's soul; this is why the couplet begins "she takes the goods of the soul". The repetition of "gül" (rose) in the first couplet creates a closeness of sound and sense among "gülī-cāme" (rose-coloured robe), "gül" and "gülzār" (rose garden).

The third couplet can be read in two ways: the beloved may be mocking the lover by saying that he will weep blood when he looks at the blood-red colour of her lip, or she may be reminding him that blood flows in place of his tears. The fourth couplet rests on a popular belief. "Sipend" is the seed of wild rue thrown into the fire against the evil eye; the seed burns with a crackle. The lover's heart and soul have burned like rue thrown into the fire of love, and the cause is the beloved's "yan yan" (sidelong) glance; the word "yan" plays on the sound of the verb "yanmak" (to burn). The last couplet sets up a congruence of images (tenasüp) from the language of the palace: sultan, decree, slave and tuğra. The curl of the lock is compared to the tuğra, the imperial monogram drawn at the head of the sultan's decrees. "Ṭarḥ" means laying the ground for a ghazal; the poet asks the beloved for a decree to write a ghazal.

Bibliography

Online sources