Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Metre: mef‘ūlü / fā‘ilātü / mefā‘īlü / fā‘ilün

Ḫāliñden evvel[ā] lebiñi emdir ey şehā
Kim ṭatlı olsa ḳahveden evvel virir ṣafā
Ġamzeñ ki ḳanda oynayayım diyü muntaẓır
Ey şeh em(i)r buyur o kimiñ cānını ala
Ḳaşıñ ḳılıcını göricek iki bükülüp
Ditrer zebūn Yahūdī gibi kākül-i dü-tā
Ḫāl-i siyeh degildir o pīşān-ı ṭıflda
Göz degmesin diyü ḳara baṣmış aña Ḫudā
Bize pek āşinā idi o ġamze-i nigār
Geçdi o yüzden ‘āḳibetü’l-emr Vāżıḥā

In English

1. O king, let me kiss your lip before your mole; for a sweet, when it comes before the coffee, gives delight.

2. Your glance waits, saying "Where shall I play" (the word "ḳanda" means both "where" and "in blood"); O king, give the order, whose life shall it take.

3. On seeing the sword of your eyebrow, the twofold lock that is bent double trembles like a helpless Jew.

4. That on the child's brow is no black mole; God has pressed a black mark on him so that the evil eye may not touch him.

5. The glance of that beloved was very familiar with us; O Vâzıh, in the end it passed on for that reason. (The couplet can be read in two ways: the glance gave us up because it had grown too familiar, or it passed across that face and went away.)

Literary and Historical Commentary

Structure of the Poem

This five-couplet ghazal is written in the muzari pattern "mef‘ūlü fā‘ilātü mefā‘īlü fā‘ilün". There is no redif (refrain word); the rhyme rests on the "ā" of "şehā, ṣafā, ala, dü-tā, Ḫudā, Vāżıḥā". The last syllable of "evvel[ā]" in the first line is missing in the manuscript and has been supplied in square brackets in the edition. The pen name (mahlas) appears in the last couplet. To whom and when it was written is not known.

Meaning and Figures of Speech

The ghazal opens with a simile taken from the daily life of the period. The black mole is likened to coffee and the lip to a sweet; saying that a sweet gives delight when eaten before coffee, the poet asks the beloved for the lip first. In his twenty-sixth ghazal too Vâzıh joins mole and lip in the phrase "sweetened coffee". The word "ḳanda" in the second couplet is a double entendre (tevriye): it means both "where" and "in blood". The glance waits for the king's command like an executioner asking whom he should kill. In the third couplet the trembling of the curling lock is likened to a helpless Jew afraid of the sword of the eyebrow; the comparison reflects one of the social stereotypes found in the poetry of the period.

The fourth couplet rests on a popular belief. The custom of putting a black mark on children's faces to protect them from the evil eye becomes the explanation of the mole on the beloved's brow: this mole is the black mark God has pressed there against the evil eye. Özçakmak cites this couplet as an example of Vâzıh bringing popular beliefs into his poems; in her reading the lines run "Hâl-i siyeh dökülür o perişân-ı tıflda" and "kara yakmış aña Hüdâ". Babaarslan also notes that Vâzıh gives room to customs and popular beliefs in his ghazals. In the last couplet "o yüzden" can be understood both as "for that reason" and as "across that face"; the two readings of the couplet arise from this double entendre.

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. 1934; Mustafa Vâzıh, Dîvânçe, Ankara University, Department of Manuscripts, Mustafa Con A 495/III, fol. 60a). 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. 271.

Online sources