Original Ottoman Turkish Text

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

Şöyle bir şīvelidir ki o bezirgān-zāde
Ṭoġrusı bilmem anıñ mis̱lini bu dünyāda
Bu leṭāfet bu melāḥat bu nezāket bu ḥasen
Bulunur mı be ne mümkin ki gül-i ra‘nāda
Geregi gibi gözindeyüz o yārıñ şimdi
Olalı dīde-i mestānesine dil-dāde
Hele pek diş çekici imiş o berber güzeli
Dā’im ‘uşşāḳı tırāş itmeg-içün āmāde
Ṭāḳ-ı ebrūsı sözi ṭavḳ-ı beşerden ḫāric
Vāżıḥā ṭur aña ṭāḳat mi gelür bu rāda

In English

1. That merchant's son is so full of charm that, to tell the truth, I know no one like him in the world.

2. This grace, this piquancy, this delicacy, this beauty; come now, could it be found in the lovely rose, how could it.

3. Since we gave our heart to his drunken eye, we are now right in that beloved's eye, his favourite.

4. That beauty of a barber, they say, is quite the tooth-puller; he is always ready to shave the lovers.

5. Talk of the arch of his eyebrow is beyond human strength; O Vâzıh, stop, can one find the strength for it on this road.

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 rests on the "-āde" and "-āda" at the end of "bezirgān-zāde, dünyāda, ra‘nāda, dil-dāde, āmāde, rāda"; the poet brings together in one rhyme the Persian words "-zāde, -dāde, āmāde" and words ending in the Turkish suffix "-da". The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. No particular person is named in the ghazal.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

Babaarslan says that in his ghazals Vâzıh reflected the social life of his time under the influence of the localising (mahallîleşme) style. This ghazal is a typical example of that tendency: the beloved is named as a tradesman who works in the market. In the first couplet he is a merchant's son; in the fourth he appears as a beautiful barber. Whether the beauty of the two couplets is the same person is not clear. Describing beauties who were tradesmen and craftsmen was a common practice in eighteenth-century poetry, and Vâzıh continues it in a language close to the market life of Amasya. The exclamation "be" and the phrase "ne mümkin" (how could it be) in the second couplet come straight from spoken language.

In the third couplet the idiom "to be in someone's eye" is used in two senses: the lover has given his heart to the beloved's drunken eye and has therefore become his favourite. The fourth couplet is the most playful part of the ghazal. Barbers of the old days also pulled teeth; the word "tooth-puller" refers to this trade. "Tıraş etmek" (to shave) means both cutting hair and beard and, in colloquial speech, fleecing someone or wearing him out with talk. The barber beauty is always ready to shave the lovers; that is, he both plies his trade and exhausts the lovers' purses and patience. In the last couplet a play of sound is set up among the words "ṭāḳ" (arch), "ṭavḳ" (strength) and "ṭāḳat" (endurance). Speaking of the arch of the eyebrow is beyond human strength, and the poet tells himself to stop.

Bibliography

Online sources